Saturday 4th June 2011
It has been a very wet day here in Narvik, so there was no hurry to get up. However, at midday we braved the rain to walk up into town to so some shopping and to visit the Secord World War Museum which featured the battle of Narvik in the spring of 1940 and the fighting in the mountains before Norway capitulated.
We returned to the boat about 4pm to see that the fjord outside the marina was looking very rough and our boat was snatching at the mooring ropes so we had just completed putting rubber snubbers on our warps to help with the snatching when we noticed a yacht just outside the marina who looked to be in touble getting their genoa in. We watched through binoculars and then passed the binoculars to a Norwegian on shore who was also watching anxiously. I turned the VHF radio on to channel 16 and soon heard Bodo radio putting out a Pan Pan for a yacht (Barvaria 32 with 2 persons on board) in the Narvik area who had phoned in requesting help, they were asking for anyone in the area who could offer assistance. I called up to James who by this time was on land with some Norwegians and he and one other came straight back to the boat, we left the Norwegian to speak to Bodo radio who asked if we could go out to assist the yacht. So it was a rush around stowing things for the rough sea, getting the electricity cable in and warps; as we left the harbour, Bodo radio told us that someone else was also going to assist but would we go out and stand by should they need further help. They were also speaking to a cargo boat who was at anchor outside Narvik to look for the yacht who had disappeared from our view into wind, obviously still trying to get their genoa in. By the time we got out into the big seas, the wind had dropped a bit to a constant Force 6 and the sea was not looking quite so frightening. Fairly soon we had Bodo radio calling us again to say that a rib had reached the yacht and was escorting it back into the marina, so that we could return and they thanked us for responding to their request.
Our Norwegian called up his 'troops' to be on the pontoon to help us berth, but actually once we were inside the marina we were very sheltered and berthing was easy. It turned out that the boat in trouble was a local boat and I did wonder why when he must have known how sheltered the marina is that he did not just enter the marina with the stuck genoa still up and sort it out in here, even if turning space is a little tight.
However, the skipper of the boat we turned out to help came round very quickly to thank us, I think his wife was quite shook up, and soon after two policemen also came round to thank us.
We quickly had the boat back to rights and were pleased to enjoy our belated tea and cakes! Tomorrow we plan to take the train to Sweden (the border is only 45 minutes away).
It has been a very wet day here in Narvik, so there was no hurry to get up. However, at midday we braved the rain to walk up into town to so some shopping and to visit the Secord World War Museum which featured the battle of Narvik in the spring of 1940 and the fighting in the mountains before Norway capitulated.
We returned to the boat about 4pm to see that the fjord outside the marina was looking very rough and our boat was snatching at the mooring ropes so we had just completed putting rubber snubbers on our warps to help with the snatching when we noticed a yacht just outside the marina who looked to be in touble getting their genoa in. We watched through binoculars and then passed the binoculars to a Norwegian on shore who was also watching anxiously. I turned the VHF radio on to channel 16 and soon heard Bodo radio putting out a Pan Pan for a yacht (Barvaria 32 with 2 persons on board) in the Narvik area who had phoned in requesting help, they were asking for anyone in the area who could offer assistance. I called up to James who by this time was on land with some Norwegians and he and one other came straight back to the boat, we left the Norwegian to speak to Bodo radio who asked if we could go out to assist the yacht. So it was a rush around stowing things for the rough sea, getting the electricity cable in and warps; as we left the harbour, Bodo radio told us that someone else was also going to assist but would we go out and stand by should they need further help. They were also speaking to a cargo boat who was at anchor outside Narvik to look for the yacht who had disappeared from our view into wind, obviously still trying to get their genoa in. By the time we got out into the big seas, the wind had dropped a bit to a constant Force 6 and the sea was not looking quite so frightening. Fairly soon we had Bodo radio calling us again to say that a rib had reached the yacht and was escorting it back into the marina, so that we could return and they thanked us for responding to their request.
Our Norwegian called up his 'troops' to be on the pontoon to help us berth, but actually once we were inside the marina we were very sheltered and berthing was easy. It turned out that the boat in trouble was a local boat and I did wonder why when he must have known how sheltered the marina is that he did not just enter the marina with the stuck genoa still up and sort it out in here, even if turning space is a little tight.
However, the skipper of the boat we turned out to help came round very quickly to thank us, I think his wife was quite shook up, and soon after two policemen also came round to thank us.
We quickly had the boat back to rights and were pleased to enjoy our belated tea and cakes! Tomorrow we plan to take the train to Sweden (the border is only 45 minutes away).
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