Ves­t­fjord & Bodø – 04th Novem­ber 2017

Sat
4 Nov
2017

The wind had cal­med down a bit, but it was still strong enough, coming from the south, so we deci­ded to set sails and cour­se to the west, rather than motoring against wind and waves sou­thwards. So we waved good­bye to Lofo­ten when we left the pier in Svol­vær after break­fast (bet­ter to be on the safe side!). The islands gave us a love­ly fare­well, with some sun, a rain­bow abo­ve the famous „Lofo­ten wall“ (of moun­ta­ins, rising straight up from the sea) and fair winds.

We spent the next cou­ple of hours sai­ling in good style across Ves­t­fjord, straight towards the main­land, befo­re we rea­ched the sker­ries at the Nor­we­gi­an coast. A stun­ning coast­li­ne inde­ed! It is always gre­at to see new land.

The last after­noon of such a voya­ge goes always quick­ly by. The­re is some­thing to see as long as the­re is light. The sun is curr­ent­ly going down here clo­se to 3 p.m. The final pre­sen­ta­ti­ons, the tri­plogs needs to be finis­hed, some pre­pa­ra­ti­ons for depar­tu­re tomor­row. The usu­al logi­stics. Still, dif­fe­rent this time. It is the last time for this nor­t­hern sea­son.

A big cir­cle clo­sed when we went along­side in Bodø in the evening. We left from here on May 19 to sail via Lofo­ten and Bear Island up to Spits­ber­gen. It was the same place whe­re we left, but it feels like a gala­xy away. Back then, it was 24 hours of day­light. We had a long arc­tic sum­mer ahead of us. Now, the sun is hard­ly making it abo­ve the hori­zon. And we have got a long arc­tic sum­mer behind us. So many adven­tures with all the good crew of the Anti­gua and all the polar tra­vel­lers who joi­n­ed us on the various jour­neys.

Gal­lery – Ves­t­fjord & Bodø – 04th Novem­ber 2017

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

A big „thank you“ to ever­y­bo­dy who was part of it for a gre­at time, full of ama­zing adven­tures, impres­si­ons … you have never seen ever­y­thing in the Arc­tic, you keep lear­ning fore­ver. The way the­re, to have seen and to know ever­y­thing, is infi­ni­te. Yet, we got a good bit fur­ther. It is the pur­po­se never real­ly to get the­re, rather to spend as much time as pos­si­ble on the way. It would be a shame to have seen it all, you have to have some dreams left … the­re will alway be ple­nty of it. The jour­ney will never end.

Tho­se thoughts asi­de – the spi­rits were high on this last evening. The last week had not given us any wha­le sightin­gs or nor­t­hern lights real­ly worth men­tio­ning, but other than that, actual­ly quite a lot. Many impres­si­ons as they are typi­cal for this land­scape of coasts and islands in north Nor­way at this sea­son. Good atmo­sphe­re on board. Good to have been part of it!

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