Category: Trip (Page 2 of 12)

With Fi heading off for a warm up race and then the notorious Fastnet, Bernie and I set about sniffing our way around Brønnøysund and then Trondheim.

After a month in harbour it was time to cross the sea to a new country.

Our time in our remote granite walled anchorage came to an end and we motored out looking for wind. We needed to get south to find an airport for Fi’s next adventure.

The wind in northern Norway at this time of year had not been big red sail wind. Big wind shifts and constantly weaving between islands doesn’t make the big red sail happy. But today we had some open water and found a consistent (ish) light breeze.

Whales passed us, then we spotted dolphins and then…

We were expecting a more modest anchorage after the previous few nights, but it looked ok as we pulled up near a white sandy beach and a whale swam past us heading south. Summer in Norway is absolute bliss.

At lunch time we headed off to make the best of some northerly winds.

We made the most of the northerly winds and sailed into the ‘night’. The wind finally died as we closed in on the coast and we motored the last few miles into Bolga around 2 am.

With wind from the south for a few days we decided to rest, regain our sanity and explore Bolga.

The island had been home to fishing people who dried ship loads of fish on the rocks during summer until the early 1900s. We chose to traverse the south side of the island first as it was open the squally southerly weather. This is Norway so the protected northern side was also somehow open to the squally southerly weather.

After our walk we noticed many motor boats arriving at the island and people setting fire to huge bonfires. We realised it was mid summer and everyone was out for a party. Not only was the restaurant open (they often close at most times of the year and days of the week), but it was packed with revellers creating a vibrant atmosphere that we had not been expecting. We had a great dinner and chatted with loads of people. Bolga was a great place to visit and very beautiful.

Looking for our next anchorage, Fi noticed that the glacier we missed on the way up was only a few miles away. After filling up with diesel, we headed round for a look before it melted.

We set off for the glacier on our bikes before the first ferries arrived and followed the path up to the ice.

Heading south from the glacier the winds pushed us between the islands until they died completely and we parked on the arctic circle for a while. After a pleasant evening motoring, sailing, motor sailing, avoiding ferries and ducking under low power lines, we dropped anchor in a quiet bay for a few hours rest.

The potential winds the next day were just that, and we motored to a quiet little spot just north of Forvik. By design this spot was a breakfast distance away from Forvik.

The next morning we took the brave step of travelling the 5 miles south to Forvik, before coffee.

We discovered they are now open for dinner too as the season is in full swing. A slightly overcast day with the slight chance of thunderstorms was enough to justify staying in port and sampling the dinner menu.

15 miles south, Brønnøysund was to be Away’s home for the next 10 days. After a short trip we found, with some relief, there were plenty of vacant spots in the harbour. Reversing into a berth in a solid crosswind was worthy of some adventure scars on the hull, but nobody died.

Next time its Fi’s racy adventures and too much sniffing around Brønnøysund.

After a month of atmospheric grey days, Norway delivered colour. It was as if a light switch had been flicked on.

We decided to leave Tromsø and motor south. With 24 hour daylight and not much hope of wind we decided not to stop for the night and kept travelling preferring to have longer to relax at our destination.

The next morning we arrived at a small harbour which promised rock paintings and walking. The docks in the harbour were too small for Away, so our second option was a fjord another hour further on.

We had enjoyed a month of grey freezing conditions and now it looked like there were going to be several days of sunny (even double digit max temperatures!) windless weather so we decided it was worth risking an anchorage surrounded by mountains that can deliver sudden katabatic winds.

When we motored into the bay it looked fantastic and it kept getting better, and better:

Our experience of this anchorage ticked many boxes: quiet, scenic, good walking, dog friendly, swimming, wildlife, fishing and foraging. It would have been easy to spend a month here, but we knew the experience would be quite different as the winds returned. It was noted in the guide book that when the clouds came down over the grey granite walls some cruisers had described the experience as being in a grey tupperware container with the lid on.

Travel experiences are based on such a small sliver of time. Other people in this same anchorage could well experience the katabatic winds we were warned of, or perhaps, it is indeed like a tupperware container. But for us, we can imagine no more a perfect moment in time than this place when we were here. Its always like this on this adventure, people warn us about places, and we go and have a great time, or we have a terrible time at place that others have really enjoyed. Travel is all about context and we were lucky enough to have this absolutely perfect couple of days.

We arrived in Tromsø on the Sunday after our pretty exciting trip in (see the last blog for whirlpool fun), and parked up next to the sauna. We had burgers at the local burger joint which is done up (to my delight) in a Nintendo 64 Mario Bros theme.

The next day was Monday, so the shops were open and we explored town a little bit. We also packed our bags! We’re going on a little holiday! We are hoping for sunshine!

Sometimes its nice to have a little break from sailboat life, and so we had booked the Hurtigruten from Tromsø to Honningsvåg, which is a little further north on the island of Magerøya. Magerøya is connected to the mainland, and to the north of the island is Nordkapp, or North Cape, the northernmost point of Europe accessible by car.

