Day 4 | Wild night, a day off and a whale sighting

Last night was rough! Yesterday we managed to tag 1047 herring. A new record number for this tokt! When we take breaks and the end of the day we release the herring we have in the nets. Somehow during that process I jammed my thumb, and it's now swollen and painful. Black and blue.

After dinner the winds picked up. We knew this would happen so we moved the boat over to the docks connected to land after releasing the herring and before dinner. Then the winds began gusting!

I'm sleeping in the bow of the boat. The sail came loose and had to be tied in again. Without the use of my left thumb, I'm incapable of helping and thus a pretty useless sailor again. I've been so accident prone on this tokt. The guys and our skipper (a tiny woman from Switzerland) got the rigging secured and now the boat is a little bit better.

The winds continued howling all night, and I was glad we did not tag herring today, although we had a few hours of ok weather. Light breeze and a little rain/sleet. So I took a walk/jog along the road while we had daylight and called Marius. While on the phone with him I spotted a lone killer whale coming into the bay. He swam in towards our platform and then back out again. Probably seeing if we had given him any easy lunch today. Not the greatest picture, but I managed to snap one. I hope that we see some more whales while I'm here. The seagulls are pretty entertaining as well, though. They all have different sounds and we enjoy imitating them for entertainment when work gets monotonous.

Good night from Belvika, Tromsø! Expect to do more tagging tomorrow - as long as the weather permits!

[Killer whale and the looming Blåmannen mountain in the background]

[Bruised thumb and our empty platform behind me. Dreary day in Belvika]

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