Julie was keeping the journal day-to-day, so it's told from her perspective. Pictures from this part of the trip can be found in the gallery.
Happy Memorial Day! I didn't notice until halfway through the day when I saw the New Yorker page-a-day calendar by the galley sink ...
We got up relatively early and went to Holandsfjord — mostly motor but some sailing. While underway, we had a class on cruising medicine. Key points: don't mess with coral cuts in the tropics, minor infections can be a BIG deal in the tropics, you could chop your hand off trying to open a coconut with a machete, and people die every year from being hit on the head by falling coconuts.
I was tired so I had a nap in the afternoon. When I woke up, I heard conversations about how we were in the wrong place! It turned out that we were in the right fjord but had gone all the way to the end instead of turning off into a side channel. Oops. When we arrived at the fjord, a tall ship training school was there too. They were Danish and had been on the ship 2 months so far.
It was a 3 km walk to the glacier, and then up the rocks. We rented bikes for 65 kroner each to make the walk go faster. Not long after we started, I regretted getting the bikies. The trail kept getting rougher and rougher, and I almost fell a couple times. I was terrified on the uphills and downhills, and basically had a meltdown as we approached the glacier. The city bikes didn't seem to bother Ken at all, except that he would have preferred lower gearing. But, at least I survived it.
We started on the trail towards the glacier. Not long afterwards, there was a red trail up the glacier and a white trail that was more lateral. Like fools, we took the red trail which seemed to go straight up the rocks. It was fairly steep and involved a fair amount of scrambling over rocks. We weren't looking forward to having to go back down it again!
Eventually, we ran into a junction with a blue trail. We continued on the red trail and about 10 minutes later, found a crevice that Ken didn't want to cross, so we turned around. We followed the blue trail across the rocks and eventually got fairly close to the glacier. You could feel the cold breeze coming off the ice, and it felt wonderful because we were hot. We followed the blue trail down the mountain which was a lot easier than the red trail. We later found out that everyone else had taken the white trail instead. We took longer than everyone else, and they were starting to wonder if we'd ever come back. However, we were well prepared with water and snacks.
Fortunately, the bike ride back was a lot easier than the way there, especially because much of it was a false flat. We passed a bunch of the Danish kids walking to the glacier and Julie managed not to hit any of them.
We had another sing-along after dinner with the group. John's songbook has a lot of songs we know, and some we don't. The weather was BEAUTIFUL — we wore short sleeves! After dinner, we got to see Ken's favorite sight of the entire trip — the water was glass-smooth and the mountains and glacier were reflected in it like a mirror.
Got up early again, for a 6am start. We had a pit stop in Bodø to run errands, then finished in Kjerringøy. We motored most of the way. Bodø (population about 40,000) was kind of a tourism dud, as expected. There was one museum, which closed 15 minutes after we walked to it. The highlight was the town cathedral, built in the 1950s. The architecture was very clean but in an appealing way. Julie decided it would be a perfect place for a KSO concert, with plenty of space for orchestra and audience plus a good acoustic. Somehow, I don't think we'll go on tour to Bodø. The other highlight was ice cream from an ice cream store.
Kjerringøy was a different story. It was quite picturesque. It had been a major trading post in the 1800s. We went for a walk after dinner. Rick and Michael were ahead of us and mentioned a concert in the town church, so we decided to stop in. It was about 15 8th or 9th grade girls. After we arrived, they taught the audience a signalong song and had the audience come up onto the stage. We didn't understand the words but hummed along. I tried to transcribe the music in my notebook so I could find the song later. It was a sublime moment — I had tears in my eyes. They sang a bit more and then processed out. (Some Google searching at home lead me to http://www.musipedia.org/ which I used with my transcription to find the song — "Down by the Sally Gardens", a traditional Irish tune. No wonder my searches for "Norwegian folk music" were fruitless!!)
It's June! Julie's watch has a "World Time" feature which automatically changed the time zone city from BCN to PAR. It's bright and sunny today, forecast is for 15-20 knots, good sailing weather for going across to the Lofoten Islands, which are supposed to be beautiful. We sailed, then motorsailed, then finally put up all the sails! We steered with the sails up, and both of us felt like the boat was fighting us. John told me I was oversteering. He was right — I was — but only as the seas got bigger. We did a photo shoot with the Lofotens as the backdrop. Hopefully we'll get in some magazines! Today's destination: Nusfjord. It is an old cod fishing place, with several buildings set up as museums and the rest as vacation houses. John and Amanda met the owner in Oslo. The place is inundated with seagulls. We walked around a bit but didn't spend too much outside because it was windy and cold.
