Mon
29 Oct
2018

Based on some infor­ma­ti­on of recent sightin­gs and a bit of opti­mism, we had set cour­se nor­the­ast towards the waters around Skjerøya, at 70 degrees north. Usual­ly we don’t get far on this trip! But con­side­ring the Orca sightin­gs that had been made by others the­re in recent days, we wan­ted to give it a try.

We were not dis­ap­poin­ted!

Orcas near Skjer­vøy.

Of cour­se we used the oppor­tu­ni­ty to visit Skjer­vøy, an small island with a sett­le­ment and har­bour that all bear the same name. This is whe­re Fri­dt­jof Nansen’s Fram final­ly retur­ned to civi­li­sa­ti­on after her famous 3 year drift across the Arc­tic Oce­an (1893-1896). Nan­sen hims­elf, accom­pa­nied by Hjal­mar Johan­sen, had famously left the ship in 1895 to reach the north pole (which did not work), so they were not on board when the Fram rea­ched Skjer­vøy. A gre­at bit of polar histo­ry, and this place was part of it. This alo­ne was actual­ly a good reason to visit.

Skjer­vøy: island, har­bour, sett­le­ment.

As it tur­ned out, the­re are some good hiking oppor­tu­ni­ties on Skjer­vøya. Curr­ent­ly limi­t­ed as the sun is going down just befo­re 3 p.m., but it was enough for a short walk to get some fine views of the place.

And as if this hadn’t been enough for a good day, we even got some first nor­t­hern lights later the same evening! Not very strong and the pho­to con­di­ti­ons were not ide­al on the moving ship, but still … nor­t­hern light is nor­t­hern light 🙂

Nor­t­hern light near Skjer­vøy.

Mon
29 Oct
2018

The day we had been wai­ting for! Today ever­y­bo­dy is coming on board and we will set sail with Anti­gua, tra­vel­ling from Trom­sø to Bodø. The last sai­ling voya­ge of the arc­tic sea­son 2018. W are hoping for gre­at light, ever­y­thing that the sun may send us, both direct­ly during the day and more indi­rect­ly during the dark hours … may­be Orcas, Sea eagles, cer­tain­ly a lot of gre­at sce­n­ery, love­ly litt­le vil­la­ges and other inte­res­t­ing places, sai­ling …

Roald and Rolf in Trom­sø.

But first, ever­y­bo­dy has time to explo­re Trom­sø; many arri­ved just yes­ter­day and the­re is ple­nty to do here, espe­ci­al­ly as the wea­ther is fine again today.

The ear­ly win­ter often brings a mix­tu­re of snow and rain, free­zing and tha­wing. The result: ice on the streets. A bad luck moment on a street in Trom­sø brings a bro­ken arm and thus a very pre­ma­tu­re end of the voya­ge befo­re it has even real­ly begun for two unlu­cky per­sons (inclu­ding a non-inju­red com­pa­n­ion). We wish you all the best, quick and com­ple­te reco­very!

In late hours, Cap­tain Mario pushes the Anti­gua against a pret­ty strong cur­rent out of the har­bour and through under the bridge. We are start­ing our trip to Bodø … set­ting cour­se nor­thwards!

SV Anti­gua rea­dy to set sail in Trom­sø.