23
SUNDAY EVENING COULDN’T come soon enough for Leifur.
After four days, part of him was beginning to enjoy the repetition of the days, the structure that it gave back into his life and the purpose he finally had again.
But the rest of him was exhausted. It was unfortunate timing that he and Astrid couldn’t keep away from each other, and she had quickly caved in on her decision to spend a couple of nights apart.
They hadn’t had a night apart this week, but tonight, she was holding him to his promise of having her over to his place for the evening, and then they could have a lazy start to Monday, their day off.
He and Astrid arrived on Brimfaxi on Sunday morning shortly before Eva — a tactical decision so that she wouldn’t see them arriving together every morning.
Leifur’s truck hadn’t moved from the parking space in the harbour car park for four days, but perhaps no one was looking out for things like that as much as Astrid thought they did.
‘If my sister ever came down to this part of town, you can bet your life she’d notice that your truck was in the same place. Even if you told her you just pick the same spot every day, she’d still know whether it had been moved or not.’
‘She didn’t seem like the intense stalker-type,’ Leifur said .
‘She has a very keen sense of what’s going on between people before they know themselves. I can’t explain it.’
Fair enough, if Astrid wanted to keep their relationship quiet for now, he didn’t mind.
He knew it was nothing to do with how she felt about him, and more to do with the fact that other people would have expectations of where their relationship might go which could put undue pressure on them when they’d basically decided it was going to be a summer fling.
‘The weather doesn’t look too good today,’ Leifur said, having checked the forecast before they left Astrid’s apartment.
‘The seas are going to be rough. Make sure Eva offers everyone a seasickness tablet if they haven’t taken one already, and maybe you could give some tips when you do the safety briefing.
We don’t want to be clearing up sick later. ’
‘Definitely not. Our day off starts the moment we see the guests off the boat after the last tour today.’
Astrid and Eva set out small piles of sick bags, just in case, and Eva had the tablets ready in the galley and would offer them to the guests when they came downstairs to get their weatherproof suits on.
When they went back on deck ready to welcome the guests, there was a steady drizzle and the cloud had dropped so low that you couldn’t see much further than the harbour entrance.
‘This weather is a shame,’ said Eva.
‘It’ll be okay as long as we make sure the guests are prepared. They’ll probably come on board wishing they’d chosen a different day to sail, and we need to turn that around for them,’ Astrid said.
Leifur loved hearing her talk like that.
It made him feel they had a connection through their shared values.
Icelandic people were hardy when it came to bad weather, whereas tourists came expecting stable, seasonally-accurate weather patterns, a forecast you could count on and neither of those things were often the case.
The weather in Iceland was so changeable in such a short time and as a fisherman, he’d had to go out whatever the weather, unless it was too dangerous.
Astrid, on the other hand, hadn’t lived in Iceland for a long time, and even in Norway, because the weather was more settled, there wasn’t the same mentality that as long as you had the right clothing, it wasn’t a problem.
Of the thirty guests they had booked, the number had dwindled to twenty-three where people had postponed their tour to another day because of the weather.
It was their choice, but Leifur knew that there might not be a better day if their holiday wasn’t very long and they could risk missing out altogether.
But the guests who had braved it were all standing on deck in their weatherproof suits, hoods up and gloves on, listening to Astrid do her safety briefing as he took Brimfaxi out of the harbour.
Once they were out in the open water, the sea was tossing them around a fair bit.
It didn’t feel too bad to him, but he knew that for anyone unaccustomed to it, it would feel like the roughest sea in the world.
He heard Astrid advise them not to look at the surface of the sea.
It would help to focus on the horizon if anyone felt peaky.
She also advised them to stay on deck because the fresh air helped.
It was true, but he knew it was also so that it would hopefully stop any mess inside.
They headed out to the same place they’d been every day so far. By the time they got there, Eva had come up on deck and was gripping the rail, staring determinedly at the horizon, taking deep breaths. He opened the door of the wheelhouse.
‘Hey! Eva, are you alright?’
She turned, looking pale but smiling, and gave him a thumbs up. ‘Feeling better now I’m up here,’ she called. ‘I think it’s worse below deck. ’
That was almost certainly true. Not long after, they had their first sighting of a humpback, and Leifur could tell by the enthusiastic taking of photos and the excited chatter carried on the wind that the whales were probably the best cure for any hint of seasickness.
It was an exceptionally good turnout by the whales.
They even saw a fin whale, which Astrid could hardly believe.
Her voice rose in excitement as she told the guests how unusual it was, then he saw her turn around to catch his eye and her face was a picture.
He loved that this thing they were doing together could make her feel like that, and that they could share it together.
And in his heart of hearts, he wondered whether it might be enough to make her decide to stay.
‘This is Brimfaxi . We have a fin whale sighting,’ he broadcast over the radio to the other tour boats, giving their location.
‘Received,’ said one boat. ‘Great sighting, but we’re heading in. The weather is turning in the next thirty minutes.’