During the passage, especailly when going into the wind, it was REALLY bumpy down below. Enough to put up the lee clothes again. At least Ken didn't get seasick. After dinner, we read for a while. I was distracted by my book club book, America's First Daughter, and went to bed about midnight.
Got another 7am start, with a combination of sailing and motor sailing. We stopped in Leknes and took a taxi to the Viking Museum in Borg. We stopped there so Michael could say hello to his family hometown (Liland) which was next to the museum. The museum was focused around an 83m reconstructed longhouse that a farmer found while plowing his field. About 40-80 people lived there. We learned that they used wool in Viking sails and walrus sinew for rigging. They ate a lot of salted cod which could keep 10 years (and took 1 week of soaking to make it edible). There was a beautiful sword hilt, and part of a 90m bridge (with a stone truss and wooden roadway, with a place to open enough to allow Viking-style boats through). We also saw a lot of dried vegetables (carrot & parsnip) and they could grow barley. In the reconstructed longhouse, they had a big cauldron or a fire which was likely for that night's Viking feast. We thought it must take a lot of energy to heat the place, and that it was probably pretty cold most of the time.
We ate lunch in the museum cafe, then wandered to the back exhibits, where we saw cattle, boar, and the ruins of another settlement. Next door was a church with a Steinway piano that also would have been a great KSO concert location.
We called the taxi back and went back to Leknes. Overall, it was pretty expensive day (about $65 for admission and our share of 1 taxi, plus Michael paid for one taxi) but it was nice to feel like a tourist.
We got back in the boat and went to Henningsvær for the night. It's a small island connected to the mainland by a bridge that the sailboat couldn't fit under. This is a major fishing village — during the winter fishing season, half the harbor is covered by rafted fishing boats. We wandered around town, refused to pay the $10 admission fee for each of the two museums in town, and had ice cream. This is a very pretty town.
We were followed by tours today — first, a cruise ship tour in the Viking Museum (it went from empty to packed in a heartbeat), and a tour bus showed up in Henningsvær, too. So, it was a little crowded but we were able to get away from them.
While Amanda was cooking dinner, one of her old friends, Gry, stopped by. She had met Amanda's parents many years ago while cruising, and she's known Amanda for 20 years. She lives about 20 minutes away and when she heard we were going to be nearby, she stopped over. Gry talked about her 20 years of cruising, which she gave up as her daughter reached school age. We read in the evening, and Julie took an 11pm picture when she went to bed. Still light out!
We had a more relaxed morning — breakfast at 8am, class on customs and immigration and sail repair, then traveled to Kabelvåg where Amanda met Gry for the afternoon. Gry brought freshly baked homemade bread which was delicious. After lunch, we walked to the next town to the Lofoten Museum, which had a combination of fishing equipment, boats, old rorbu fisherman houses, a manor house, and a cool film showing Norway's lighthouses.
We left about 2:30pm for Svolvær, the capital of the Lofoten Islands, which was 30 minutes away by boat. The weather has been pretty miserable today, mostly cold, windy, and rainy. I guess we've been pretty lucky with the weather lately. We had been looking forward to doing laundry, but unfortunately they shut down the service building after it got trashed. Ken was really disappointed because he had been looking forward to clean clothes in Oslo. We tried to find a cafe but it seemed like everything was closed, so we stopped at a convenience store for some really good lemon Greek yogurt ice cream bars. All the museums were closed in the late afternoon/early evening, so we just went back to the boat, read our books, and took a nap.
We had a fish curry for dinner, then did navigation research. I provided info about upcoming tidal currents.
The Hurtigruten ferry came in, and we heard we could visit it in port. However, it started raining again, so I lost enthusiasm.
Weather-wise, it was pretty misreable. It rained and/or sleeted much of the day, so you didn't want to be outside more than you had to. We had a 6am start and went to Trollfjorden which is a famous fjord. The cruise ships go in there and barely have enough room to turn around. It also requires going through a tight and shallow spot that must be accessible only at high tide for the big boats. It was drizzling when we arrived at the fjord, so nobody was enthusiastic about stopping. We would have done a photo shoot there except that the light and weather weren't good for it. We stopped at Stokmarknes to visit the Hurtigruten Museum, where you can tour one of their retired ships (in service 1950s-1980s) plus a museum. The website said it was open at 10am, but it really opened at noon. So, we went next door to the grocery store and bought a large beef stick as a snack because lunch would be after the museum.
