From one spectacular fjord to another

 July 5th    Husøy - Senjahopen

Yttersia (= The Outside but often implying "of Senja") famous for its wild and exposed landscape. Narrow  mountainous (thus steep) peninsulas alternates with fjords that are open to the Arctic Ocean. Today there are tunnels through the peninsulas connecting the fishing villages in the fjords, but for a boateoce the route from one village to the next must go out on fjord (on normal days against wind and waves) round the point of the peninsula out in the open ocean and in the next fjord. Today however both wind and waves was unnoticeable - hardly any swell even. 

The second peak from right is Segla on of the Norwegian peaks of Instagram fame. The normal ascend is from Øyfjorden opposite Hamn, this is the perspective from the mouth of Mefjorden.

The destination today was Senjahopen located in (what to me looks like) a cirque (or corrie) carved out by an glacier  in the side of the main fjord at an attitude making it an ideal harbour (at least with the terminal moraine dredged a little. 

Husøya and Øyfjorden - where the women left but where women still are in charge

July 4th    Husøy

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The settlement on Husøy is only around 100 years old which in a Norwegian context is really young. As with most local migration on the Norwegian coast the establishment of Husøy is also sort of a result of motorization of the fishing fleet. With heavy engines in the boats it wasn't longer feasible to haul the boats up onto beaches to protect them from storms. In Øyfjordvær and on the other settlements around the fjord the National Harbour Authorities tried to build protected landings for the boats, but time after time these was broken down by storms. The locals in Øyfjordvær demanded a mole, but didn't get one. With a 100 years of hindsight that seems like a wise decision. Looking on all moles in more protected places in Northern Norway it is highly unlikely that they a hundred years ago would have been able to build a mole that would have withstand the storms.

(In this image the rear of the boat, and the opening of Øyfjorden is fully open to the conditions of the Arctic Sea, Husøya can be glimpsed behind the port outer shrouds) 

However between the Senja mainland and the small island ,that is now, Husøy conditions for a mole was much better. Since it wasn't possible to beach boats on Husøy and there where no farmable land there it was uninhabited before the 300 m mole was finished in 1926. 

Husøy harbour from the main mole on a extremely unusual calm day

A relocation support program was established by the authorities in the late 1940:ies and during 1952/53 most of the villagers in the other villages around the outer parts of the fjord relocated with the retainers moving the following few years. Today almost all buildable land on Husøya is settled, there are a couple of prepared but not yet (due to Covid) built upon lots left - but that's it. Any new settlers after that will have to build on mainland Senja across the mole. (And yes population on Husøy is on the up, not much but..)

The school was built in 1949. On a so heavily populated island the schoolyard is somewhat cramped (for a rural school) but I can't imagine any schoolyard elsewhere in the world with more spectacular views.

Until 1975 the only way to get to Husøy (or the other villages in the fjord) was by boat and out in the open Arctic Sea. From 1975 when a tunnel to the bottom of the fjord was finished and a ferry out to Husøy (or actually on the other side of the mole) could be established. And in 1982 the road over (and through the mountains from Stønnesbotn (a new route, not in continuation of the road to the opposite ferry dock)

 Husøy became the scene of a reality tv show in 2008 that focused on how the men coped with all women on the island leaving (going on a holiday in Spain).

Even if there where other fish processing industries on Husøy early in its excisions Brødrene Karlsen (=The Karlsen brothers) has always been the cornerstone in the economy in the village. The company is still owned by the same family but management today is the Karlsen sisters (or maybe cousins, I'm not sure). 

In many ways Brødrene Karlsen is a traditional fishing village company running not only a fish plant with a wide variety of products but also the village shop. Even selling their own smoked salmon in the shop.

The Northern limit (of 2021)

July 4th Kvaløyvågen - Husøya

As I rounded Gåsvær on the northwestern tip of Kvaløya I reached the northernmost point of this years trip at 69º54´04´´N.