Leifur checked his screen and could see from the radar that the other boat was right.
He was reluctant to leave too soon, but he had to think of the safety of the guests.
It would take twenty minutes to get back to the harbour, so he reckoned they could stay out for another ten with no risk other than a rougher voyage back than they’d had on the way.
Besides, he couldn’t turn the engines on yet while they were surrounded by whales.
Fifteen minutes later, Leifur gathered from Astrid’s commentary that the whales were heading away from the boat and rather than follow them, which he would do in normal circumstances, he headed back to shore.
Astrid looked up to the wheelhouse, questioning him, then she switched the mic off and headed up to see him.
‘We have to turn back,’ he said as soon as she opened the door to the wheelhouse .
‘The weather?’
‘Yes, it’s going to deteriorate, and we might not make it back before the worst of it hits.’
‘Okay. I’ll explain to everyone.’
The rain pelted down more heavily, and most of the guests retreated below deck for the ride back to Reykjavik. For Leifur, he was less concerned about the rough seas and more concerned with how bad it would be if they all got sick and left terrible reviews.
Thankfully, they made it back to the harbour just as the wind picked up, so the relatively sheltered waters gave them some respite from the waves.
Once they’d docked and Eva and Astrid had tied off the ropes, he headed down to see the guests got off the boat safely.
‘It was wonderful!’ One couple said to him, their own waterproofs hardly a match for the rain that was beating down on them but smiling with joy, nevertheless.
‘Thank you! What a fantastic tour,’ someone else said.
‘Can you believe they all enjoyed it?’ Leifur said to Astrid and Eva when they were sitting in the galley with cups of coffee before they had to gear up for the next tour.
‘It makes it more of an adventure,’ said Eva.
‘You didn’t look as if that’s what you thought,’ said Astrid. ‘Are you feeling okay now?’
‘I was so busy giving out the seasickness tablets that I forgot to take one myself until it was too late,’ she said. ‘I’ll be okay for the next tour.’
‘I need to call the office because I’m not sure we should go out until this weather’s passed.
We might be okay for the evening sailing, but the next one might be a bit dicey.
’ He pulled his phone out and made the call.
In the end, they decided the best course of action was to cancel the rest of the day’s sailings to give guests more certainty rather than waiting until the last minute.
‘So that’s it?’ said Eva. ‘We have the rest of the day off?’
‘Yes,’ said Leifur, looking at Astrid and knowing she was thinking the same as him; that their day off started now.
Once they’d locked up the boat, Astrid and Leifur made a run for his truck. They were wearing waterproofs, but the rain and wind were so fierce that it stung if a raindrop hit your face.
‘I didn’t think about this happening,’ said Leifur. ‘I thought I’d have to manage with one day off a week but actually we might have to cancel sailings.’
‘You used to go out whatever the weather when you fished?’
He nodded. ‘Probably plenty of times when it would have been safer not to, but if you don’t fish, you don’t get paid.’
‘Can you believe we saw a fin whale? That’s incredible. I know they’re rare, and I never thought we’d see one at all, let alone in the first week.’ Her eyes were bright, and his heart melted.
‘It’s amazing,’ he said, squeezing her thigh with his hand, then leaving it there.
She put her hand on top of his. ‘And now we get to spend the rest of the day watching a storm from the comfort of your cottage.’
‘That’s not all we’re going to do.’
‘I hope not. I feel like it’s the first chance we’ve had to be properly together without it being to do with work, or just overnight at my house.’
‘It is.’ Then he remembered he hadn’t had a chance to get his house ready.
The last night he’d spent at home, he’d been in a fug of anxiety and had thought he’d do it the following night when he’d need to distract himself from the fact that Astrid wanted another night apart and then that didn’t happen.
‘My house isn’t ready for visitors, Astrid. I never did get around to that.’
‘I don’t care. I won’t notice anyway.’
He hadn’t changed the sheets. Hadn’t cleaned the bathroom. Had a pile of dirty washing behind his bedroom door.
‘You’ll have to promise to wait in the lounge for a few minutes when we get there.’
‘No! Don’t be silly. Leifur.’
‘Astrid. I mean it. Agree to that or I’m taking you home.’
‘Oh my god!’ She looked at him with wide eyes, realising he wasn’t joking. ‘Do you need to get rid of a body or your secret wife before I can come in?’
He was going to have to guilt-trip her. It was the only way. ‘I’ve had dinner with your parents. I’ve fixed your neighbour’s toilet at great personal cost to myself, I should add.’
‘In what way?’ She burst out laughing.
‘If you think about where we were heading when she asked me…’
‘Okay, you win.’
He knew he would because so far, he hadn’t asked her to do anything for him. He didn’t need to because the only thing he wanted was for her to want him. And he wasn’t sure if she saw his cottage in the state it was now, whether that would be the case. He only hoped ten minutes was enough.