Boarding time came (17:30), and we hopped on the boat with Bernie, and settled into our cabin. The trip was overnight, and the boat was excellent. Breakfast and lunch buffet, and dinner at your leisure at one of their establishments on board. They also have hot tubs, and a sauna so we enjoyed the hot tub on the back of the boat after dinner and watched as the snow capped mountains went past, and enjoyed not being responsible for the trip.

The next morning we arrive in Honningsvåg at about 11am, drop our bags at the hotel and explore town. Honningsvåg is a nice town, fishing as usual is one of the main industries and has been for a long time. The North Cape is about a 35 minute drive, so we source a car for the following day.

After a bit of a chill out in our hotel once we got the room keys, we ventured to the restaurant downstairs and enjoyed one of the best meals we’ve had in Norway. I had the cod, and Adrian had reindeer cutlets.

The following day we had a couple of hours before we were picking up our car for our road adventure, so we took the opportunity for a hike up into the hills behind the town. There is a large lake and this is where the drinking water is sourced.

Around lunchtime we pick up our car, throw Bernie in the back and we were off to North Cape, arriving in time for lunch and to take Bernie up to the North Cape monument – the most northerly part of mainland Europe that you can reach by car. We can’t believe we’ve managed to take him from Sydney, to Paris, through the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, the Aland Islands, around to Norway and then all the way to North Cape. And backwards and forwards to the UK in between.

We also take the opportunity to quickly visit a couple of the other towns on the island, before dropping the car back, and heading out for another meal.

This far north, the Sami people herd reindeer (amongst other things). They live across northern Europe including Sweden, Finland, Russia as well as Norway. They are different to the Scandinavian’s who primarily inhabited the southern parts of this area until they realised the north was rich in fishing (and now oil and gas resources). They speak a different dialect and rely on the land, fishing and animal herding to live.

The next morning, at some horrible time of the morning, we were back on the Hurtigruten, and back in our same cabin heading south towards Tromsø. We arrive in Tromsø at midnight, pack up our gear and the dog and we are back on Away. We don’t necessarily feel rested after our little trip, but we had a great time and we enjoyed the break from being the skippers.

Don’t worry. In our next blog we do actually see the sun and top up the vitamin D levels.

After Ro left, water fell from the sky, in all its different forms… A lot. We stayed in Henningsvær for a while, emerging from the boat to get groceries.

One day, it was going to be sunny in the afternoon with no wind, and the next was rainy with good sailing wind. We chose sun, and motored east to Svolvær, the main town in Lofoten, planning to wait out the weather and see the town. It is an old fishing town, and the fish are definitely still playing a part in the economy.

Turns out this was an excellent decision, as the orcas came out to play just as we were turning into the harbour.

The next few days were going to be very gusty and unpredictable, so we planned to stay in port. Good plan, as we got snowed on a lot. We did brave the weather and decide to go out for a walk around town to explore, and smell the money (read “drying in the rain” cod – and cod heads). It was really quite an unbelievable aroma.

We went to see the Lofoten War Memorial Museum which is purported to have the most extensive collection of uniforms and small artefacts from World War 2. It did not disappoint and you would need hours to read about every artefact they had. We also see the old town on the island opposite the main part of town, and walk out to the Fisherman’s Wife statue, through the fish – whilst holding our breath.

Eventually, we were tired of big city life, and the endless commercial tours going to Trollfjord had inspired us to do our own Trollfjord and bird watching safari. So off we popped on Away, motoring again because the wind was either forecast to blow a gale or be dead calm. We motored again to the beautiful Trollfjord, then up to a nice little anchorage for the evening.

We explore the anchorage by dinghy, and Bernie relishes his land time by eating poo and anything else he can find on this beautiful white beach. You’d honestly think we were in the Bahamas or somewhere else I haven’t been yet with the colour of the sand and the water, even in the grey. One look at our outfits though and you’d remember it was less than 5 degrees and yes that is a sleet shower coming, or rain, or snow. Something cold.

We did see a moose footprint. Bernie enjoyed a swim, of course… Really it was because he got lost and found himself on the other side of a stream to us, and decided that was the best way to get across, rather than take the longer route around via land. He was soaked, and the weather was coming, so back to the boat for a warm shower, for all of us.

Another anchorage was calling. We needed some anchorages after all the big city life and this one did not disappoint. We anchored, and the wind blowing off the small hill on the windward side of the anchorage decided that it would turn the wind around to the opposite direction to what we were expecting when we anchored so we spent a relaxed evening about 20m away from the shoreline. Fortunately it wasn’t forecast to be more than about 6 knots all night so we didn’t worry. Too much.

