Gooood morning Norway, it’s 6:15 am, the sun is shining, the heat is on, fresh rolls in the oven and “coffee’s ready”. What better time to start the blog early while the crew is still dreaming sweet dreams.

We are in a great location, but the wind is playing games with us. While I type the wind is coming at 4 sm (almost nothing- 88 knots), but by the time I’ve finished this sentence it might be up at 12 sm (a very strong breeze – 24 knots). That’s what’s expected along this coast where the wind comes from the east. The wind channels through fjords, hills, and mountains and fortified by the snow that’s still in the mountains. In other words, it’s not easy to decide on the appropriate sail. Either we lie as flat as a pancake or we don’t move at all. Then it’s about sailing conservatively and reduce sail power

When I woke up I heard someone asking for Ellen and Håkon (ko-ko, ko-ko, ko-ko). For those who aren’t familiar, their beautiful ship, a Najad, is called Ko-Ko. I’m not sure where the name derives, but even for us visually impaired, it wasn’t too hard to guess at least that it comes from the cuckoo. Either way, Ellen and Håkon seem to have left a solid impression when they were up here a few years ago.

Dinner at Klokketårnet was great. A friendly elderly couple in another sailboat seems to have settled down permanently up here. Is there a word that goes beyond talkative? At first I thought someone had put a fiver in to fuel the word stream, but after a while I realised that would have been a lot of fivers. Not to say they didn’t have a lot of nice and helpful things to say, but after a while they just slipped through one ear, through the void, and out the other. The woman noticed that Katarina became somewhat dulled by the torrent of words so she took her to tell her some history of the island. Apparently someone had put in a fiver or two in her as well… Nevertheless they were a very nice couple. But now it’s about time to set the breakfast table and plan out today’s and tomorrow's sailing, so here comes a little intermission.

And we’re well on our way again. Given all the weird throws of wind we decided to just use the foresail and sailed at around 6 knop through islets and sheaves. Once again, I’m amazed by the views nature has to offer. The dinner deliberation was brief and typically norwegian, cod. We found an area that seemed interesting but after pulling out three fish between 1,5 to 2kgs, we thought we should try elsewhere. So we moved further out into the open ocean where the rods didn’t have to stay out long. I heard Petter say “Oi, oi, I think I might need some help when it comes up, Hallstein” and eventually we realised that he wasn’t kidding. 10-12kg cod, made up of three cods of 3-4 kg’s each. Dinner is secured but the freezer isn’t big enough so we are enforcing a fish prohibition again.

It’s great to have women onboard, they are eager for fish and sometimes even fishing, but bumping the  head of the fish to kill it, no thank you… blood and guts, nope absolutely not, take pictures of seagulls battling over fish rests, yay so fun, filleting, no thanks, but eating skin and bone-free fish, nice and clean, yes please. Meanwhile, us boys silently suffer with our rods all alone and then humbly prepare the fillets so they can be fully enjoyed (maybe with a small glass of red wine, not white with cod).

We are now on our way to Støtt, a nice little harbour we’ve heard good rumours about. It will be a short trip today too. 22 nm. We should be there in roughly half an hour so here comes another intermission.

And here we are at Støtt! It was an exciting sail-in, very shallow, but we came in on a high tide and we’re leaving on a half tide tomorrow morning. The jetty facility is so-and-so, the store closed (but opened for us) and a nasty harbour price at 500kr. Been there, done that… The Frenchmen arrived an hour before us. They had been trailing along Svartisen, where we hope to stop by on our way back. The Frenchman snorkeled to see how their boat looked and checked ours while he was at it. Free from whale bites and otherwise everything looked as it should. As a thank you, we offered the frenchmen some cod filets which they happily accepted.

As previously mentioned, we were considering gifting them the infamous Bavaria cheese, but I realise this had the potential to disable the snorkeling frenchman - probably better to behave myself for now, even for the sake of the French. They also play the accordion, which means there will most likely be some entertainment and dancing (if Katarina will?) on the dock tonight, I doubt many others will join. There’s only one other boat on the dock and they’re German, and it’s difficult to imagine an elderly german couple dancing to the French accordion, unless they are carrying an ompa, ompa horn with them as well.

Now we are heading out for a little walk around the island after a beer for Petter, sparkling water for Katarina, and Munkholm for the captain… but this far too healthy lifestyle will be straightened up a little later tonight. And with these wise words I end the post for today.