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.