We woke up on Thursday (2 Aug) to find it blowing very hard from the south east and it took every ounce of Rosinis’ engine power to ease us out of our berth, going astern alongside a long line of other vessels from our snug corner position directly into over 35 knots of wind.  We hoisted sail (not much of it) close to Norge, the Norwegian royal yacht which was at anchor in the fjord, and then sped out into Isfjorden, saying our farewells to Longyearbyen which by now seemed like an old friend.  As we turned south out of Isfjorden a solitary walrus popped up astern to say his farewells (it has to be a bloke with a moustache like that!).  In the first 24 hours of this passage we had some good sailing, all in the right direction with wind on the beam, and making over 7 knots much of the time, although interspersed with some frustrating calms and constant sail changes.  As we passed south along the SW coast of Spitsbergen we also had some final views of the spectacular mountains and glaciers in the distance to our east and were reminded of just how vast this place is: it took 36 hours and 160nm before we finally lost sight of land.  

 

Just over 50 hours after leaving Longyearbyen, we’re now about half way between Sorkapp, the southern tip of the Svalbard archipelago, and the north of mainland Norway.  Bjornoya is about 25nm to our east but out of sight due to some rather murky weather, and we have a couple of fishing boats within 20nm.  We’ve been motoring now for 15 hours without a break, with the wind never more than about 7 knots.  All our forecasts – GRIB files and Navtex – are saying we should have 25 knots of wind from the east, but we’re here and it’s not happening.  As I send this blog post via satellite I’ll download another forecast to see what’s going on.  I’m currently on watch and I’ve just looked outside: it’s now thick fog – no more than a couple of hundred metres visibility in any direction.  Fortunately every vessel we’ve seen up here has had AIS (it’s a mandatory requirement) and we’re now south of any ice threat from growlers, so we’re pretty relaxed and life goes on below decks: mostly sleeping, reading and cooking/eating.  We’ll be back in Norway in good time for Meryon’s flight and are aiming for Skjervoy, the regional capital of that part of NE Troms, bordering on Finnmark.  We’ll need a good sort out there as everything’s damp on board due to the constant cold damp air, and we’re looking forward to some warmth and possibly some sun.  After that we should have time to explore a few anchorages in the area of the Lyngen peninsular during the 60nm approach to Tromso.

 

No photos this time: it’s just grey out there.  Next update from Norway.