Female complications, day 25

  Full steam ahead.

  Sometimes I can see what telling Iselin or others about something will lead to, but I still do it. So I can't really blame anyone but myself that I'm outside on the pavilion during the cold dark morning, to try to make ... ice cream. At least I'm far from alone, as beside Iselin, Ciara, Kari and Caecilia, Rikvi, Jalida, Elvira and of course Alith and Raneigh is here too. I hope this goes well and that Rikvi and Jalida will learn and be able to do ice cream in the future, at least when the weather is suitable. We are trying different recipes, partly because I have to experiment with ingredients as I'm not sure of the right ingredients ratio, and partly for different flavours. Neutral without flavour, with honey instead of sugar, and finally with added blueberries which have been stored in honey to preserve them. So we mix together cream, milk and sugar or honey, which is heated until it boils. At the same time we've whisked egg yolk with some more sugar or honey, mix in some of the previous mixture and pour back and heat again. After it cools, we stand and stir and scrape the edges of several ceramic pots that are in a bucket cooled down by ice cold water. Stiring the ice cream is a lot of work so they take turns working all the pots, and as the man of the house I'm not allowed to do the actual work after I've shown and sambos tried. Food preparation is women business. I both want to disagree and help, while also not.

  A random thought means we measure the temperature in another small pot and confirm that a little saltpetre makes it colder. So we combine food experiments with gathering data how cold it actually gets with the saltpetre. For Science!

  The sailors have started working on the Risk games so we go there to check their craft. It feels a bit awkward as Lifa openly flirts with me as I've been welcomed into her and Asta's home, by seductively asking if I don't want to 'warm up' - with a smile and a nod towards the bedroom instead of the lit fireplace. In front of Asta. And Alith and Caecilia. I now know that I took Lifa's virginity during the Stag night, and just like with Unn, I feel like I didn't do a proper job and actually want to 'redo my shoddy work', but am smarter than voicing that opinion. I don't matter that Lifa would clearly be willing. So I just thank her but reply that my sambos keep me warm enough, and give Caecilia a one-armed hug and kiss on the cheek, which she happily receive.

  Although Asta and Lifa live together in their own women's house, they often eat together with the men, and Lifa often helps with the fishing, and sometimes Asta too. Asta and one of the men have been giving the others lessons in reading, writing and arithmetic since last autumn, and they practice while doing handicrafts. Asta is still attending radio handling lessons with the others and practising radio handling and norse, especially with the new ones that she will help train. She is so fascinated by the new radio developments. Asta still practice taking sun altitudes and calculating the position, and have been teaching some of the sailors that - and Alith - and Asta and Iselin work on the celestrial sphere, when the weather is clear and they are not busy with other things.

  One thing Asta has confirmed is that the exact calculated latitude changes a little between calculations, and since Asta has meticulously recorded all the measurements she has taken on the island, she have with my and Iselin's help calculated a weighted average, wich gives a slightly more accurate latitude, so she and others have learnt that the latitude of a location can be made more accurately fixed by combining many measurements over a longer period of time, and thus a locations latitude can be more accurately plotted on a map. Accurate enough that map resolution matters. Since we don't want to clutter large scale maps, we might have to add the exact latitude and longitude in a maps 'dead spaces' or in a book. Precise enough measurement of longitude is still a huge future goal, but one we don't have to solve yet.

  We head over to the other house.

  Asta and Lifa also wanted to join the work, so Asta is helping with the graphics and writing the text because she is the best at that, and they have divided the other jobs between them. They seem to be having a pretty good time doing different crafts while socialising. The sawmill and carpentry provides them with perfectly sawn wooden parts to start with.

  I give a silver coin bonus to all the ships crew who have been net fishing, and for the last months almost every other day, even when it's cold and below zero. They've often had good catches and we always have fish available. We have given away some fish to other residents like Unn, Iselin's parents, Olafr and the workers here. They have catched enough that everyone gets fish at least one meal a week, which is very good just to get iodine. We have also tried to make fish pemmican, just to test, and if there in the future are long-distance travellers or inland explorers who need pemmican, a little food variety and iodine etc will be a good benefit. The fisher men have also, with my permission, traded fish for some other things from other residents here or in Lysesund, such as flour, and are generally trying to make their food and life more luxurious, and they are enjoying their life here. When talking, playing games and other such leisure activities, they are also braiding lines from linen or horse tails into fishing lines and weaving more nets. More nets will yield more fish.