Gåsvær has been uninhabited since the 1960:ies, but a chapel and a couple of other houses is still left. The chapel stands as a reminder of a time when boats tied a community of small farms and fishing villages together. The society that got the chapel built in 1941 is still active and do much of the maintenance and financing of the chapel. 

After turning south I got the small glacier Grøtbreen to steer towards. Here there are island and skerries on the outside of the shipping lane and thus there are little swell and with no wind I got the landscape doubled sort of with the reflections.  So I really got to enjoy the impressive row of 1000 m plus mountains on the peninsula between Ersfjorden and Kaldfjorden.

On the southwestern tip of Kvaløya lies a a small archipelago filled with coves and white sand beaches. Today the area is known through one of the islands, Sommarøya (literary the summer island), somewhat expected as this is a favorite destination in summer for people living in Tromsø. When I passed I saw this group on what seemed like a kayaking course, in other coves people was tenting and doing a lot of other activities close on the beach.

The activity that is normal on this kind of sunny images with white beaches was completely noexcistent. There where no-one bathing. Not that strange with temperatures in the lower teens (Celsiuses) and a chilly breeze here. I think that it was blowing here, and nowhere else on todays sail, has to to with topography the wind blowing through Malangskjeften (the opening between the islands of Kvaløya and Senja.

From the guidebooks (online webside/apps) the guest docks on Sommarøya didn't feel inviting enough for me to stay so I continued across to Senja. Slipping behind the lighthouse Hekkingen (that I have heard mentioned in every other weather report on the VHF).

From here and along the western coast of Senja there are no protecting islets and all passages between marinas led out the fjord into the arctic sea and another fjord to a protected marina there.

Today and in the coming days according to the weather forecast the weather is benign for such an endeavour. 

Fridgid beaches and overpriced properties.

July 3rd    Tromsø - Kvaløyvågen

The long forecast showed good stable conditions for the next days so I had the chance  to sail the wild outside of Senja. But first outside of the larger island west of Tromsø.

Before  could leave I first had to sail under the iconic Tromsø bridge, and go to the former seaplane port of Skattøra on the northern tip to fill diesel. Afterwards I could unfurl the sails and start tacking against the wind, but as soon as I left Grøtsundet that has I northeasterly direcion and went into Kvaløysundet (northwesterly) the wind disappeared and my Volvo had to take responsibility for propulsion again.

I sailed to the small fishing village of Kvaløyvågen, where there was a major convention for the seagulls with the president taking there high seat on top of the crane.

Flowers, beaches and sun - and no bathing - maybe the remaining snow on the mountain in the background explains why.

As pretty as this is, it is still seems a little overpriced when this property is sold for 4 million NOK. But I guess that a fairly large piece of waterfront land near Tromsø has potential.

Tromsø - The arctic sea city, Paris of the Nordics, capital of the Arctic ................................

 June 26th - July 2nd.    Finnsnes - Tromsø

In the around 36 nm between Finnsnes and Tromsø there are no marinas deep enough for even my quite little sailboat. In addition the pilot book described quite strong currents through the short stretch Ryastraumen. Thus I felt it difficult work a full day sail tor Tromsø and be capable to work a full day the next day. And if I wanted to get following currents with I was further limited. Thus I waited until Saturday with leaving Finnsnes. In the last minute I discovered that I had to make another supply run before the weekend som my departure became a little delayed. 

As I left Gisundet between Senja and the mainland I saw buildings that looked military and fairly new. I couldn't recollect any such establishment from my own military service which partly was served around 50 km inland from there around the time the buildings seemed to date from. After some googling I found that this was Rødbergodden fort. I was in the army and we had little to do with the coastal artillery so it was not strange that I hadn't heard about it back then. Reading further about the fort I discovered that it was built in the 1950:ies and modernized several times the last that included the above ground buildings I first noticed just a couple of years before it was shut down in 1997. At the same time as Rødbergodden fort was built another fort on the Senja sound was also built - this was closed earlier. The forts protected the southern entrance to Tromsø and more importantly the, then secret, submarine base Olavsvern. The Americans and the British concluded already after WWII that it is virtually impossible to build forts that isn't fairly easy for an enemy to defeat and closed down all their forts. It might be excusable that Norway continued building new forts into the 50-ies. The modernization in the 1990-ies is more difficult to understand. The real scandal is the third fort in the area Malangen fort. It opened in 2001 at a cost of several 100 milion NOK and is said to be open for 105 minutes. They didn't even clean the dishes from the opening ceremony before closing it down and sealing it off.

