The fishing boat in Nesoy
The entrance to Raftsund
Looking back to the narrows
Swirling water in the narrows
Entrance to Troll fjord
Breakfast was accompanied by the tinkle of sheep’s bells as 2 ewes and their 4 lambs marched by on the nearby foreshore. We had a gentle start this morning as our interpretation of the rather cryptic advice about tides in the pilot book was that entering Raftsund just before high tide would give us the current in our favour – how wrong can you be! When we got to the narrows just past the bridge we had about 4 knots of current against us and briefly our speed dropped to 1.9 knots. The current was swirling considerably but it was only for a relatively short distance. We were once again motorsailing with the staysail up in order that any observers should realise that we do consider ourselves a sailing boat. Wind was mostly from W and very variable in direction and strength and hence unusable.
The sound is very beautiful, relatively narrow with very tall spiky mountains on the west side and high but more rounded mountains on the east. Towards the bottom end we passed Troll fjord which is very narrow and features in many of the publicity photos of the area usually with a large hurtigruten cruise ship turning in the fjord.
The weather was mostly grey and overcast and as usual we needed our full wet weather kit to keep warm enough. Lest any of you planning to join us think the lack of rain compared with last year means you only need shorts and T-shirt I should perhaps warn you that I currently have 4 layers beneath my wet weather kit including 2 fleeces!
Just as we dropped anchor in Lille Molle (68⁰11.6’N, 14⁰44’E) the sun came out. The wind is NE Force 4 so we have anchored at the opposite end of the bay from where we were last year and we are in for a blowy but safe night! The views of the Lafoten Wall on one side and across Vestfjord to the mainland on the other are as ever amazing.
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