Bodo to Narvik

Reflections in Bodo

 Having reached Bodo as planned by the beginning of June (in fact we were early) we seem to be in a bit of a limbo as to how to proceed next.  All the way up here James had his routes planned and it was just a case of stopping at a suitable place for a night unless there was some particular sightseeing which we wanted to do.  Now we are here there does not seem to be a plan, as I keep saying it is all new to me and I am happy to see anywhere.  James has at least spent one week in 1998 sailing a Chay Blyth round the world yacht to and from Bodo to the Lofotens.

Wednesday 1^st June 2011

The decision as to where to go next is being made more difficult by the forecast bad weather for the next week.  Having already had 3 nights in Bodo which has little to enchant one (other than being a good place to change crews with an airport on its doorstep, which is of no interest to us) except the fact that there is free Internet and our 2 Kilowatts of electricity seem to be going on for ever, we are frankly bored of the place.  The Tourist Office is particularly uninspiring and it seems most things do not open until the school holidays around 24^th June, so trying to find places to go is proving difficult.  One place that sounded good was Kjerringoy, but at this time of year you cannot travel the 40km each way by bus in a day!  So the only answer was to sail there ourselves – it is in fact on our route north to Narvik which we have noticed seems to be missing the worse of the winds being up the end of a fjord and would then give us a definite plan to travel back south through the Lofotens for June. 

At last a plan was hatching so after much deliberation we left Bodo at noon for the 18 nautical miles trip round to Kjerringoy.  We started off sailing in the fresh south westerly breeze, only to have it slowly die and our speed getting slower and slower so as we wanted to visit the ‘Old Trading Post’ museum which closed at 5pm it was on with the engine.

Kjerringoy was a delight, a small marina in a delightful setting – mountains to be seen all around, many snow clad.  Good facilities including washing machine & drier (cheaper than Bodo) and a nice yachtsman’s living room with kitchenette and free weak internet access. 

Reflections in Kjerringoy

 



On arrival we rushed off to the ‘old merchant’s centre’ which was established in the late 1700s. 

I quote ‘The business remained quite modest until a round 1820 when a boom began, led by good prices for fish.  The Kjerringoy merchants bought fish in Lofoten and elsewhere in Nordland, dried or salted it and  sold it in Bergen and other places.  Their boats returned with foodstuffs, fishing gear and other equipment, which they sold in their local store or in Lofoten.  The herring fishery experienced a peak from about 1860.  The merchant’s business was at the height of its prosperity around 1875, after which it slowly declined.’

We had about an hour and a half to look round before the centre closed, so we were sent straight to see the warehouse on the quay and the general store – now their sales shop selling appropriate gifts and souvenirs as it closed at 4pm.  At 4pm there was the last tour of the day around the merchant’s house overlooking the bay, although it was in Norwegian we got the gist of things either from the guide or the 4 others in the group. 

After the tour we returned to the new barn which houses the reception, café and lecture rooms where we were shown a film in English about ‘Anna Elisabeth of Kjerringoy’ who was the daughter of the first merchant, she inherited the business with her first husband and when he died she carried on running the business and eventually married her young clerk, 25 years her junior, which coincided with Kjerringoy’s heyday.  Anna Elisabeth died in 1879 after falling down her stairs having had a little too much to drink.  The film made details of life at the merchant’s house clearer and the furnishings and fittings remain largely unchanged from Anna Elisabeth day, mostly dating from around 1850 – 1900.  This finished in perfect time for the museum’s closing.  We then had a look at the churchyard where the merchant’s family graves are contained in their own plot.

We walked back to the boat past the ICA supermarket but we did not go in, having only just stocked up in Bodo.  On the hill between the marina and museum were some interesting seats including a turquoise rocking seat of a man and a woman entwined.

The sun came out for the evening, giving some superb reflections and it was still shining at midnight – we are really beginning to get the midnight sun, a mountain in my way stopped me from seeing if it actually disappeared – going down in the north, which confused me but of course James was right about that!  It is certainly light enough to read all night long without lamps!

Thursday 2^nd June 2011 – Ascension Day and holiday in Norway

We were up early as planned to leave around 6.30 to take the tide northwards.  However, a gale warning was out for the area and although the local forecasts for our planned route showed no more than Beaufort 4 – 5 from the south west, which would be behind us, we delay our start by 50 minutes deliberating on whether to return to bed or not.  In the end we decided to have a look but collected from a German, in the motorboat in front of us who was up and has been cruising this area for 20 years, a list of suitable places to dive into if the wind became too strong.  The route today included some of the most challenging navigation so far through narrow twisting leads and it rained for much of the time so the vista of tall snow clad mountains often all around us was virtually blotted out and we did for a short time see gusts of gale force winds but from behind so that it was never uncomfortable and although we could have sailed, the strong winds, winding route through the rocks, poor visibility and rain kept us with the motor running and no sails – what’s new I hear you say!

Scultures by Tranoy Harbour

Tranoy Harbour, old whaling ship on the quay is now a restaurant.

In the end we decided not to do the 100 miles to Narvik but to stop about halfway at Tranoy which had been recommended to us by the German.  55 miles later at 3pm we moored in a small fairly empty marina in the rain.  Tranoy had sounded interesting with sculptures and paintings dotted around the village and a couple of art galleries and a lighthouse 3 kms away with a café.  An hour’s walk in the late afternoon showed that even on an early June bank holiday, albeit in the rain, nothing was open.  There were a few sculptures to be seen but the paintings had obviously been removed for the winter and were not back up.  However, a circular route around a rocky area was well marked with paint blobs and with nice sandy beaches this place is probably lovely in the summer.  In the early evening a couple of small boats went out fishing and they returned with a good catch of cod and one halibut which they said was quite a rare catch, the last one they had caught was 15 months ago, so they were particularly delighted with this fish. 

I had thought we might have spent a day here but the chances of finding the café at the lighthouse open tomorrow are remote, also the old whaling ship restaurant / bar on the quay near us looked very closed up so I think we saw everything that was on offer in early June.

Friday 3^rd June 2011 - Narvik

Having seen all the Tranoy has on offer this early in the season, we continued on the 45 miles to Narvik, once again the morning forecast was for strong winds but we only had Beaufort 3 – 4 from the south west, so we were able to motor sail, but the winds were not strong enough to keep us moving at 7 knots and in fact decreased as the morning wore on.  We left in the rain and arrived in the rain and for much of the morning we could hardly make out the mountains that we knew were all around us because of the low mist.

We arrived at Narvik at 3pm and fuelled up, credit cards are not taken and neither would our bank debit card work, luckily we just had enough cash to settle the nearly NOK 2000 bill.  James has since been sent to the ‘hole in the wall’ for more dosh!  We then rushed off to find the Tourist Office, which had not answered an email from this morning or their phones.  It is not now in the blue building in the main street but next to the Railway Station, even though it is sign posted in both directions!  We managed to get to the office just before it closed for the weekend at 4pm.  The girl actually was very helpful, she got us the train times for Sweden as we think we will do this trip on Sunday for something to do whilst we hide from the gales.  However, she confirmed that the cable cars were not open until later in the month.

Although we are very sheltered in our berth here from the strong south westerly wind the tide is rushing in with the wind behind it and we are now beginning to rock!  However, we know Narvik is one of the most sheltered spots in Northern Norway to be at whilst the gales rage.  Our berth in Bodo would have been awful!

I am also pleased to report that my back is much better now.