Hi folks,
Sorry there was no photo with the previous blog. I am rather slow to master the best technique given it is expensive to be on line so I write the words off line but need to upload the photos from the camera separately and C needed the laptop to communicate with his chart guru so the blog had to be published without the photo. This time I intend to upload the photos first and will try to add captions before this diary bit.
On Saturday morning the sun was still shining from a more-or-less cloudless sky so we left at 7.30 am and breakfasted en route. There was virtually no wind all day just occasional breezes on the nose so we motored along making good speed. We saw very few other boats even when we joined the main route to Tromso. Scenery as ever amazing and the charts were working well. We stopped about teatime at KLAUVA a beautifully sheltered little rocky bay on the south east tip of the island of Senja. The book said it was a popular day anchorage for locals and there were three lots of picnicers. It was very warm and we were sailing in T-shirts which we seldom do and have never done in Norway! Just as well lots of you have left sunburn crème on board for us to use!
We had a cup of tea and did our sums on the next stretch to Tromso. We discovered there is a narrow fjord with a strong current just short of Tromso and you need to get the timing right as the current can run at 6 knots. The sums revealed that it would be helpful to be closer to Tromso in order not to have to start at 5 am. So given the lovely fine weather and the midnight sun we decided not to overnight in Klauva and went on for a further 2 ½ hours to HESTOY (69 22.2N, 18 03.8E) Hestoy is a small island & a nature reserve so landing is forbidden. We anchored between the large island of Senja and Hestoy. Since shops are not open on Sunday we spent Sunday here while we continued doing various bits of maintenance. Christopher did an amazing piece of carpentry to fix the GPS in its new position. Interestingly having put the boat back after the frames work we still have one large nicely painted piece of white wood that looks like a shelf or the bottom of a locker that we can’t find a home for!!
Apart from a large family of eider ducks and the usual gulls there are a pair of herons nesting in a tree close to the waters edge – Christopher saw an adult at the top of a tree disgorging presumably into its young in their nest. We have also seen a pair of red-breasted mergansers – sorry we have no photo so you can’t dispute my bird recognition skills!! I also saw a herring gull who was sitting on the water do a quick vertical takeoff and instant dive – the first time he got nothing but he had another go and came up with a star-fish – he was in quite shallow water but I didn’t know herring gulls could be so acrobatic.
We were about to set forth this morning for Tromso when as we turned the engine on we found the boat was tilting a little forward – we had swung round in the night and as the tide fell the stern had gone gently aground on the sandy bottom which at that point shelves very steeply. We sprung into action but despite trying to pull ourselves forward on the anchor while running the engine we are clearly here until the tide rises again. Luckily we reckon we are only about an hour off low tide.– yesterday there was a slight breeze and we were lying in a different direction and had come in deliberately close knowing it was sandy. Today is overcast but no wind hence the swing round at the critical moment.
love to all from both of us
M/S/Gs
