Duck Ahoy!

A short time ago, Little Blue Duck found herself presented with a very big opportunity. When she first saw the email from her history professor, she couldn't believe her eyes:

Subject: Visit a Defense Ship on Thursday

(well, it was actually in Icelandic, but you get the idea..)

It was all that she could do not to break out into a hornpipe in the computer lab.

*~*~*SOME TIME PASSES SLOWLY*~*~*

It was snowing on Thursday of course. It was snowing for the first time in weeks, killing all the spring flowers which had naively poked their little purple buds out of the black earth only to discover that it is indeed a cruel world after all. And it was not only snowing. It was also very windy, even for Iceland, and cold. And there were icebergs in Bakkafjörður.

It was the perfect weather for a trip on the high seas.

Or Reykjavík city harbour, as it so happened.

The Duck waddled through security with the line that she was a harmless university student on a tour - security: higher in many parking lots - and then, with mounting excitement and a bad pun, up the REAL LIVE GANGPLANK onto the REAL LIVE DECK with all the SHINY METAL NAVAL-LOOKING THINGS and the BIG GUN. She thought fondly of her comrade Parley the Pirate and wished that she too could be there to enjoy the sight.

After this, she went BELOW DECK to investigate some ICELANDIC SECRET PIRATE WEAPONS and hear an OLD SEA CAPTAIN tell PIRATEY ICELANDIC TALES of the COD WARS. The Cod Wars are the favourite subject of Blue Duck's history professor, the closest thing Iceland has ever had to actual wars, involving disputed territorial boundaries and fishing rights. Skemmtun, skemmtun.

After a good dose of PIRATEY ICELANDIC TALES and PORTHOLES, the Duck and her companions went on to tour the rest of the ship, including the MESS, BRIDGE and ENGINE ROOM, and significantly increased her Icelandic ship vocabulary in the process, although not in fact enough to understand much of what was being said. Despite her state of confusion, she was VERY HAPPY, and thankful to her very nice history professor and the PIRATEY CREW of the DEFENSE SHIP TYR.

She sung a little SHANTY all the way back to Tjörnin.