Tue
30 Oct
2018

The first thing I see in the mor­ning, some­whe­re sou­the­ast of Sen­ja: oran­ge moun­ta­ins under a blue sky. So beau­tiful! Sun­ri­se is curr­ent­ly near 8 a.m. and sun­set is just befo­re 3 p.m. … the days are get­ting serious­ly shorter now! But the light can be stun­ning … and you don’t have to stay up and awa­ke half the night to see a sun­set. Well, the­re are still the nor­t­hern lights to keep you awa­ke. Hop­eful­ly.

Mor­ning light near Sen­ja.

This is our third day on board – time for a sai­ling intro­duc­tion, and we can even put the­se skills to good use, taking advan­ta­ge of an eas­ter­ly bree­ze on our way to Har­stad.

SV Anti­gua under sail towards Har­stad.

We also made sure ever­y­bo­dy knows how to get some good pho­tos when we hop­eful­ly get some nor­t­hern lights the next days. If you want to read a bit more about the nor­t­hern lights, inclu­ding some pho­to hints, click here.

We arri­ve Har­stad in time around mid-day. Har­stad used to be a cent­re of poli­ti­cal power and cul­tu­re in north Nor­way for many cen­tu­ries, so we take a bus to near­by Tron­de­nes to get some more impres­si­ons and infor­ma­ti­on about all this. On the way the­re, we have the only groun­ding of the trip (so far, at least), but it is with the bus and not the ship, so it does not mat­ter too much … the­re is ple­nty of road buil­ding work going on here curr­ent­ly.

The medieval church of Tron­de­nes at Har­stad.

After the visit to the muse­um and the old church with her 3 met­res thick walls of stones we were rea­dy for a litt­le walk in the city of Har­stad with all its exci­te­ments. Who would have thought that you can even find a wal­rus here? 🙂

Wal­rus-sculp­tu­re in Har­stad.

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.

Sat
27 Oct
2018

We are about to cast lose one last time this year in the Arc­tic. Nor­t­hern lights, beau­tiful sce­n­ery in stun­ning nor­t­hern win­ter light con­di­ti­ons, Orcas – hopes are cer­tain­ly high; we will see what the next week will bring. But the­re is still some time befo­re we will actual­ly set sail.

SV Anti­gua and Rolf in Trom­sø: rea­dy to go!

Trom­sø has been the door to the Arc­tic for a long time and it still is. Many ships have left for high­test lati­tu­des from here and this is whe­re many of them came back to civi­li­sa­ti­on. So does Anti­gua right now, and we are mee­ting old fri­ends such as MS Stock­holm and SV Noor­der­licht.

SV Anti­gua next to MS Stock­holm in the har­bour ofTrom­sø.

Of cour­se the­re is always some­thing to do befo­re a ship can lea­ve port. I take my hat as an arc­tic aut­hor and soon I can smi­le: my gui­de­book Spits­ber­gen-Sval­bard is now available for sale at Pola­ria in Trom­sø, in all three lan­guages!

It is a beau­tiful day with a clear sky and love­ly light. Hop­eful­ly we get more of this next week, that would make some peo­p­le hap­py! We even get a nor­t­hern light abo­ve Trom­sø. Not very strong and fain­ting next to all the arti­fi­ci­al light and the almost full moon. But it is a start, fin­gers crossed for more soon!

Weak nor­t­hern light abo­ve Trom­sø.

The­re is also time to visit a place that may almost be coun­ted as part of Spitsbergen’s cul­tu­ral heri­ta­ge: Mack’s Ølhal­le. This famous beer hall belongs to Mack’s bre­wery, foun­ded in 1877, and it used to be the first place to go for famous win­te­rers such as “Polar Bear king” Hen­ry Rudi and others, who refuel­led here after a long arc­tic win­ter, spen­ding the ear­nings of many hard and cold months in weeks or even just days. Hen­ry Rudi’s place is still mark­ed with a sign that has got his name!

Mack’s Ølhal­le in Trom­sø: Hen­ry Rudi, the famous “polar bear king”, and other arc­tic win­te­rers refuel­led here after a year in the Arc­tic.

I don’t want to lea­ve a las­ting impres­si­on as Hen­ry Rudi, who almost seems to have lived here during his short sum­mer visits to Trom­sø, my visit was a bit shorter.

Macks Ølhal­le in Trom­sø was cal­led Hen­ry Rudi’s office. You could rely to find him here in his days.