Tue
30 Apr
2024

The wind had picked up quite a bit, but we could expo­re Tranøy art park in spen­did suns­hi­ne. Over a long peri­od they have added a pie­ce of art every year in dif­fe­rent places, so it takes you ever­y­whe­re across the who­le place, inclu­ding some hid­den gems.

Later wind and sails took us to ano­ther hid­den gem, name­ly the bay of Bøvi­ka on the island of Engeløy with a beau­tiful wide sand beach and a stun­ning sun­set.

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

Mon
29 Apr
2024

Hen­nings­vær is one of the most beau­tiful and well-known places in Lofo­ten, an old fishing vil­la­ge situa­ted on seve­ral small sker­ries. That’s whe­re we spent the mor­ning, tur­ning our atten­ti­on to the geo­lo­gy (2.85 bil­li­on years old rocks), dried cod and rela­ted histo­ry and the many love­ly gene­ral impres­si­ons that that place has. And, of cour­se, don’t for­get about the culina­ry high­lights!

Later we set cour­se for Skro­va, having skip­ped the idea of visi­ting the islands fur­ther south in Lofo­ten becau­se of the wea­ther fore­cast. This tur­ned out to be a lucky move, as we found a lar­ge pod of orcas near Skro­va. Ama­zing – who would have expec­ted orcas in this area in late April? A beau­tiful encoun­ter.

Then we still had Skro­va wai­ting for us, with the love­ly litt­le vil­la­ge, the moun­tain and some beau­tiful white bea­ches.

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

Sun
28 Apr
2024

Days on end with sun, hard­ly any clouds! Incre­di­ble. The won­derful sce­n­ery of Raft­sund and Troll­fjord in bril­li­ant suns­hi­ne. Of cour­se we made good use of it and spend some time play­ing in Troll­fjord.

Suns­hi­ne also in the after­noon. We made a stop at Diger­mu­len and made a gre­at hike up to Kei­ser­var­den. Wal­king in the deep, hea­vy snow was a bit tough, but the reward came in shape of an ama­zing pan­o­r­amic view.

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

Sat
27 Apr
2024

Yes, sperm wha­les! Con­side­ring the wea­ther, this was the day. Litt­le wind and calm seas at open sea off Ande­nes. So we had been steam­ing that way during the night to be in posi­ti­on in the mor­ning, with depth of 1000 met­res under the ship.

It took a litt­le while, but then … yes, then we saw sperm wha­les. Seve­ral ones. Stun­ning!

Later, we used the oppor­tu­ni­ty to stretch legs a litt­le bit in Ande­nes. Polar muse­um, light­house, sand beach, sun …

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

Sat
27 Apr
2024

Trom­sø! What shall I say, this beau­tiful city is well known. We had deci­ded to spend a who­le day here, some­thing that would also fit well with our plans for the days to come. And the­re is so much to do and to see in Trom­sø.

Start­ing with the stun­ning evening light on our arri­val the night befo­re. Ama­zing, Trom­sø just loo­ked as if it was on fire!

To start with, I went to Trom­sø Muse­um (“Nor­ges ark­tis­ke Uni­ver­si­tets­mu­se­um”) near the south end of the island. For years, I wan­ted to see the “ter­rel­la”, Chris­ti­an Birkeland’s expe­ri­ment whe­re he famously crea­ted the first arti­fi­ci­al nor­t­hern light in his labo­ra­to­ry. The ter­rel­la (“litt­le earth” had been in the museum’s archi­ves for ages and now it is on dis­play again. Some­what hid­den and wit­hout any expl­ana­ti­on men­tio­ning the name of Chris­ti­an Bir­keland or the term “ter­rel­la”. But anway … I’ve seen it … I’ve seen the light 🤩 and that’s some­thing I’ve real­ly been wan­ting to do for some time, being the nor­t­hern light fan I am.

But that was just one thing. As said, the­re is so much to see and to do in Trom­sø.

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

Thu
25 Apr
2024

The love­ly litt­le island of Skjer­vøy in Kvæn­an­gen is home to the town of the same name, the lar­gest one in the regi­on with near 2400 inha­bi­tants. Skjervøy’s moment of fame was on 20 August 1896 when Fram show­ed up, Fri­dt­jof Nansen’s ship of the famous 3 year ice drift across the Arc­tic Oce­an. Nan­sen hims­elf was not on board, howe­ver. He and his com­pa­n­ion Johan­sen had left Fram the year befo­re, try­ing to ski to the north pole – which they didn’t reach – and after a win­ter on Franz Josef Land they had retur­ned to Var­dø fur­ther east in north Nor­way a week befo­re Fram‘s arri­val in Skjer­vøy.

Old sto­ries. What most of us got more exci­ted about was a hike up the moun­tain Lai­laf­jel­let. Beau­tiful! Not the hig­hest moun­tain in the area with a mere 205 met­res, but that’s enough to give you a stun­ning pan­o­r­amic view.

The pas­sa­ge towards Trom­sø later the same day came with some gre­at scenic impres­si­ons.

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

Wed
24 Apr
2024

It’s been ano­ther long day and I am not into spen­ding a lot of time with the com­pu­ter now, so some pho­tos and a very few words will do … from the beau­tiful mor­ning in Øks­fjord to the arri­val in Skjer­vøy in the evening in snow­fall.

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

Tue
23 Apr
2024

We star­ted this year’s sea­son “Arc­tic under sails” with SV Mean­der in Alta in north Nor­way! And we took “under sails” lite­ral­ly. The wea­ther was gre­at, with a fresh, cold bree­ze and the sun shi­ning from a blue sky.

Of cour­se it didn’t take long until the sails went up. What a start, under sail in Alta­fjord and Stjern­sund!

We finis­hed the day along­side in Øks­fjord with a litt­le walk around the bay or to the fro­zen lake.

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

Sat
20 Apr
2024

Some fresh impres­si­ons from Tem­pel­fjord, show­ing a bit of the beau­ty of this arc­tic win­ter­won­der­world. It had been pret­ty cold in recent weeks and more of the fjords are fro­zen than other­wi­se in recent years, in times of cli­ma­te chan­ge. That is both good and beau­tiful and it is also very con­ve­ni­ent for tra­vel­ling at this time of year, you can walk and dri­ve (as far as still allo­wed) on the fjord ice. Safe­ty is an issue of cour­se, fjord ice can be very dan­ge­rous. But when strong enough, it is gre­at. We could ski across the ice to the gla­ciers in inner Tem­pel­fjord, Tunab­reen and Von Post­breen. What a beau­tiful icy world.

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