The Hurtigruten was largely responsible for improving navigation in northern Norway, so they could travel in the dark and fog. Previously, the boats would have to stop in low visibility, which could turn the 3-day trip into a week. The service started around 1893 and did the one-way Trondheim-Hammerfest run in less than 3 days, so it was a weekly cargo and passenger service. Today, it's focused on tourism and runs a north-bound and south-bound ship every day, so we saw it many times during our trip. The Kirkenes (near Russian border) to Bergen trip takes 5 days, including time for excursions at various ports of call. Rick stopped by the boat yesterday and showed me their current schedule. The service is subsidized by the Norwegian government (not surprising considering that they run year-round service but the tourist season is only in the summer). We went on a quest to find the engine room. After going up and down every staircase we could find, we eventually found a map that showed that the engine room was not open to visitors.
It was cold as we started moving again, so you didn't want to spend too much time outside, and both of us went into our bunks to warm up between watches. We ended up anchoring in Finnbukta, near the next narrows. I had initially provided it as an anchoring option, and Michael later pushed John to go a bit farther today so we would have 95 miles the next two days instead of 105.
Another sailboat is sharing our anchorage — a Danish couple on an Island Packet who wrote about Spitsbergen in Blue Water Sailing. John, Amanda, and Michael have met them, and we were invited for drinks. Ken and I declined, but some of the others went. I get the sense that the cruising culture means that you never decline an invitation.
Lisa, Martin, Ken, and I stayed back and chatted a while, then retired for the night. I worked on the journal, postcards, and did some reading.
We never heard a specific plan for the morning, so we assumed it was breakfast at 8am. Nope. At 7:50, we heard "going aloft in 10 minutes". Good thing we had some bars in our bunk, because I wasn't going to survive this without food! Michael offered to go first, and I wanted to watch someone else do it. You strap on a climbing harness and also a separate chest harness as a backup. One person pulled the safety line while the others heaved the person up the mast. The person going up had to be careful not to bash themselves on anything. We used the main halyard, and the spinnaker halyard as a safety line.
It took some effort to pull up Ken and Martin (the two biggest and strongest people on the boat), but we did it with 4-5 people pulling together. I went up lickety-split, like an express ride, since Michael and I were the smallest people on the boat. Ken wasn't looking forward to going up the mast, but he wanted to do it. He was happpy to come down after reaching the top. I stayed up a moment — I was wedged against the top of the halyard and couldn't really move, and then they let me down. I managed not to run into anything. I also helped Martin back down, hand over hand, and it wasn't too bad. I did get a bit tired when Martin went out to the spreaders to mug for the camera, though.
More motoring today, although we sailed for about 2 hours. It's still cold, and I will be happy when I am legitimately warm again. Ken's hands and toes never seem to warm up. We stayed that night in Finnsnes (Gisund Båthavn marina) which had showers and laundry according to the cruising guide. Yay! We arrived at dinner time, so we started laundry right after dinner. We did the wash, and Lisa, Rick, and Michael also contributed a few clothes. Ken was extremely eager to have clean clothes for Oslo. I had a little bit more and probably could have survived without laundry. Rick came with us to take a shower. They were 20 kroner for 5 minutes, so Ken & I were planning to share a shower. Except ... there was no hot water in the shower! Poor Rick spent about 10 minutes for it to come on, then gave up. Ken took a sponge bath in the bathroom sink, which did have hot water. I declined the shower since I showered on the boat the previous morning. We knew the laundry would take a while. As usual, European laundry machines are impossible to decipher. We decided that the laundry was 3x20 kroner coins for 3 hours of laundry. We put the wash on "synthetic" for 1 hour 20 minutes, then came back to switch it, then again at 10:40pm when we expected the 3 hours to be up. Last laundry time, we we had to add money to Martin's washing machine to get the clothes out! (We later found the handle to open the door). I tried the different drying settings for 5 minutes each, but none seemed to add heat! Eventually, I gave up, picked the middle synthetic setting, and left. We came back at 10:40pm to find the clothes still damp, but at least the power never went off. Ken waited with the laundry until it was dry, and came back just before midnight. Our other laundry option was to skip laundry here and take it to the Clarion in Tromso, because the Danish couple said that they would do it for $10/load. However, since we were in Tromso only 24 hours, we were concerned it wouldn't be done in time.