Due to the delayed departure I missed the tide for the last part of the narrows and my speed dropped around 3 knots suddenly, but I was almost through and it didn't matter much for the total sail time and soon I had the landmarks Tromsdalen church (better known as the Arctic Cathedral) and Tromsø Bridge in my sights. 

Tromsdalen Church is, despite its popular name, not a cathedral, i.e. main church of a diocese or prelature etc. However there are two cathedrals in Tromsø. Tromsø Cathedral for the lutheran diocese and the catholic Cathedral of our Lady both from 1861 (and somewhat strangely painted in the same colour scheme). The catholic cathedral is the northernmost christian cathedral in the world (by a couple of hundred meters)

Cathedral of our Lady, behind the residence of the catholic bishop - the ochre building furthest to the left is the old city hall.

At some time during my stay there was some kind of major meet up of lifeboats in Tromsø. Normally only one lifeboat manned by volunteers is stationed in Tromsø in addition they seem to have several smaller boats of which at least one is for the youth arm of the Norwegian Society for Sea Rescue. But this day the professionally manned lifeboats from Skjervøy further north and Husøy further west was also there. (In the image above the Skjervøy lifeboat is not visible but rather the old lifeboat from Husøy)

No sun but artsy light anyway

June 23rd - 25th Engenes - Finnsnes

The weather forecast lead to me searching for a harbour suited for sothwesterlies preferably at a place where I wanted to stay for a couple of days. The next place over seemed a little seemed  lacking a little in the latter departement so I chose to start early to get further north to a larger place.

I motored through a this landscape with high mountains still with some snow left in often mirror flat seas. 

Sometimes there were openings in the clouds that let more of the sun through creating moods that I'm only partly able to convert to zeros and ones through my camera.

This is fairly protected area so where ever it is flat enough, i.e. most of this stretch, people have settled. Some of the houses are still lived in and the farmland used, some is converted into holiday homes and a fes is abandoned. 

The marina I ended up in lies more or less under the Gisund bride to Senja. A majestic building, but quite a noisy neighbour. 

Even if the weather wasn't the best I got different quite amazing light conditions sometimes.

The highest island

To be able to work from the boat I need excellent mobile phone coverage from the provider that my employer has chosen for us. So when deciding destination for the day I study maps showing coverage and trying to assess whether I will have problems staying connected during the day. In Harstad I lost the connection frequently despite the map showing excellent coverage and the phone showing the maximum number of bars for signal strength. 

So it was with some trepidation I chose to sail to Engenes on the island Andørja since the coverage seemed to be good but not excellent. However the day I worked from the boat there I had no problems od good speed on the connection. 

But fist I had to sail there. At first after I left the very protected waters of Harstadbotn I had good wind for sailing. From the direction I wanted to go but good wind anyhow and since I had been at the dock for almost av fortnight I grabbed the chance even if that ment tacking back and forth. The tacking let men get fairly close to the medieval church at Trondenes. In practice this is where my career as a musician ended in 1988. To be honest I was far from good enough to even imagine music as a carer for me but for fun I played baritone in a couple of marching bands during my youth. The last one was the year I lived on Måsøy in Finnmark Måsøy with at that time 60 inhabitants was too small for a marching band, but I joined the band at the neighboring island and main village of the municipality Havøysund. That year Måsøy municipality was chosen as to highlight its culture at the Festival of North Norway. so even the amateur marching band. So there I was not a very good amateur baritone player playing a radio broadcasted church concert in the highly professional main culture event of Northern Norway. I heard a rerun of the concert a couple of days later and to my recollection it we were quite good. But since I had a microphone directly above the bell of mye horn I could hear all mistakes I made.

