November 2, 2023: In the Atlantic Ocean, midway between Ireland and the Azores, a 46-foot sailboat stumbles into a storm. It is approximately 1,000 kilometers to land, the same distance as between Oslo and Berlin in Germany. The boat is named “Heidi”. The skipper’s name is Geir Bjørndal. And none of them like each other. They are nevertheless confident that they can unload each other safely in port. Even in bad weather. But what will happen the next day, none of them foresaw. Within a second the boat goes completely around, a boat Geir has spent over 20 years building. Windshields are smashed, masts and rigging are broken, and the boat takes in water. The weather is getting worse and worse, life is quickly at stake. This is the story of Geir and the boat “Heidi”. In a matter of seconds, 20 years of work had been shattered in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Geir narrowly escaped with his life, but thought the boat was lost. But several months later he got a phone call. This is how it was on board the sailing boat “Heidi” just before things went completely crazy. Photo: Geir Bjørndal. The dream started To understand why Geir was out on this sailing trip, we have to rewind all the way to the 1970s. A time when people in Norway lit up an average of NOK 35,000 a year, and smoking was legal on board planes. It’s been a long time since Geir discovered what sailing was. In the special type of boat Oselvar outside Bergen, he got to experience what a sail can do with a human mind. Completely quiet, no sounds from an engine. Simply in harmony with nature, and since then life has revolved around the sea, wind and sails for the westerner. A Polo 86 was Geir’s first boat. For Geir Bjørndal, sailing is life. But it has also managed to kill him. Photo: Olav Røli / news It was a building kit of a sailing boat named “Trude”. It was placed in the river Nidelven in Trondheim, and Geir used the boat as a residence. The river could be far from quiet and beautiful, and one winter Geir had to place the fan heater in the sleeping bag to keep the heat on board. But the boat was finished, and there were trips both in Norway and further across the world. In Chile, it was booming at the start of the 1990s. The sailing trip at the beginning of the 1990s helped to leave a lasting mark on Geir Bjørndal. Here in Chile. Photo: Private He met a lady and had company on the trip over to New Zealand. In 1992, the son Arne Frederick Bjørndal was born in the town of Kawakawa. Since then, Geir has dreamed of sailing back to the archipelago. In a bigger and better boat than “Trude”, and in May 2024 it should happen. Geir was to come with his boat “Heidi”, while Arne Frederick was to take the plane. Only one of them showed up as agreed. Baby lock in New Zealand in 1992. Father and son were supposed to meet in New Zealand in May 2024. Nothing happened. Photo: Privat The big job is underway Right after Geir returned to Norway from New Zealand in the mid-1990s, work started on a new sailing trip. A younger Geir lays plastic fiber by plastic fiber, with the help of shapes and drawings. The first outlines of the boat “Heidi” became clear in a hall at Toftevåg on Halsnøy about 20 years ago. The dream of sailing back to New Zealand without engine power was finally to become a reality. A boat host to. Here from the small start with a form over 20 years ago. Photo: Private The first parts are taking shape. Photo: Privat It takes a lot of time to build a boat. Photo: Private Geir Bjørndal wanted to go out into the world. Photo: Privat The steering house is taking shape. There is also a lot to do inside. Photo: Privat The hull is hoisted out at Toftevåg on Halsnøy. Photo: Private Anniversary. Now it looks like a boat. Photo: Privat Here the boat is photographed from the top of the mast. Photo: Privat Here the boat is in its rightful element. But it takes time to build a boat from the ground up. Only in September 2023, more than 20 years after the work started, will the boat be completely ready to leave Kvinnherad. To the other side of the globe. One September day, “Heidi” goes out to Bømlafjorden in Western Norway, on to Shetland, before a longer stay in Cleggan Bay in Ireland. Towards the end of October 2023, the trip starts in earnest. Geir cast off and set course for the Azores. One sails in about 10 days, and he would arrive a short distance into November. What he didn’t know was that the storm “Ciaran” was on its way. And that what he had built up in a hall on Halsnøy for almost 20 years would be destroyed in a matter of seconds. From a “stupid wave”, as he later expressed it. And that almost cost him his life. Calm before the storm in Cleggan bay in Ireland. This is one of the last photos that Geir Bjørndal took before leaving. Photo: Geir Bjørndal Nødpeilesendaren 2 November 2023, approximately 12 o’clock. It happened within a second. A big and “stupid” wave throws the building “Heidi” completely around. He remembers Geir lying with his feet out of the wheelhouse in the boat after the capsize. The window is broken. All communication equipment is wet. He is in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Fortunately, he has an emergency bearing transmitter with him. It works – and emits a signal. At 12.32 on this November day, the alarm goes off at the main rescue center in Bodø. They are responsible for monitoring messages from the distress beacon that Geir has in the boat. Then contact the nearest emergency services. In this case the British Coast Guard. 2 November 2023, at 12.32 Geir Bjørndal: I have an emergency, and I need them to send help. Vessel in distress. Need assistance. 2 November 2023, at 12.43 SSOS: The emergency center has received your emergency message. Describe the vessel, and tell what is wrong. 2. November 2023, at 1.15pm Geir Bjørndal: Boat capsized, lost mast, 1 person. Take in water. In the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, over 1,000 kilometers from land, it’s not just getting out either boats or helicopters. The Norwegian Sar Queen, for example, has a range of around 500 kilometres. Without a mast, without a rig, and without a window, the hull drifts helplessly around in waves up to 15 meters high. Inside the boat sits Geir. Wet, and colder and colder. Without a window in the wheelhouse, and without daring to go down into the boat to find dry clothes. The fear that a new wave will fill the boat with more water is too great. 