We made it! In one tack from Bear Island we made landfall at Arviksand having briefly considered both Soroya further north and Torsvag further south. Inspirational choice by Peter but it was Hobson’s choice. He won the sweepstake on time of arrival, we had decided that Russia wouldn’t count. This was a perfect picture postcard village with a backdrop of big mountains and we were excited to see green grass and trees and sunshine finally as we arrived. It was an easy mole harbour and Peter reversed us nicely onto the small pontoon where we disturbed the arctic terns.

The journey of 294 miles took us 44 hours and we were lucky with the winds as we didn’t do any extra mileage, just sailed a big curve as the wind changed from south to south west. The weather was grey but for me the sail was much more enjoyable and the tweaks we had made to the systems meant I did more than enough sailing. On arriving on the pontoon Kirsty kissed the quay and us girls were a little teary and emotional. There was a palpable sense of relief and the tension was gone in a moment. Soon we had a deck covered in kit and cushions and sleeping bags, a large bowl of lentil soup (what else to do with left over dal) and appetites fully restored. Off for girly explorations whilst the boys investigated leaks, returning with ice creams all round which went down well. It was warm. Shorts and t shirts warm. We didn’t know what had happened, suddenly we were on holiday. On the beach most of us fell asleep, Mary, Kirsty and Lorna went for a swim and insisted it wasn’t cold, and then we had a picnic which included a little alcohol. At one point both skippers were sound asleep on the sand....whilst we were all tired they were exhausted. We explored the fish drying racks, the fish head processing plant, the mole wall which was engineered unsuccessfully and only worked with alternations made by the fishermen, and the war memorial. Lorna rescued a bird that had got itself caught in the netting at the top of the drying fish heads rack, showing speed and mobility in finding a ladder and practicing her first aid skills. Back on board we feasted on food I had prepared earlier and enjoyed some wine too. We were sorry to leave at 11 pm but Kirsty promised us sunshine in Tromso. I made a two man rolling watch system for the night and was rather surprised to get up at 4 am and find a party atmosphere as everyone else was awake, the sun was brilliant, Patrick was drinking some wine dregs on deck and everyone was having fun! I retired back to my sleeping bag where Lorna bought me some tea. A couple of hours later (and already late for my watch) she awoke me again but I turned over....eventually I got up at 6:20, almost an hour late....by now everyone else was in bed so I had a pleasant hours catch up with photos and writing ready to read the story over breakfast. Hot bread out of the oven (good galley assistants are now seamlessly moving into play anticipating my departure on Friday) as we approached Tromso bridge and our berth in Skattora. Hopefully I’ll get Mary trained up to blog too, so the adventures of Sea Fever sailing the Norwegian coast will continue.