Goodbye Skrova! It’s been great getting to know you, but now it’s time to move on. The day began as usual, heat on (13 degrees in the boat), rolls in the oven, glass of juice, some coffee, then down to the nitty gritty. The weather forecast. It was reported 8-10 sm (light breeze), so I got to work on converting those numbers to the real world. In other words, which winds should we be expecting. It’s not too difficult, even for an old HR man. You add 2 (which I can do without a calculator, at least on a good day). If you did the math then you’d know that we should be expecting 10-12 sm and up to 14 sm in a stronger breeze. Next matter of hand, what kind of sailing does this motivate? Is it a) a boys trip with experienced sailors or b) shorthanded (read: me sailing and Katarina the moral support). B it is, and since we have plenty of time it will be a very reduced mainsail, just in case, and a small foresail. We got it all ready and set sail.

Huh. It’s 11-13 sm (gale) and we’ve had a nice sail so far (10 - 0 to us vs weather forecast). 1.5-2.5 meter waves. Slightly from behind and a proper surf and roll on the waves. It’s not the ideal sail for the visually impaired and for those who have a tendency to get seasick. Katarina held the boil, but she got a little pale and cold and paused the moral support to lie down downstairs. Meanwhile, Popeye navigated and helped the autopilot a bit through the toughest waves. It is quite some singing in the rig when the wind passes 13 ms. “I am sailing, I am sailing”.. We had many surfs over 10 and 11 knots when the rig were singing at the highest. We tried to get in some videos but the sea always looks flat and dull on camera. See link below.

We’re sailing north which is to be expected when then winds come from the south. Hopefully the wind turns in not too long, otherwise the North Pole might find itself on the agenda, and what would we do then? It’s impossible to sail further north than the North Pole, so we would have wait for the northern winds (but where could it possibly be coming from when we are already completely north?) and we would of course freeze through while we wait, and then it wouldn’t especially help if the wind does decide to turn, because then we are frozen solid till Spring. Also, while we’re waiting we would be easy bait for polar bears and I don’t have the hunting equipment with me (how could I be so shortsighted??). Oh, and it would also be hard to drill a hole in the ice without a drill, and in the news it says we aren’t supposed to hit seals in the head- so we would starve. Based on this logic, we decided to sail southbound again, in spite of the southern winds that may come our way.

After a few hours of sailing we saw a lighthouse and decided to go behind it. We are still at the furthest north that we have been on the trip so far. N 68 degrees and 11 minutes. Tranøy, the home harbour of Hamsund. At Tranøy there is art in all directions, galleries upon galleries and statues and pictures of Queen Sonja and that Aha dude that I don’t remember the name of. Nice? Not really, if you ask me, but who is asking me? So it doesn’t really matter.

It was raining in the West Fjord today. We managed to sail through the shower until we came into port, and since then it has just continued raining.. so the art will have to wait until tomorrow. I guess that means that Katarina will be Popeye and me the moral support, at least for as long as the sea legs can bear and until they bring me back to the boat so I have somewhere to lie down when I faint from exhaustion. In other words, there may be a half or whole day of rest tomorrow. We are at a decent dock but there’s only space at the wrong side of the quay, so it’s not ideal to be the first of the fenders today. The fenders look like a round man who’s sucking in his stomach on the beach. Cool and large upper body and a big stomach that hangs from under the belt (quay). And with that philosophical reflection on this artist’s island, that’s it for the blog today.

P.S! Today it will be meat for dinner. For obvious reasons fish didn’t tempt too much today (send SMS marked “explain” if you don’t get it).

The video will probably need to be posted on facebook. I’m not the best at this stuff and shitty connection doesn’t help !