Music on board the Thor Heyerdahl

Music is everywhere on board the Thor Heyerdahl. On the one hand the music from the waves, the wind and the creaking of the mainmast, on the other hand the music from the KUSis. When they sing together or need a little motivation, for example as mess stewards.

We have our own choir: the Thor-choir. There we all sing together what songs we like, for example Shanties or film music. When we arrive on the Azores, we are going to have a party and play all the songs we sang on the whole journey. Sometimes we also make a girls-choir with only high voices. One of our five projects is the music-project. We often prepare songs with instruments, singing and rhythm. We are also writing our own songs and making audios. During the Besanschot-An – that’s an old tradition in the marine trade – or before dinner we have the opportunity to present our music to the others. But not only music, also poems, scenes or anything else.

The dry store is a popular place to play an instrument too. I for example love to play the trumpet in the evening there, because no one – except in the crew’s cabin and in the workshop – can hear you and you can practice undisturbed. Only once in a while the Proviantmeister*in needs something from there. In the Caribbean we also often played an instrument or sang something on the deckhouse or on the poop deck. But now it is too cold and wet there. In the music-corner we can store our instruments. But there is not very much space. We have about 2x2m and there are guitars, a trumpet, a keyboard, a cajon, a violine, a saxophone and two clarinets. When you walk through the messroom in the evening you can often see and hear KUSis singing and playing the guitar. Of course, we have many songbooks in our library, and they are very often used. When someone begins to sing, more and more KUSis join in and in the end, there is a little choir. Singing is also very cool as lookout because you get less seasick (that’s why we always sang in the first part of our journey) and the time flows faster.

But we are not always making our own music. We all have Mp3-Players, where we have uploaded our favourite songs. On the first part of our journey, we were only allowed to listen to music in our Cabins, but meanwhile we can hear music in the messroom too – but in both places only with headphones. We often listen to music to fall asleep, or during diary writing. During galley duty we are allowed to hear loud music. That’s why we are always motivated and make very tasty food. Motivational music is also allowed during Großreinschiff – the large cleanup. The louder the music is the more you are motivated. And the cleaner the ship gets.

You see there is music everywhere on board of the Thor Heyerdahl. It is an important part of our journey, and we all love to make music.