Erla Ásmunds made the dream come true

Erla Ásmundsdóttir made her long-held dream of going to sea come true last year and now works as a chef at the trawler Helga María RE-1, owned by Brim. She says the experience of seafaring so far is a total adventure, but reminds me that it’s important to make it special at sea and therefore always keeps a “fancy Friday” on board, as stated in a 200-mile paper of Morgunblaðið.
“It was really quite unexpected and not decided beforehand. I was born and raised in the Westman Islands, and I admit that it’s been a dream for years to try to go to sea. I’ve wanted to do this, but somehow I’ve never let it happen before. Last year, I got a call from a friend who asked if I wanted to try this,” Ásmundsdóttir explains, “and asked how it came about that she started her seafaring career.

Festive Fridays

The tours are six days each, and then an occasional four-day short tours, according to Ásmundsdóttir, who said she does not regret deciding on this line of work. “The work as such is not really hard, but the conditions make it difficult. Especially when the weather is bad. Somehow the boys always seem to want deep-fried chips when it’s brewing, but I’m not someone who likes to deep-frying under those conditions,” Ásmundsdóttir says, laughing.
And is the crew satisfied with the chef? “ Naturally, they’re afraid to say otherwise,” Ásmundsdóttir replies quickly and giggles.

Dresses have become a fairly big part of keeping a positive spirit on board, but it must be said that this is a somewhat unusual act aboard an Icelandic trawler. “There’s always a fancy Friday on Fridays and they’re used to it here that I’m wearing a dress regularly on board.”
The use of dresses was certainly a surprise to the crew at the beginning, admits Erla, but this all has a natural explanation, she assures a reporter. “It’s my birthday on November 25, and I’ve been doing it for years to always wear dresses until Christmas. So I wear a dress on my birthday and I always wear a new dress every day right up until Christmas Eve.”

Each day up to Christmas, an image of Erla in a dress at sea was taken. “For the last dress photo taken on board last Christmas, I put five or six men in my dresses as well. They put on their dresses for a photo shoot and actually, they danced a bit, they enjoyed themselves for a while.”