Fishing Villages of the Southern Lofoten

Friday 24^th June 2011 – The fishing villages of South Lofoten

At last we were able to leave Leknes with light winds on the nose but still very misty conditions.  Our first port of call was the famous fishing village of Nusfjord on Flakstad Island, just 12.5 nm miles from Leknes.  From seaward from the north the entrance to Nusfjord is concealed it looks as though you are sailing towards a rock and it is not until you get close in that you see the route in to a small bay with the village built on 3 sides of the first bay, there is a guest pontoon with room for about 3 yachts and we were pleased to find that there was no charge for a stay of under 4 hours, otherwise it would have NOK 150.  One and a half hours was quite adequate to see the old buildings, a good slide show of fishing past and present around the area and a look in the shop, mainly items for the tourists.  Around the harbour are lots of small red rorbu (fishermen’s cabins) still used today by the cod fishermen in winter and the tourists in summer.

Nusfjord Harbour

A further 11 nm miles found us at Reine on Moskenes Island, where we took the opportunity to fuel up.  A self-service diesel pump on the pontoon and on the quay above the payment machine which took our English credit cards, it allowed you to have just under NOK 1000 before you had to repeat the procedure, but it did mean James got our fuel tank completely full.   

Reine fueling pontoon

Having fuelled up we visited the Norwegian whaler’s museum as Reine is one of the few places still involved in whaling.  There are four whaling boats working out of Reine and they are only allowed to catch minke whales, whose numbers remain strong because the minke is one of the few whales that calf every year.  We saw a film about catching whales, which have to be shot with a harpoon with an explosive tip, so the whales are killed almost instantly and if the skipper is in any doubt he carries a rifle to finish them off.  The whales are then butcher on the boat before the carcasses are returned to the sea.  The meat is left on the deck to cool before being put on ice in the hold.  The museum is small but informative and the girl at the reception also took us round explaining everything.

Reine, surrounded by mountains

The town of Reine is situated on a small flat area which is spectacularly surrounded by mountains.  On leaving Reine we decided to spend the night in the fjord behind, which had been recommended to us.  We held out breath as we motored under the 18 metre bridge and 7 miles to the end of the Kirkefjord which is also dominated by tall mountains on 3 sides, the tops were all disappearing into mist.  We opted to anchor in 8 metres with 60 metres of chain out – James does not believe in keeping chain in the chain locker!  However, when he went to put the snubber on the chain to stop it clanking during the night he found that the anchor windlass up button would not work, down was fine!  James was not happy stay on the anchor knowing that he could not get it up in hurry should he need to, so he had to pull up 60 metres of chain by hand – one way of strengthening the arm muscles! 

The staging on the Kirkefjord we tied up to.

We then motored back to a small hamlet and moored alongside a disused jetty – James had watch out for rotten planks when he went ashore and we had to check during the night that the fenders came up on the rising tide okay and did not get stuck under a beam.  During the night I suddenly became very itchy and found that I had a ‘nettle’ rash on my body, which brought back memories of the anaphylactic reaction I had in 2006, so I hurriedly took some antihistamines and all has since been fine, but I can’t pin point anything new that I had eaten or been near to cause the reaction.

Total distance motored: 32 nm

Saturday 25^th June 2011 – Visit to A – the first village in the atlas index!

We left the Kirkefjord for the short motor around to Sorvagen where there is a guest pontoon and we had been told was a good place to visit A from. 

Sorvagen guest pontoon, mountains in the mist.

On arrival the first job was to try and sort out the anchor windlass.  James had spoken to his boat electrician so he had instructions on where to look for the problem.  Firstly, he double checked that neither of the anchor windlass controls would work and put WD40 down the plug with no success.  Then he had to get under our bed, which is no mean feat, having done that he says he had only really just looked at the wiring to see that it was all in place, when we tried the anchor windlass control again and hey presto it was working.  James says that he dislikes a boat that does not work but one that only half works is even more annoying!

After lunch we cycled over to A and went round the Lofoten Stockfish Museum which is dedicated to the history of the production and sale of Norway’s oldest export commodity, dried fish.  Italy is the biggest importer of Norwegian stockfish – dried cod and the heads are sold to Nigeria for use in soups.  By the time we came out of the fish museum it was raining so we had a quick look around the rest of the village but did not pay to go round the Fishing Village as we could see enough from the outside and then cycled back to the boat.

Trinovante at Sorvagen

Just as I was cooking supper we saw 'Trinovante' the sail training ship from Ipswich, that we first saw rounding the Stat headland, arriving in the harbour.  They invited us to join them after supper for a drink which we did and had a pleasant couple of hours.  

Distance motored: 8 nm

Sunday 26^th June 2011 – Vaeroy

We awoke to a better day and some sunshine, so James had a walk around Sorvagen with his camera and I picked a few more wild flowers to add to my vase during the walk. 

Paddington IV outside the Fish Museum at A

We left Sorvagen in the late morning and motored the 2 miles round to A where I had arranged that we could moor up for a couple of hours on the pontoon outside the fish museum.  James was then able to take photos in the sunshine and I visited old bakery for rolls including the famous cinnamon pastries.

View of A

After leaving A we headed south for the penultimate island in the Lofoten archipelago of Vaeroy, which meant crossing the edge of the Moskenestraumen – the supposedly terrifying maelstrom described by Edgar Allen Poe in his short story “A descent into the Maelstrom”. Poe wrote “Even while I gazed, this current acquired a monstrous velocity.  Each moment added to its speed – to its headlong impetuosity.  In five minutes the whole sea … was lashed into ungovernable fury … Here the vast bed of the waters seamed and scarred into a thousand conflicting channels, burst suddenly into frenzied convulsion – heaving, boiling hissing …”.  Today in a gentle southerly force 2 - 3 wind and James having done his tidal calculations so that we crossed with the outgoing easterly tide stream, there was nothing exciting to be seen and we even turned in towards the centre!

'The Lofoten Wall' as seen from the Moskenestraumen

On arrival in Vaeroy we moored to a pontoon that is a ‘work in progress’, i.e. a new pontoon has been built but is not finished yet, so we are tied to blocks on concrete on the walkway or to chains.   

Vaeroy new pontoon in the process of being built!

 We got the bicycles out and had a ride around Sorland the main town / village on the island with the harbour and shops etc.  We cycled up a hill thinking to cycle round the coast to the north, whilst we had some wonderful views from the top in both directions when we looked along the coast to see a number of other ridges to be crossed we opted just to have the fast ride back the way we had come!  We were back on the pontoon in time to help a French boat moor alongside, who then kindly asked us over for drinks.  It turns out that they have spent the last 3 years in Scotland which they loved and had hoped to over winter in Norway but the regulations have been tighten up so that boats staying for more than 6 months in the country are liable for Norwegian import duty, so they are trying to decide where to leave the boat for the winter.  We swapped suggestions on places to visit as they are heading north and us south.

Distance motored: 22 nm

Views over Sorland, Vaeroy