The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.2005, Síða 17

Vol. 59 #3
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
103
said we were all doing fine, sent his regards
and told her we would call again when we
got to Italy. He didn't think it was safe to
give her any further information. She asked
if everything was all right and said that
other than worrying about us, everything
was fine at home. We were glad to receive
this news because we had been worried
about our families, which didn't know any-
thing about what was really happening.
The rest of the day and night passed
with no special occurrences.
Lack of Food
Tuesday started bright and beautiful as
all the other days on the trip so far. The
heat was terrible and the sun burning hot
above out heads. Now the lack of food was
starting to bother us. In the beginning we
were supposed to be four of maybe five on
board, but since the Turks came along,
there were seven of us. The cruise to Italy
was supposed to take 3- 4 days. Now 3
days had passed already and it was clear
that it would take double that time.
On Wednesday morning we knew that
we should be close to the isle of Crete and
decided to go there for provisions. We
looked out for lights and sailed close by a
little island just off the coast of Crete. It's
called Gaidaro Nisi and lies 7 miles from
the town of Ierapetra on the south coast of
Crete. We got close to this island early in
the morning. Not far from us we saw fish-
ermen at work and stopped the ferry.
Johan, Philippe, Valentinus and one of the
Turks, who spoke Greek, got in one of the
jolly boats and rowed up to the fishermen.
Johan and Philippe asked them if they
would take them to shore to buy food.
They agreed, but thought they should call
for permission from the authority in land.
When they did, they inquired about the
ship. The answer was that the ship was
Dutch and on its way from Turkey. The
food onboard had gone bad and we needed
to get new supplies. They seemed to be sus-
picious and ordered us to sail straight to
harbour on Crete. We discussed this and
decided that it would not be a wise thing to
do. They could be likely to detain or even
sequester the ship. Before we left the fish-
ermen gave us a few small fish in a bucket.
When everybody was onboard the ferry we
sailed by the coast of Crete to the west. In
our belongings we had a roadmap and
managed surprisingly well to figure out
locations on Crete by that map.
The lack of food had gotten to us. We
especially longed for meat and bread. The
fish helped a little. We prepared a fireplace
from an oil barrel, put a gridiron on top
and grilled the fish. When it was done there
was hardly any food left on the bones. It
didn't do much else than make us hungier.
The Turks weren't interested in the
fish. They brought a tin of biscuits they
had found on the ship. They ate the biscuits
with good appetite. It didn't look appealing
to us as it smelled from a long distance with
mold. The Turks laughed at us and said:
"Tomorrow biscuit good!" That was very
true, because the next day we were hungry
enough to gobble the biscuits.
Later that same hungry day Philippe,
Gudjon and Shanol (one of the Turks who
was rather fat), sat in the hinder room. In
spite of the hunger we all tried to joke
around and Shanol told about many adven-
tures that he had been through. All of a
sudden Philippe poked his belly and said:
"You are fat, Shanol." The Turk smiled and
rubbed his belly. "The fattest one gets
eaten first," Philippe joked. Shanol under-
stood what he said, paled up and ran away
and hid. He didn't seem to understand that
this was a joke. They called him back and
told him he had nothing to worry about,
this was merely a joke. That made him
happy again.
Caught in a Storm
Around midnight on Wednedsay
night, we passed Cape Krios on the west
coast of Crete and headed towards the
Strait of Messina between Italy and Sicily.
The night went by withough anything
going on.
Early Thursday morning that changed.
The wind, that up until now had been
quiet, got stronger. Soon we were caught in
a storm, which was bad for this ship, as the
superstructure was very high and the bot-
tom was almost flat as mentioned earlier.
We decided to keep on going and see what
would happen. The ship pitched and trem-