I woke up about half past six when a board from the bed above mine fell down on me while the hut was shaking in the wind gusts. A minute later Majek shouted his alarm – the Zodiac was moving again.

We quickly dressed up and went out to find the boat some 30 m further downwind – the opposite side as last time. It was blown by the wind together with the two large driftwood logs tied to it and the anchor rope was broken. One more blow and it would have gone to the sea.

We barely managed to pull the Zodiac above the high tide line. Then we loaded it with heavy rocks from the beach. Now the wind gusts were so heavy that they blew us down in case we didn’t crouch on the shore in time. And the Zodiac moved on with its load of a couple of hundred kilogram of rocks. Deflation of the keel, more rocks in and around the boat plus more driftwood logs and the anchor rope tied up again seemed to help for the time being. We can’t do much more. Heavier wind than at present will be dangerous for us – we don’t want to end up in the sea. Sandblasted we returned to the cottage.

Securing the Zodiac. Photo: Henning Lorenz

About 10.30 the rain started after a calm period. Unfortunately, the wind is also back again.

Henning Lorenz, Uppsala universitet