  They are grateful to have a wonderful warm house to live in, and think they live very well even without their own fishing supplement. With my permission and some help, they have built a lean-to and small shed behind the men's house where they are building their own small boat so they don't have to borrow mine, which is also something to do with all their spare time, although Risk have been taking time at the moment. But they mostly do Risk components in the evening. The boat builder amongst them have been making boat models so they/we can test different sail solutions etc. It won't be perfect, but sometimes a more visual approach and test helps explain a concept.

  In fact, I've been talking to the boat builder and the others about making a proper medium sized boat and fishing boat that can handle waves and seas better, and I've based it on what I know as a 'tiohuggare' or whaleboat, which is a classic for the Nordic region and the rough seas. Tiohuggare, basically translates as 'ten grabber/puller', and a tiohuggare is intended for a maximum of 10 rowers with 5 pairs of oars - hence the name - on a double-ended clinker built boat about 8 to 8.5 metres long with a width of slightly more than 2 metres, with rudder and helmsman in the stern, which can also be given a simple mast and sailed. The fairly large size and high sides makes the boat handle quite rough seas, and the boat will be too big and unnecessarily bulky for two people to haul in fishing nets or set nets in the sheltered archipelago waters they currently fish in, but it is a boat that is better for open seas, and can be a lifeboat for 20+ people. Due to that, I would also like the boat to be able to quickly raise a canvas stretched over wooden scaffolding over the bow section, to try to divert wave spray. It bothers me that my ship the Millennium Eagle don't have enough boats for everyone on board.

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  The catamaran's conversion to a steam boat is complete, and still pulled up on the logs south of the village, it has been tested to check that everything works. That location was the easiest and closest way to move both the assembled steam boiler and the catamaran so they could meet and be worked on, and it is a decent road and canal there due to floating the logs to the sawmill. They have built a small 'dock' next to the low dam where the logs are moved to the small canal. There already was a small jetty.

  The dock is just long logs they have removed the bark from and sawn a smooth edge on so two logs give a V shape for the keels and have impregnated the logs to protect against salt water. Enough to give the catamaran's keels something to rest on. As the weather isn't nice, and to protect the ship against rain and snow, the dock have been given a simple roof of sawn off outer sides from logs, and the long sides have some canvas. I admit that the catamaran looks rather absurd with the boiler and steam engine in the centre and two paddle wheels slightly forward of the centre and with two linked together rudders at the rear. The ferry has no rudder, but the catamaran needs rudders for normal steering, and the rudders are linked together so either side controls both rudders. The drum brake clutches that allow one or both paddle wheels to be driven work, although it is not what I consider an elegant solution. The drum brake clutches work but it means that the clutch pads will have relatively poor longevity if used a lot and with the steam engine on high speed-power, but it was easy to do and I sure can live with it for a prototype. The system is mostly intended for slow speed and for tighter turns more around the centre of the ship and to provide better control. The idea is to stay close to shore anyway, and this is just a prototype.

  Although this is likely to be Alfheimr's first steam boat, the boat will not be saved. I have no real place for all the 'first' that we're creating, and won't really be able to preserve the steam boat in its original condition with the boiler and steam engine and the paddle wheels. Saving documentation is more important. Of course, we can save the parts and when the boat has served its purpose, restore it to this condition, because I will want to build something better in the future, and especially a better and more useful boat. Of course this catamaran could be used as a ferry somewhere, but I will get a spare ferry when there eventually is a bascule bridge to Orusingen. One advantage of a good supply of planks is that a wooden bridge has become much easier to manufacture. Because we have bought quite a lot of tar to protect and impregnate wood, that production has increased the availability of coal, which has become cheaper. I would really like to save the wood gas that is produced too, but that's another future thing.

  The temperature is below freezing but the wind today is light and seems to be holding, so it feels like a good day to test the steam boat, and see if it might be able to do a lap around Little Ackerek. They have to finish everything and can push-lift the catamaran into the water. For Viking Elves used to dragging longships ashore and moving them far across the land, this is nothing, and the catamaran is resting on logs and not in sand.

  In front of the gathered crowd I name the boat 'Heart of Gold' which everyone thinks is appropriate, because there is plenty of brass in the middle. Jane gives me a suspicious look.

  "Robert, 'Heart of gold' is too poetic for you, so spill it!"