2 November 2023, at 15.35: Geir Bjørndal: I am very cold2. November, 2023, at 19.50 Geir Bjørndal: Kor far away? 2. November, at 20.40: SSOS: The plane has located you, but we cannot give you an exact time for them to pick you up. You will be notified as soon as I know. 2. November 2023, at 21.52: Geir Bjørndal: Big waves fill up the boat. It will be over a day before the large tanker “Green Azure” comes to help. They change course to save lives. On the bow of the sailboat sits a red bundle and claws at them when they come. In the hours since the boat went completely around, Geir has tried to keep the heat inside his body and the water outside. All the glass from the broken windows has blocked the drains. “Heidi” takes in more and more water. Nevertheless. He is not afraid. But focus on what he has to do. In waves up to 15 meters high, Geir Bjørndal was stranded in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. 32.2 celsius That’s Geir Bjørndal’s temperature when the crew on the tanker closes with getting him on board. With this temperature in his body, he is chilled. The body temperature approaches a point where consciousness disappears. Here Geir Bjørndal puts on dry clothes on board. The form was good, but the body temperature was down to 32 degrees. Photo: Privat Nevertheless, Geir is ready when he is hoisted on board with a rope that is let down to him. He actually manages to tie it up himself. He does not remember exactly what happened in the run-up to the rollover. He was busy sealing leaks around some cow-eyes in the boat. And had not focused correctly towards the sea. It went quickly. In the blink of an eye he was working, in the next he was buzzing around in a wheelhouse with no windows. From the bridge of the large tanker he has to wave goodbye to his life’s work “Heidi”. This is what the Central Rescue Center says Rescue inspector Andreas Danielsen at the Central Rescue Center Southern Norway tells news that distress beacons are absolutely essential to have on such sailings. And that this saved Bjørndal. Danielsen is clear that no matter what assessments are made in advance of people in distress at sea, the rescue agencies stand up to save lives. She has to manage alone, out on the open sea. Between Ireland and the Azores, a place where the Atlantic Ocean is several thousand meters deep. He never thought he would see her again. But then history took a new turn in January. The crew of a French fishing vessel discovered a sailboat floating in the sea outside France. The sailboat “Heidi” and Geir become small in the face of a large tanker. Photo: RAF Telefonen After the shipwreck in November 2023, and after two weeks in hospital in England, Geir returns home to Western Norway. There is time for training after the injuries he received in the shipwreck. Both the knee, hip and shoulder have been hit hard. He has to undergo several operations. He has plenty of time, now that he doesn’t have a sailboat to deal with. At about the same time as this, and without Geir knowing anything, a French fishing boat makes a strange discovery off the coast. An empty sailboat. Without a mast, without a window, and apparently without people on board. The rescue service is alerted, and a boat sets out to check out the hull. They had both a doctor and a nurse with them. “We had no idea what awaited us when we got on board” They couldn’t find people. But also no trace of whose boat it was, apart from the name “Heidi”. In the end, they manage to track down the owner. Geir is in Bergen when he receives a call that the boat has been recovered. He jokes that the boat has now proved that he cannot dive. A year has now passed since the shipwreck. The journey started in September 2023. The next stage starts at the end of October. They just get here. On 2 November, the alarm goes off. The hull will be found here in January 2024. This spring he packed the car and started the first commute to the tiny town of Saint-Guénolé in France. Back to “Heidi”. The boat was badly damaged after a winter in the Atlantic Ocean. No one had done the dishes, to say it in Geir’s own words. The boat is now lying in France until further notice. The goal is in sight for Geir: The boat will sail again. However, it is uncertain whether Geir has the finances and courage to make it happen. Nevertheless. He is going out to sea again. And back to New Zealand. Because gardening is not for him. He finds peace at sea, at one with the elements. Has the berth ready for his boat It is August when I meet Geir at Halsnøy in Kvinnherad. He walks across the quay he owns at Toftevåg. – Here the mooring ropes are ready until “Heidi” comes back, says Geir Bjørndal. This is where “Heidi” was before it was thrown about a year ago. – How long she will be allowed to lie here again is unknown. It may take one year, two years, or ten years, or maybe it will never come, he says. Geir Bjørndal scouts for his boat. Kaia is ready to receive. Photo: Olav Røli At home in his basement flat, news asked news what he had in mind when he set out from Ireland on an October day in 2023. – I had thought of going to New Zealand, where I have been before. To get there, you have to go around several races, and you will encounter a lot of different weather. The more you learn about the boat, the more you are able to handle different situations. – Would you do anything differently today? – Yes, I should have had more speed on the boat so that I wasn’t in the wrong place when the wave came. And I should have gotten off guard from Ireland earlier in the year, or had a plan B to have the boat there over the winter. – Anyway. I considered that I wanted to go to the Azores. But it didn’t work this time. Maybe next? A seaman loves the waves of the sea. Driving a boat with a motor is not the same as sailing. That’s what Geir Bjørndal thinks, who still has a dream of sailing around the world again. Photo: Olav Røli / news Hello. Thank you for reading the case all the way. Do you have input for me, or would you like to advise on similar matters, or something completely different. Send me an email.
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Geir Bjørndal survived a dramatic shipwreck in the Atlantic Ocean – was saved by the emergency beacon transmitter – news Vestland
