Month: June 2014

Trollfjord in the sunshine

trollfjord

Approaching Trollfjord in the sunshine

Our first trip in the Lofoten Islands is an 8 night trip from Saturday to the following Sunday – so you only need 5 days off work to come, this idea always seems popular and once again we were full.  Some of our guests had travelled a long way to get here, Karina from Canada and Austin from Algeria.  Emma joined us from Ireland and John, Kina and Richard from England.

We sailed 248 miles in our 7 days, and as well as visiting many of our favourite anchorages from previous years, and yet again added a new one this time at Gulvika on Store Molle.  The weather was a bit mixed with not much wind at the beginning of the week and then plenty of wind at the end of the week so we managed to mix a bit of motoring with some fantastic sailing.  The sunniest day was right in the middle of the week and fortunately on the day we chose to motor to Trollfjord.  Trollfjord appears in many Norwegian guide books as one of the top 10 things to see in Norway, and is a perfect place for us to anchor for lunch.

Although it will soon be midsummer, sailing in the Lofoten Islands in June is lovely and quiet and peaceful.  We enjoyed secluded anchorages most nights and hardly saw another yacht all week.  Looking forward to next week now and the first of our longer trips.  2 x 10 night holidays followed by 2 x 11 night holidays.  We are nearly sold out but if you happen to be a single gentleman there is still time to book on the one space remaining from 3 – 13th July or the one space from 17th – 28th July.

Across the Arctic Circle – Oban to Bodo – 1236 nautical miles

crossing the circle

‘A complex area of low pressure will dominate the weather over the next few days’, was the synopsis on the shipping forecast the morning of our departure from Oban.  In fact they were the words for the next week!  For us that meant periods of calms, periods of gales from the North East, more periods of calm and pockets of lovely force 4/5 wind.

We motored in the calms, sat out the gales at anchor and enjoyed fabulous sailing when we had wind.  It was warm and sunny and then cold and grey – but no rain!

cold and grey sailing in sunshine glassy motoriing

After a night in Loch Drumbuie and a couple of nights at anchor in Gairloch the long passage began.  We sailed past Cape Wrath, the Orkneys, Fair Isle, the Shetlands and through the oil rig fields before making our landfall on the snow capped mountains of Norway.  Our first stop in Norway was Rorvik – a fuel stop after so much motoring – and then a spectacular passage through the inner route all the way north to Bodo.

We crossed the Arctic circle on the penultimate day of the trip – and it was a little busy.  There is a tiny island with a monument on it to mark the polar circle and it acts as a kind of at sea ‘roundabout’!

ais arctic circe We found a tiny little anchorage for our last night at sea and after a short day sail finally arrived in Bodo late afternoon

Richard and I are currently enjoying Bodo, the sun is shining and we are getting on with all the little jobs before our summer season gets started next week.  There are a limited number of places left – 4  on our midnight sun week in particular and the odd berth on other trips in our schedule

Velvet Lady in Bodo harbour
Velvet Lady in Bodo harbour today 3 June