July 2014 - Norway
Norway | Moyhamna | Artemis and Ymer at the new pontoon at Moyhamna
July 20, 2014
Dear Family and friends, We continue to enjoy cruising Norway now heading south back toward Kiel Germany where we'll fly home for threeweeks August 19. We've stayed in some beautiful little harbors and anchorages, Husoy on Traena, Sannessjoen on Alten Island, where we bought great halibut and cod! Igeroy on Vega Island, Moyhamna where we walked Torghatten cave again this time with Swedish friends Lars and Carin, Solsemvag on Leka, another visit to Rorvig. This time the museum was open. It was new and beautiful but expensive. Then we discovered our ticket also gave us a guided tour of 5 historic buildings belonging to Berg estate (rich man who farmed and financed the area employing many)
Norway | Stokksund Island | Kuringvagen
Kuringvagen in Stokksund was beautiful harbor and nice walks, Kongsvoll in Imsterfjord was another nice spot.,
Norway | Ytrefjord | Halholmn | restored by Ragnar Thorseth "Saga Siglar" viking ship
Our best find in a while was Halholmn in Ytrefjord at North end of the Atlantic Road. This former fishing settlement was restored by well known Norwegian sailor Ragnar Thorseth as a conference center. He's known for his expedition following Viking paths in a Viking Merchantman built from 1000 year old Viking ship design. Ragnar and his wife and two sons with various other crew went around the world on Saga Siglar 1983-1986. Halholmn is a beautiful facility, excellent finger pontoons for 100NOK a night including wifi, showers and electricity. (very inexpensive) The museum was built around the remains of one of the replica Viking ships "Oseberg" that sunk in a freak storm off Spain in the Mediterranean. Ragnar now 70 years old is planning to row his dingy for the second time across the North Sea from Norway to the Shetlands.
Norway | Molde
Yesterday we arrived in Molde as we had hoped to enjoy the last day of their annual 6 day Jazz Festival. Unfortunately by 1900 Saturday night the booths were being dismantled to reopen the streets and the only music we heard was Rock n'Roll at an outdoor bar with 150 NOK cover charge per person:-( We did enjoy our walk to town and had a refreshing beer with Lars and Carin. It's hard to believe this is Norway when the temps are in the 80's!! Our days slowly sailing or motoring among the mountainous islands and skerries are absolutely beautiful. We still are enjoying sunlight for 24 hours but not the very bright sun we had a few weeks ago at midnight!
Norway | Molde | Swedish friends Lars and Carin on s\y Ymer leaving Molde
Sadly we will leave our Swedish friends Lars and Carin tomorrow. They will go to meet their daughter and husband and we will continue cruising south toward Kiel. We hope to be situated at BKYC with Artemis sometime the weekend of Aug. 16 as we fly out of Hamburg Aug. 19th for Chicago. We're only home for 3 weeks. So plan a short visit in Chicago then to MN by Aug. 15 until after Labor Day. Then we'll return to Chicago for a week before we fly back to Germany. We still don't know our final UK destination for this cruising season and haven't given up on St. Katharine Docks London. Hope all is well and you're enjoying some lovely summer weather. The Norwegians keep saying they can not remember a summer of such continuous nice weather. (waiting for the other shoe to fall) Love and God Bless Sally and Al
Norway | Lofoten Islands | Skrova Island | Carin and Sally ready for Swed Mid-Night Sun celebration
July 6, 2014
Dear family and friends,
I've been putting some pictures up on facebook and writing short notes each day so I nearly forgot about writing a log. So if you've seen facebook much of what is written here will be a repeat. We enjoyed our twelve days in the Lofoten Islands despite the colder rainer weather than our previous weeks. We met up with our 5 Swedish boats for Mid-Night sun celebration Swedish style on the island of Skrova. One boat grilled whale which tasted/texture very much like beef. I made a fish chowder for Al and I but most had types of herring, schnapps and strawberries. Carin and Lars on Ymer are friends we met back in Kemer Turkey and on the EMYR to Egypt back in 2008. Carin, Marie and I made wild flower crowns to wear:-)
Norway | Lofoten Islands | Skova | cold windy hike above docks in Skova
We stayed on Skrova a couple of days and had some nice hiking. One trail visits some sandy beaches around the island and another took us to the top of the island with great views.
