Thu
31 Oct
2019

We are a good bit fur­ther south and now we are in the Lofo­ten area. Not yet Lofo­ten pro­per, but we could see them from here if it was clear. “Here” is Tysfjord, a lar­ge, beau­tiful fjord that is cut­ting into Nor­way oppo­si­te of the nor­t­hern Lofo­ten islands.

You can make love­ly hikes in this area. We opt for Skar­ber­get. Wea­ther-wise, it took a bit of moti­va­ti­on, but then … it is gre­at as soon as you are out the­re, with snow and fresh wind! The views are not quite as ama­zing as they might be on a clear day, though.

Gal­lery – Skar­ber­get & Tranøy

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

Later we move over to Tranøy. Again some ama­zing maneou­vring by Mario to get along­side in this tiny littl port. The art park of Tranøy is wai­ting for us! Who cares about cold, dark­ness and rain if you can go out and see various pie­ces of art!

Yes, the wea­ther. Could be bet­ter.

Wed
30 Oct
2019

We arri­ve at Skrol­s­vik on the sou­thwes­tern point of Sen­ja at break­fast time. Sun and snow are bathing the land­scape in ever-chan­ging win­ter light.

You can do ever­y­thing from short walks to moun­tain clim­bing here. We are hap­py with a good walk up a moun­tain slo­pe or an easy walk fol­lo­wing a path to the coast. The­re are also some for­ti­fi­ca­ti­ons here which the Ger­mans built during the war.

The owners of the old store („Gam­mel­bu­tik­ken“) are so kind to open espe­ci­al­ly for us. The love­ly woo­den buil­ding was built in 1870 and it ser­ved as the local store for all kinds of dai­ly use stuff from 1925 to 1992. Now it is kept as kind of a muse­um. And you can still buy all sorts of love­ly things here.

Gal­lery – Skrol­s­vik and Har­stad

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

Then we con­ti­nue to Har­stad on the island of Hin­nøya which belongs to Ves­terå­len. The Ger­mans (again …) put up some cra­zy guns and for­ti­fi­ca­ti­ons here during the war. The his­to­ri­cal muse­um and the medieval church are unfort­u­na­te­ly clo­sed today.

Tue
29 Oct
2019

We depar­ted late night from Finn­kro­ken and set cour­se to the nor­the­ast, to Skjer­vøy, with high hopes to find orca that had been seen the­re recent­ly. But the wea­ther had dif­fe­rent ide­as. It did not make much sen­se to try to find wha­les in force 6-7 winds, so we just tur­ned and set sail, which was love­ly in the snow …

Gal­lery – Trom­sø – Finn­kro­ken

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

… and a cou­ple of hour­se later we were in Nord-Len­an­gen, a calm litt­le place in a silent fjord – love­ly win­ter sce­n­ery and atmo­sphe­re!

Later, back on board, we got into the nor­t­hern light mode and made pre­pa­ra­ti­ons for fur­ther sightin­gs by having a look at the pho­to­gra­phy side of it (if you are inte­res­ted, then have a look at Rolf’s nor­t­hern light page for a refres­her). Then we set cour­se to the south, pas­sing Trom­sø, and then hea­ding for Sen­ja.

Tue
29 Oct
2019

A love­ly ear­ly win­ter day in Trom­sø, on 70 degrees north – cold and clear, calm and sun­ny.

Ever­y­bo­dy is coming on board SV Anti­gua in the late after­noon. It feels like late evening, but it is real­ly just the late after­noon – sun­set just after 15.00 hours and it is kind of get­ting dark an hour later.

But the lights up the­re are tur­ned on again. First class nor­t­hern lights! We enjoy the magic in the har­bour, with the lights abo­ve the long bridge and the famous cathe­dral, and during the first miles of our voya­ge.

We go along­side after two hours sai­ling in Finn­kro­ken on the island of Reinøya. A tiny litt­le pier and the chan­ce for an evening walk and to put the tri­pod up on solid ground – the nor­t­hern light show is still going on.

Gal­lery – Trom­sø – Finn­kro­ken

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

We get a very warm wel­co­me. What a plea­sant sur­pri­se! The­re are inde­ed peo­p­le here who do not mind to see tou­rists! Jo Mar­tin is one of a dozen peo­p­le who are living here (is it real­ly that many?). He is the owner of an old tra­ding post next to the pier. It was foun­ded in 1802 and it is real­ly a bit of a time cap­su­le! At the same time, the­re is a path into the wood which is mark­ed by tor­ches, so we can easi­ly find the way to a lav­vo (lar­ge tent) which is hea­ted by a fire insi­de – while the nor­t­hern lights are dancing on the sky! How good is that!? Incre­di­ble! What a gre­at start into the voya­ge!

Mon
28 Oct
2019

The polar night is about to start – the last sun­set and sun­ri­se in Lon­gye­ar­by­en are today. In Trom­sø, we are about to start again, explo­ring the north under sail with SV Anti­gua. The light of the north, nor­t­hern lights, beau­tiful land­scapes and places with a tas­te of win­ter, orcas – that is a sub­stan­ti­al part of our wish­list for the next week.

But now, the­re is still time to get a few things done here in Trom­sø. New Spits­ber­gen drift­wood pic­tu­re frames and kit­chen slats need to get on their way (I thought I may just men­ti­on that 🙂 ), I want to meet some fri­ends and in the evening, the­re are some impres­si­ve fire­works on the night sky!

Gal­lery – Trom­sø – 26th Octo­ber 2019

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