PROGRESS REPORT NO. 16 Friday Sept 16th.
In Norwegian Fjords-again!
We hadn't planned on taking the inshore route south-but if you look at the weather map for the Norwegian Sea, you'll see why we're here, and not out there.
The highlight of our one day stop in Tromso was,undoubtedly, the Polar Museum. Housed in the old waterfront customs building, we were shown around by Nick Tyler, Chairman of Tromso Arctic Society. We all have our individual highlights but for me they were three:
- The Barent Relics, artefacts brought from the hut in which William Barents had over wintered on northern Novaya Zemlya.
- Amundson's telegram sending word that his group had reached the South Pole (It was in English)
- And a painting of Amundson's ship 'Gjoa' in the North West Passage. (I have the same picture hanging over the fireplace at home-I now know which is the original!)
Everyone had their own favourite from the exhibits of hunters, trappers and sealers-sounds of dogs and bears-smells inside trappers cabins.
Prices in Tromso are something else. We had expected that Irish prices might have caught at up with Norwegian, not so.
We left at one pm, Tuesday, in the rain, it had never stopped. Through channels, until at eight that night we went alongside a pier at Finnsnes, had grub aboard, a pint or two ashore, and our 'dedicated drivers' took us away to sea, about midnight.
Uneventfully, mostly through channels bounded by high mountains, snow above and rain below-on us, we made the fishing /tourist town of Svolvaer, Lofotens next evening. We'd intended to stay the night, but its end- of- season feeling, the rain and a forecast of good wind had us away to sea by midnight, now bound 650 miles south west for the Shetland Islands.
'Twas not to be. The forecast north-westerly went round to the west, and lifted and blew. "To call a spade a spade", 'twas force 9, as Jarlath said afterwards. With small foresail and triple-reefed main we bashed into it, but revised forecasts were showing even further tightening of the isobars. So we turned shoreward, 30 miles, and lay off to the inside channel route south.
That's us now, in wind, but flat seas as we follow the inshore shipping coastal route.
It will be slower as we twist and turn, and occasionally, we hope, stop. The forecast for the next five days is pretty dire, but we'll be grand in these scenic sheltered waters.
We're glad we didn't take down our Norwegian courtesy flag when we left Svolvaer.
Tom on the storm deck
Aurora over Northabout
A Norwegian fjord
Mike at the helm
Kevin & Paddy hauling anchor
Northabout arriving in Tromso
