Sat
3 Nov
2018

It was an ear­ly start again in Skro­va as we had seve­ral hours of sai­ling time ahead of us to Nusfjord, our next and last desti­na­ti­on in Lofo­ten. It tur­ned out to be a love­ly pas­sa­ge with a beau­tiful sun­set and stun­ning views of “Lofot­veg­gen”, as the wall-like impres­si­on is known that the very moun­tai­neous Lofo­ten islands make on any visi­tor approa­ching from Ves­t­fjord. A sea eagle was hove­ring abo­ve the ship, and the sea was much more mode­ra­te than we had expec­ted … a gre­at way to start a day!

Sun­ri­se over Ves­t­fjord.

Lofot­veg­gen: the view of the Lofo­ten islands from Ves­t­fjord.

Then we went along­side in the tiny port of Nusfjord. This is one of the­se love­ly litt­le, old fishing vil­la­ges in Lofo­ten. The Ror­buer, small woo­den hou­ses on the shore­li­ne, used to pro­vi­de simp­le accom­mo­da­ti­on for visi­ting fisher­men, now they are upmar­ket and not exact­ly cheap holi­day homes for tou­rists. The times, they are a’changing.

Nusfjord.

It is a won­derful place on a won­derful day, the sun is cas­ting warm light on the colourful hou­ses, mixed with the occa­sio­nal rain­show­er for some varia­ti­on and refresh­ment. The­re is a litt­le fee­ling of melan­cho­ly about this visit, at least for me; it is the last stop of this jour­ney in Lofo­ten and the last place we visit with Anti­gua this sea­son. So, let’s enjoy the beau­tiful views tho­rough­ly …

SV Anti­gua in Nusfjord.

Then it is time to set cour­se across Ves­t­fjord. The ear­lier we arri­ve in Bodø, the bet­ter. It will be stor­my tonight. But as it is, we have a pret­ty smooth crossing of Ves­t­fjord, which is a stretch of open sea rather than a fjord.

Sat
3 Nov
2018

We arri­ve in Troll­fjor­den thanks to an ear­ly start in Svol­vær. Troll­fjor­den is one of the most scenic places in Lofo­ten. Mother natu­re must have had a gre­at time when she made this part of the pla­net during the ice age.

Ente­ring Troll­fjord.

Having a gre­at time – that’s also what we did the­re and then. It could not have been bet­ter, com­ple­te­ly calm, dry, clear visi­bi­li­ty up to the hig­hest peaks. We did not hesi­ta­te to put the Zodiacs on the water and crui­se Troll­fjor­den, enjoy­ing the land­scape while being in the midd­le of it.

SV Anti­gua in Troll­fjord.

It got even bet­ter when the sails went up on Anti­gua and the crew went all up on the job beam for a crew pho­to. Pri­ce­l­ess!

The crew of SV Anti­gua in Troll­fjord. Thank you all for a gre­at sea­son up north!

Cap­tain Mario used the good con­di­ti­ons to ful­fill a dream and go wake­boar­ding in the­se nor­t­hern waters, to the gre­at plea­su­re of ever­y­bo­dy around 🙂

Cap­tain Mario wake­boar­ding in Raft­sund.

Later, we even made it to Skro­va in good day­light and did not was­te any time. The moun­ta­ins, hills and bea­ches were cal­ling, and we made good use of the remai­ning day­light time befo­re the sun went down and the rain came. That did not bother us any­mo­re, we had had a gre­at day out the­re and con­tin­ued and good spi­rits insi­de.

Ascen­ding Skro­vaf­jel­let.

View over Skro­va and sur­roun­ding islands.