The arctic plunge
Yes she did!
Travelling south we stayed in some lovely spots, too many to list. The winds were still contrary, so there was a lot of motoring. We stopped in Bødø and stocked up, not least on some aquavit for the liquor locker.
Work boats in Bødø
We were approaching the arctic circle latitude, time was running out for Helen to take the plunge in arctic waters. Finally the day was deemed warm enough, and she jumped in…. and straight back out-elapsed time 12.2 seconds.
On Støtt there were the remains of German WWII fortifications and bunkers which were built by POW labor. We explored the tunnels and cannon mounts overlooking the straits. This area was quite active during the war as the Germans tried to prevent fuel and steel supplies from reaching the Allies, shipped from Russia via Narvik to the north.
We make a detour to an outpost island. Myken has a population of just a few dozen, but it has reinvented itself with the opening of a whisky distillery in the abandoned fishing warehouses. We arrived just as a tour was starting, so tagged along. The tour guide was so kind, he explained everything in Norwegian for the majority of the audience, then did it all again in Engish, just for us.
One of the four whisky stills on Myken
We did not stay for the tasting, a quick check at the price list indicated the product was not in our budget, besides we were heading back to Scotland. We left Myken and sailed south in the search of puffins.
Hetmannen (the horseman from the Norwegian legends)
Lovund, an isolated island far off the coast is the home of one of the worlds largest puffin colonies. We were right in the middle of the season when they were nesting on the island so we had high hopes of seeing some puffin action. The pontoons were snug at the base of the mountain and a brief walk around town indicated it was a thriving community, the main income appeared to be support of the fish farms.
The northern slope of the mountain was a designated protected area, the puffins made their nests in the spaces between the rocks on the steep scree slopes. Unlike the nesting site on Lunga in the Treshnish Islands of Scotland, where you could walk amongst the burrows and nests, here we were not allowed anywhere near the birds. It was frustrating to see the tiny specks flying back and forth, out to sea to fish, and not really see anything.
Lovund.
Time to hurry south. We begin to revisit some of the places we passed on the way north. The Seven Sisters range as an example, this time in much better weather
The Seven Sisters
We pass through Rorvik and discover the Norwegian marina electrical systems, unlike most everything else in Norway, does not appear to be well maintained. Installing and testing our very expensive new isolation transformer, we think it blew up. We have sightings of pilot whales and one day of fantastic wind to push us south toward Trondheim.
