Unexpected sights and (non) threats.

The first few days on our second sjöben has, for all of us, came with something new. During the first sjöben, most of us really did not know what to expect or think about our adventure. We just sort of went with the flow and quickly got along with the daily routines and watches. Now that we’ve all experienced what it was like, we knew better what to expect. The following event I will describe to you, such as it was, was certainly NOT what you’d expect or maybe even wish for during a night watch on Gunilla.

The eight to twelve watch during the evenings are usually pretty down-tempo and mostly contains stargazing, a short class about ropes or alike things, cleaning the elevinredning and our normal fika: scones. This specific night, I was post which means that you rotate between three positions: rorsman, outlook and livbojsvakt. The time was around ten in the evening and I sat outlook in the front when this took place. I was peacefully sat down, talking to my friend Alba. We swayed along with the waves, looking at the few stars we could see through the rainclouds. Nothing at all seemed more or less normal, then it usually was. When I try to recall what we were talking about, I haven’t got a single clue because all I can remember is when I suddelny saw something up in the sky. The sun had set half an hour earlier which meant that there was still some light up in the sky. The stars could clearly be seen, along satellites and clouds although something suddenly stuck out to me.

Ten, no, fifteen clearblue lights apperad. They were in a straight line, with the same amount of space between them. I exclaimed loudly at the sight. “What is THAT?!” I remember abrubtly saying to Alba. She frowned and also started to out loud ask what on heaven and earth it was. The lights weren’t nearly as high up as the stars, although higher than the clouds. They silently swept over the sky, the light in them slowly pulsing. Me and Alba freaked out after ten seconds of watching it. We ran across the deck, trying to get a better look at the same time as we got more and more scared. We started talking about conspiracies; it was definetley a UFO but was ut more the Matrix rather than just plain green, three-eyed aliens that had come to kill us? We would either way probably not wake up tomorrow, certanily not here although maybe on another planet in another galaxy. Absolutely scared to death, we then ran to the captain after the lights had dissapered. We were sure aboutr what we saw, we couldn’t have hypnotized. The captain maybe wouldn’t believe us but maybe calm us?

“Hi Hans, did you see the lights a few minutes ago?” I remember saying as calmy and belivable as possible to our captain. He would probably laugh at us or say that it was a good prank. This was the moment: would he admit that we would die in the hands of foreign UFOs tonight or that we were delusional?

“Yeah I did! We saw them the first time about two years ago. Elon Musks project, you know Starlink, will make it possible to have Wi-Fi worldwide in maybe two years time…” Hans said, continuing to explain that no, the lights were not aliens, but technological, FULLY RATIONAL scientifically developed satellites. Me and Alba are today, still shocked don’t get me wrong, but happy that we at least will have Wi-Fi out on the sea in a few years. Phew…

Elin Appelqvist, NAB2326.