Langlitinden hidden behind Skarstinden behind the boathouse is claimed to be the highest mountain on an island in Norway and in Scandinavia.If Norway and Scandinavia is regarded as only parts that is on of adjacent to the Scandinavian peninsula this is correct. But the island of Jan Mayen in the midle of the North Atlantic is a part of Norway and not a dependent territory, and the volcano Beerenberg that onsitxtem ost of that island is 2277 m, And even if Jan Mayen might not be considered a part of Scandinavia (or just forgotten), many regard Iceland as a part of Scandinavia and  its highest mountain Hvannadalshnjúkur is 2110 m. Thus Andørjas the claim to fame as the highest island is mostly dependent on the eyes of the beholder.

But on a wind and cloudless day it is a real gem.

On a 2d map it seems like the fjord Straumsbotn almost cuts the island in two, in reality the isthmus at the end of the fjord is over 500 m at its lowest so there is still a lot of stone to remove to cut the island in two. With more several peaks above 1000 m in a narrow fjord it is a really impressive and beautiful part of the world though.

Tjeldsundet, Harstad and a detour in a aluminium bird

 June 9th - 21st    Lødingen - Harstad (and Sørumsand)

Tjeldsundet separate the Lofoten and Vesterålen Island Chains from the mainland and had to be my route for continuing north. The Lofoten Island Chain makes a barrier for the tidal wave going up along the Norwegian coast.  There are more water "wanting" to go through the 25 nautical mile long narrows, from Ofotfjorden in the south to Vågsfjorden in the north, than actually is able to. Thus the tidal range on the north side of Tjeldsundet  is around 75 % og the range on the south and there are significant speed on the current. Thus I har to find how the current runs compared to the tides and study the tidal charts.

I found that I had to leave Lødingen at noon to get the current with me the entire trip through. Consequently I ended my work day short, I actually had to re schedule a meeting. Since Tjeldsundet makes for more protected waters than much of the rest of costal Northern Norway whilst retaining the mild winters it is rather much for the latitude on land. 

On a smal peninsula out into the narrows lie the old trading post Sandtorgholmen. This is one of the oldest trading posts in Norway with the first written record from 1321 AD. The oldest building on the site is an earth cellar from around 1550. Today the trading post is run as a hotel and from the sea it looks really idyllic. 

As I left Tjeldsundet the wind really picked up and I started to worry about docking. In the end and with som help I managed to docking the downtown guest harbour ok. The lady who helped me informed me that there where visitors mooring in their boat club just south of the city that weren't as rolly as, so I moved there. And in the end the boat was docked there for almost two weeks. Beside waiting out weather I received a text message from the municipality at home about scheduling Corona vaccine. So I jumped on a plane and flew down south (actually I walked, took a bus, a plan, a train and another train and walked some more to get home). I stayed at home for five days before flying back ready to continue my journey.

Harstad has long ship building traditions, the original Rulten was built here in 1907. Now active shipbuilder is left in the city itself. However there are several "monuments" of the shipbuilding past all around the city.  On Rødskjær just north of Sandtorgholmen inside the municipality but quite a bit outside the city Selfa Arctic is building glassfibre fishing boats of the in Norway very common size between 10 and 15 m. Selfa Arctic build the first electric fishing boat in 2015 and today they offer an electric drivetrain in all their models.

Several of the slipways and dry-docks of the former shipbuilders are in use today maintaining ships. An oddball in this context is this former Norwegian Navy frigate Bergen. According to wikipedia she was sunk as an objet for training with submarines in 2007. Clearly she is not sunk, even if she in the dry-dock technically might be on the bottom of the sea.