And wouldn’t you know it! We’re in the arctic! So naturally another gale is forecast and being in our little anchorage tucked up against some rocks, where the wind does the opposite to the forecast didn’t seem like a very safe plan, so we decided to find a nice harbour in a fjord on the island of Senja which promised excellent hiking and views. Unfortunately, we never found the harbour, instead we had one great moment of sailing, and then the wind died and we wobbled around in the washing machine swell before deciding another, closer harbour might be okay for the gale that was coming. It cut about 2 hours off the washing machine cycle so we were happy with our decision.

We get blown onto the dock in Gryllefjorden, put out all the fenders, because it wasn’t the most gentle docking we’d ever done and 5 minutes after docking we were seeing 25 knots directly on the starboard side pinning us against the dock. Hmmm, the forecast was supposed to be 15 knots from the south, outside the fjord we had no knots from no where, and inside the fjord we had 25 knots from the east. Arctic Norway keeps us guessing. The wind was supposed to turn around to gale force from the west, and after a few hours, yes the forecasted winds filled right in, and we enjoyed being rocked to sleep with 30 knots from the port side, gusting to 40. At least we were being blown off the dock.

After a good night of not sleeping, we decided to stay here in this old fishing village for a couple of days and have a look around, waiting for another weather window to head north towards Tromsø. One was coming, but not before Gryllefjorden, that we are now dubbing “the Katabatic Town” gave us one last gift of unscheduled gale force winds from the east again (it was coming from the south, but the mountains mean it shoots down the fjord from the east). We both stay up until 4AM feeling the boat crash into the dock. Literally crash because by this time our fenders had basically given up. Running on no sleep, not helped by the midnight sun through grey clouds, we leave nice and early, hoping for fairer pastures further north.

Our next stop is full of white beaches, and apparently no wind. So we motor and sailed a little to Sommarøy. Sommarøy is gorgeous old fishing village, even when the weather only has peeks of sunshine.

Bernie had a great run on the beach, but another gale is coming, and we want to get to Tromsø, because we have booked ourselves a little holiday.

Onwards to Tromsø and we have a shredding upwind sail, manually helming because it was super fun until our hands went numb. We get stalked by the coastguard for a while who sneakily turned off their AIS for some reason. They were parked in port, with AIS on, and as we passed they turned it off, and headed out towards us. I assume they eventually rang their friends who told them we were not illegal, and to please leave us alone, because it wasn’t long before they changed course away from us to go and stalk other unwary sailors.

Soon, as it is inevitably true, the wind started being weird, so we packed up the sails for the day to motor the last couple of hours to Tromsø. As we were about an hour out of Tromsø, we we navigating through a tight section of water, and observing the sea state. It was weird. Adrian suddenly realised – thats a whirlpool, and we were heading straight for it. It should be mentioned we had been patting ourselves on the back about 5 minutes earlier for getting the time right for the current as it was pushing us along nicely, but as soon as we saw the state of this straight, we realised the current had other ideas. We went from 8 knots, to 2, in the space of about 5 minutes. The current was absolutely gushing through the straight. Power up on the engine, we fought the 6 knot current for about 30 minutes until finally getting back out into more open water. The tanker behind us called us on the radio wondering what we were doing, telling us they were going to pass us on port, but by the time we had finished our little radio conversation with them, we were suddenly doing 7 knots again, and they had gone from 12 to 6, so we won the race. Eventually they did pass us, but not until we were turning into Tromsø. I guess they didn’t read about the currents there either.

Once through that, we dock in our first Y berth dock of the year, kind of successfully (nothing broke and no one was hurt), and we were in Tromsø. This is as far north as we have ever been, and as far north as Away will go (for the foreseeable future).

Next time we have plans for a little break away from Away and getting someone else to drive for a few days.

We blogged about our trip from Bodø out the Lofoton Islands but we neglected so say that we are now the most famous Australian cruisers in Norway!

We picked up Ro in Bodø and sailed off the coast to a tiny island that was home to a few summer houses. When we arrived Ro and Adrian braved the inclement conditions and headed ashore for an explore. We headed over boggy ground along a sort of path that led uncomfortably through the ‘garden’ of the first house we came to. Its not really summer enough for summer houses in this part of the world, so we were surprised when a jovial woman in a Norwegian jumper appeared from the house and started speaking Norwegian to us.

We exchanged the usual ‘we don’t speak Norwegian’ and ‘I only speak English a little’. We explained we were Australians from the boat anchored in the bay and not too sure if we were on the correct track. She said she knew we had come from Australia and picked the boat up in France and sailed to Norway as she had read about us in the paper (note she still assumed we spoke Norwegian). She had been expecting a beautiful woman and neurotic spaniel, so we explained that Ro was visiting from Australia and Fi and Bernie had stayed on the boat. It seems that the news article written about us in Risør has been published more widely than we thought. We are now recognised in even in the remotest corners of Norway.

In Norway, every town has a claim to fame: ‘the gateway to the arctic’, ‘the western most full time inhabited town’, ‘the southern most partially inhabited town in the north of the southern most district in arctic Norway’. To fit in we have, with some justification, decided that we are ‘The most famous Australians cruising Norway’.