Dear friends,

I’m seldom at loss for words but right now I admittedly am (a bit unfortunate when one is blogging)... but I’ll tell you why. We left Brønnøysund a little late today at around 10:30 am. The new crew is not exactly a crowd of morning people but it’s justified by yesterday’s marathon of late night laughs. But that’s not why I’m at loss for words. First we sailed slowly with Jonas (our engine) to get a feel for the wind conditions. The mainsail eventually made it up with a reef and we added the jib. Vi sailed smoothly along at 7+ knots through flat water and sunshine. For the first time on the trip I wasn’t wearing thermal underwear. For obvious reasons I didn’t ask Petter if he was wearing them and it would probably be considered inappropriate to ask the ladies what kind of underwear they’re wearing. Either way, nice and warm by Northern-Norwegian standards.

We served fresh shrimp for lunch with various sides we had picked up at the fishingboat by the dock before we left this morning. After 2-3 hours we arrived at what must be the jewel of Helgelandskysten. Absolutely incredible. We took down the mainsail so we could stay there as long as possible. We glided forwards at just 4 knots as we snuck through islets and reefs. We all agreed that we have never seen nature any finer. Stunning views in stunning weather and wind. Absolute perfection.

We decided to stop at a beautiful lagoon (Hjartøya as hinted by the dot) with magnificent views of ‘The Seven Sisters’. We’re floating at 17 meters depth with almost 80 meters of chains out. But right before we got here we realised that we hadn’t considered dinner, so it had to be  fish. We found a fairly decent area and got started. Vi got sceptical and impatient after a little while (5 minutes). We hadn’t caught more than a small redfish and cod which was a little scarce to feed the table. We were hoping for pollock, and patience became the cash. Bam. Two pollock at around 3 kg each took the bait. Popeye (me, I guess) prepared the fish into skin and bone-free fillets and now Katarina is working on the sauce made from shrimp shells and a bunch of other good stuff.

Petter and I couldn’t help ourselves, we took a dip in the incredibly fresh water. So clean, but so cold. Brrr. 12 degrees here in the lagoon. Now we are relaxing in shorts and no t-shirt with dinner on the table in the evening sunlight (with the obligatory glass of champagne). By the way, I forgot to mention that we were invited this morning onboard an earlier mentioned Fleming 75. What a boat! Motorboat with Capraia quality but twice as big.

So that sums up our day so far. And if a day like this doesn’t take the words out of your mouth then I don’t know what does. So there won’t be a post today……..Now Katarina is saying I have to get started on frying the fish, so here ends the post I didn’t write because I couldn’t find the words.