  "It might be a starship in the Sci-fi story 'The Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy'."

  "I bloody knew it! But it is a good name. A really good name. A bloody excellent name!"

  It's been about 15 minutes since we lit the fire in the boiler and the pressure has risen more than enough, as we will stay at lower pressure than the tested maximum pressure. There is great excitement as Olafr, Iselin, Alith, Asta and I start the first floating test of the steam boat. Kari, Ciara, Jane, bodyguards and some of the staff, as well as islanders and newcomers, stand on the beach or sit on horses and watch, and Gunhild joins the crew in a Knarr in case we need towing assistance or rescue. Of course we have life jackets on, but the water is literally freezing cold. This part of the island shore is a bit too shallow and I could stand with my shoulders above the surface until a couple of hundred metres off shore, but other parts of the islands coast are cliffs and parts go steeply down to 4 to 10 metres deep.

  No one thought about turning the boat before it was dragged ashore and everything was assembled, and there is no reverse on this steam engine or gearbox, and the water is very shallow except in the fairly narrow passaged that's been dug deep enough for floating bundles of logs. The steam boats draft is very shallow, but it has some. So we have to push out with the oars and turn the boat that way. A bit impractical and slow as the paddle wheels are in the way and make more water resistance, but it works. Then we open the valve and the paddle wheels start to rotate and give us forward speed. Once we've come enough off shore, we steer north-west parallel to the shore towards the Orusingen ferry while checking that the steering works, accompanied by shouts and cheers from the shore and the following boat. We make a half left turn and paddle back a little, followed by a half turn to the right so we get further out and have tested both clutches, and then steer further north-west. We wave to Jane where she stands on the rocks to take our picture and film, and I get Iselin to pose with me in the bow like from the Titanic movie.

  "Look out for icebergs!" Jane's shout confirms that she got the reference.

  We continue chugging slowly along the coast. Everyone on board is so incredibly happy, proud and pleased. We are on a boat travelling forward without sails or oarsmen, using the power of fire and boiling water trapped by iron and brass, and all of those aboard understand how it works. When we reach the Orusingen ferry, we go out in the middle of the channel so as not to get caught in the rope, and everything has gone so well that we open up the valve a little more while we feeding the fire more wood, and soon the accompanying boat has to make an effort to catch up with us, and so do the people following on land. It feels pretty good to see my flag fluttering in the stern, while the paddle wheels splash and the boat leaves a wake. We can't make feed the fire quicker to make it more powerful, but everything is working properly and everyone is taking turns at the helm, feeding the fire and such. I haven't even considered it before, but when the people on board are more on the island side of the boat, it digs that paddle wheel into the water slightly more compared to the other side, which gives a steering effect that needs to be compensated for. Worth considering if I build larger paddle boats with side wheels, especially if they are single hulled.

  We reach the north-west end of Little Ackerek, and as planned we touch up against the rocks where the rest of my sambos and others are waiting after having ridden here. Many spectators have run along the shore to reach and they cheer for us once again. Kari, Jane, Ciara and Caecilia put on life jackets and take my hand and are greeted on board, and I get a celebratory kiss by each of them. Then we push the boat away from the rocks, turn the bow outwards and continue our journey. We turn towards the strait between the islands. The short break has allowed the boiler to build up a small steam reserve, and we keep a leisurely pace until we approach the bridge where we open up the valve, and the sound of the engine increases almost as much as everyone's smile. The bridge between the islands is full of people and a draw among the sambos means that Ciara is the first to use the little steam whistle and makes a tut-tut, to Iselin's obvious jealousy. We pass under the bridge at a decent speed and continue south, waving and posing for the camera Bodil uses.

  We are about to dock where we started our journey, and it has been more than an hour, but I honestly forgot to check the clock before we left which is annoying. I'll have to check the time stamp on the photos. The steam boat has been travelling at something like 4-5 km/h and what is probably the first steam boat trip on Alfheimr has ended in complete triumph. I just have to thank and accept the shouts and cheers of 'Sejdmann Arnesson!' that are heard when we dock and step ashore. The boat is pulled up on land, there are lots of people, so that goes quickly and easily even without blocks and tackle. Many volunteers rushed into the water to partially lift the magnificent and amazing sejd boat. Haera, Unn and Pedr are not alone in their wide-eyed curiosity about the contraption, but we keep most people at a distance, and not just because it's still very warm.