Friday 17th June
We arrived at the yard where Larry has been for the last few weeks after a straight forward journey. It was warm and sunny so we sat in the cockpit in our shirtsleeves with a glass of wine and enjoyed the fabulous views of snow capped mountains, rushing waterfalls and freshly green trees. Such a contrast from the temperatures when we were here last year – why bother with the Med?!
The following morning it was a bit colder but still sunny but with quite a breeze. Christopher fitted the new accumulator which operates the electric pumps and they now all work beautifully. We settled with the yard and motored round the corner to Foldvika in Gratangen Fjord. We started on the standard pontoon where we filled up with water and were then told we could not stay because the fisherman were coming back and we should move to a brand new pontoon connected to the local restaurant. The King of Norway was here on June 8th and this pontoon was clearly installed for him including a nice little set of steps with a carpet for leaving your boat but for us it would be a step up! and bunches of fresh greenery tied to the jetty with royal ribbons. We continued the clearing up and sorting out of the boat, fitting new things and stowing others. She looks wonderfully clean and bright in all the lockers after all C’s repainting after the repairs.
Had a good supper in the restaurant although as the owner spoke no English we rather had to take what was offered which was traditional Norwegian cod and boiled potatoes enlivened with bits of crispy bacon in a sauce. The restaurant is on the top of one of the old traditional structures for drying nets, it closed at 7 pm and there was only one other person there so it was quite quiet. However the great thing about this place is it has a shop about 3 minutes walk from the pontoon so we have been able to stock up as well as getting ready for going further north. Christopher has so far failed to connect the GPS to the laptop chart plotter so that we can automatically upload waypoints, which was supposed to be our big leap forward from last year. Hence we are treating ourselves to an expensive mobile broadbank link so that C can talk to the guru in Australia who sold us the software and on the back of that we are posting this blog. If we cannot find cheaper wifi alternatives there may not be many blogs!!
We
plan to leave tomorrow to go to Tromso via the inner route i.e. South and West of the island of Senja probably stopping a couple of times on the way there.
Today is once again very warm and sunny with a light breeze. Where we are the midnight sun is behind mountains but sun can be seen on the mountains as we go to bed and we were woken this morning by bright sunlight at 4.15 a.m. We have seen Arctic Tern diving for fish and several eider ducks with lots of little ducklings. The photo shows Larry on the royal pontoon.
Love to everyone
C/D/Gp/B & S/M/GS
Today is once again very warm and sunny with a light breeze. Where we are the midnight sun is behind mountains but sun can be seen on the mountains as we go to bed and we were woken this morning by bright sunlight at 4.15 a.m. We have seen Arctic Tern diving for fish and several eider ducks with lots of little ducklings. The photo shows Larry on the royal pontoon.
Love to everyone
C/D/Gp/B & S/M/GS
Great to get the update. Weather sounds much better than UK (Tilly just done a rather wet D of E weekend). Love from all in Ealing.
ReplyDeleteps couldn't see the photo you mentioned