I finally finished America's First Daughter, our book club book about the daugher of Thomas Jefferson. Decent, but it took a while to get into it. And, with all historical fiction, you have to wonder how much is history vs. fiction. I appreciated the appendix which did a good job of laying out the historical sources behind the book. Since the heroine of the book edited Jefferson's letters after his death, it seems likely that she excised any that would have been negative to the family legacy.
Final day of "sailing" today. We only motored due to the light winds. Our 7am class was about servicing winches, and then we started the 35-40 miles to Tromsø. While underway, we came to a narrow spot where we had 5 knots of tidal current with us, and we were going 10 knots with the engine barely running! Good thing the current was with us. The island causing the narrows was a musk ox reserve, and we searched for them with the binoculars but to no avail.
Upon arriving in Tromsø, we started looking for a place to tie up. We had heard that the old marina in the city center had been demolished, but it was recently rebuilt! Lots of space for us and other yachts. Then, we continued on, looking for the diesel depot. The good news was that we didn't have to pay any tax on the fuel because "we were headed for Svalbard", so it was about $4 / gallon instead of $8. The bad news was that John accidentally spilled fuel on the deck while filling the final jerry can for Svalbard. So, everyone except Rick and I stepped in it, so John had to scrib off their boots and the deck. It was also a mess coming into the fuel dock, because there were 2 sets of truck tires service as fenders, and John didn't want the boat to rub on the tires. Eventually, Lisa jumped onto the tires, then the dock. Most of the time, Martin or Lisa is doing that job, which is OK with me. I'm somewhat scared of missing the dock and either falling into the water or hurting myself. I estimate we bought a total of 250 gallons of disesel sometime on this trip. That's a lot more than I expected! It shows that sailing isn't always "green". To be fair, some of that was as backup for the Svalbard trip.
We went back to the marina and docked. Rick & Michael, then Ken & I went to the Polar Museum which was open for another hour. Unfortunately, right after we arrived, 2 tour busses arrived and overwhelmed the museum. Ken & I survived there by finding places were the tour people weren't, pushing through the crowd when we had to, and at the end, circling back to see what we missed the first time. The museum focused on polar exploration and life. Roald Amundsen was one of the featured people. He explored both the North and South Pole areas, and his ship, the Fram, was specifically designed for polar ice and had been locked in the ice for a few years for a previous voyage under Nansen. Julie read a National Geographic article of a recreation of Nansen's voyage. Nansen went with one companion as far north as possible, then overwintnered in a hut they built until they were eventually discovered the next year. I was impressed by the charting work they did. For example, they had a chart of the coastline, and then it looked like they had taken the dinghy in all directions and taken depth readings. Amundsen eventually died in a plane crash during a failed rescue attempt in the 1920s. They also had displays of seal & bear & other hunting. For seals, they would shoot the mothers then club and impale the babies (considered "humane" but presumably not painless). Some people would do this in Svalbard every winter for decades! Including a few women. They also showed a polar bear trap which was a baited box that when the polar bear nosed into hte trip, it would cause a rifle to trigger and shoot it in the head. I'm pretty sure seal hunting is illegal today, and some whale hunting is permitted.
After the museum, we wandered around, found the tourist info building where we got a map and info about the airport bus. We also found the post office (open until 6pm!) and bought stamps. Then back to the boat.
We went to the Fiskekompaniet Restaurant for our graduation dinner. The food was very good but didn't beat the bacalao in Ålesund. Ken had prawns & fish soup. I had cod cheeks & arctic char, same as Lisa. The arctic char was really buttery and tender. We shared a bottle of Spanish Grenache which was quite good. We had cheesecake, hazelnut truffle, and a cheese plate for dinner, all very good. We had to change tables after dinner, since the next seating was at 8pm. It worked out well because we got a quiet corner in the back and got to mix up seating a bit. We spent a total of 3 hours there!
I had heard in the Lonely Planet tour guide that the Arctic Cathedral had midnight concerts in the summer, which sounded like fun. Ken, Michael, and I went. We napped for about 45 minutes after getting back from dinner, then left again. It was a 20-30 minute walk across the river in a light drizzle. The concert was soprano, cello, and piano/organ. It was short, only 35 minutes, but overall good and the acoustic in the cathedral was fantastic. My favorite piece was a folk tune called "Lora Line" arranged by the pianist. It was for soprano and cello with some acompanient on a big recorder by the pianist. Very simple but powerful. We were done at 12:05am, so we took some outside pictures to show the midnight "sun" (it was drizzling but not much darker than daytime). I will be happy to go to sleep dark after we get home! We walked back in a light drizzle (again).