Norway | Lofoten Islands | Austvagoy Island |Trollfjord | view of Trollfjord on hike to lake
Next we visited Trollfjord on Austvagoy, the largest of the Lofoten islands. Very pretty with cascading falls, steep walls only 100m wide at one point. We walked the trail to Trollfjordsvannet (lake) claiming only 2.5km over 400m uphill. Ha...we climbed for hours through beautiful valleys, crossing lovely streams, climbing steep rocky passages, and crossing 3 snowing passages before Al and I said enough! Lars and Carin continued on as Divina another Swedish boat had hiked ahead earlier to stoke up the sauna at the lake. It turns out we only had the one more snow passage to cross and we would have been there. Oh well it took two hours to hike back down and we had a great day.
The next day we sailed up narrow Raftsund passage (swift currents Artemis was going 8.7kts.) very dramatic scenery to the island of Hadseloy, town of Melbu. Great sail down west side of Austvagoy to cute village of Henningsvaer.
Norway | Nusfjord | Artemis at fishing harbor with Swedish friends
Nice sail the next day to Nusfjord. Picturesque natural fishing harbor and museum. We took a bus to Leknes from here. The ride traveled the coast inland to the north of Flakstadoy Island before turning back to Leknes. We missed the last bus to Borg where we had intended to visit the Viking museum. So we had lunch and shopped instead.
Norway | Lofoten Islands | Moskenesoy Island | Sorvagen | Swedish friend Carin filleting Cod
The next morning we left Nusfjord early so we could fish for a couple of hours. Carin caught a 3.5kg cod and Al caught a smaller cod 2kg, a mackerel, a catfish, and four little coalfish. Our last two nights in the Lofoten Islands were in Sorvagen on Moskenesoy Island. Snug quaint fishing village. We had a nice hike to the lighthouse and then over to the a smaller harbor with a museum called "A". The A has a little circle over it so pronounced more like /aw/
We left early last Sunday in company with Ymer returning to the island of Stott about 60nm from Lofotens which is where we stayed before Bodo and the Lofoten. Lars saw two whales but they dove before we could see them:-(
Norway |Hollandsfjord | Engen | Al near Svartisen glacier with lake and Hollandsfjord behind
Monday we stayed on a new guest pontoon in Vallvagen then moving on to meet Alchemy in Svartisen glacier in Engen, Hollandsfjord. Every passage we make is glorious with the mountains, islands and skerries all around us. What an awesome experience. Svartisen glacier (covers 370 square km) is the second largest glacier in mainland Europe. We hiked up to the glacier enjoying the many waterfalls and beautiful wild flowers. From a distance the glacier looks like a flat ski slope but when standing next to it... spectacular! The ice stands over 30m where we were. The huge crevices and caves are a bright blue!
Norway | Hollandsfjord | Engen | Picnic Artemis with Swedish cruisers and Alchemy
On Wednesday we said good-bye to Alchemy as they headed for the Lofotens and we went on another fun walk. This time we hiked around the lake that is at the bottom of the glacier. We crossed one stream on a wooden suspension bridge but the other two streams we had to ford. Brrr... Within seconds of entering that icy glacial water our feet were numb. The last crossing we left our shoes on!! We are now traveling in company with 3 Swedish boats, Ymer, Divina, and Villou.
Norway | Selsoyvika Harbor | boats dressed in flags for July 4th
Thursday we stopped for lunch at Klokkergarden Rodoy but decided to move on to Selsoyvik for the night. Great choice. Very nice pontoons and shop. Lovely owners who shared their history of this old trading station. They now run a fish farm out of there and process salmon. We dressed our boats in all their courtesy flags for the Fourth of July. Beautiful weather summer is here this week. We hung laundry and went for a hike. Then Fri. night we were invited to Quiz night at the cafe. Our team came in second by 2pts. Good fun and the owners served coffee and cakes.
Norway | Luvund Island | climbed up to see puffin colony
Yesterday we had a nice sail to Lovund Island known for it's large puffin colony. We hiked up to the puffins and then this morning had a nice hike around the island to a lookout point.
Norway | Traena Islands
After lunch we sailed back 10nm to Traena Islands and skerries to Husoy. We decided not to leave the area without visiting. We have another Arctic Circle monument to photograph here. We hope everyone had a beautiful safe Fourth of July holiday. Love and God Bless Sally and Al
