Sarah Pedersen 11th June 23
The last 2 days have been amazing. After leaving the anchorage yesterday we were quite excited about the sunny weather and we were able to do the sailing in shorts and t-shirt.
Sarah was getting a little bit tired of the transportation sailing and the constant sound of the motor – we had been taking a big chunk of the Norwegian coast quite quickly.
But again today we were able to enjoy the view as the sun was shining.
We did have a big event in front of us as we were going to cross the arctic circle. Sarah was not prepared for how great this experience would be – as there is no line in the water to cross, she had assumed it would just be an event marked by looking at the plotter. However the Norwegians have been so kind to put a beautiful monument to mark the place (though it moves more North every year). The monument is at a tiny island and in the background you can see the glacier Svartisen. We also marked the moment by wearing blue shorts and bikini and drinking whisky while sacrificing Ilse’s leftover bee poop to the sounds of Arctic Monkeys. Is was a great experience.
We continued North and were a little tired and flat from energy, but that was helped along by spotting a group of whales (very far away though) and a lot of puffins.
We came to Bodø a little after 9pm and we’re ready for a night in harbour as the wind would pick up too much today.
So we planned to have a night out and seeing what Bodø had to offer. That turned out to be a lot. We went for a few bars and had some great ipa’s, but the wildest thing was to see the sunset and sunrise without having any darkness in between. The sun simply doesn’t set anymore. But Bodø also had quite a few bars and a great party atmosphere, which was just what we needed. Until this morning where it was a bit hard to get up.
We did have a lot planned for the day as we had decided to be tourist and see something other than harbours, but we also had to do laundry.
Doing laundry in this marina is quite an experience and not one of the good ones. Somehow the system has been set up, so that it is possible to do half a wash and then the washing stopped in the middle of washing. We really didn’t understand how this could happen as you could only pay for a whole wash, but it made it quite difficult to do laundry.
We didn’t let that stop us from having a great day with coffee at a small coffee shop and cake from a great cake and champagne shop.
But the high point of the day was the Saltstraumen and sea eagle rib safari. We were uncertain if it would be cancelled as the wind was quite strong, but when we got there people were getting into warn suits, so we were happy to learn we could come out. And what a great experience it was. The rib were flying across the big waves and we reached a max speed of 76 km pr hour.
We reached Saltstraumen and it was so fun to sail on the massive whirlpools of water which is the biggest whirlpool in the world. It creates a current up to 23 knots, but today it was only around 10, but still amazing. While sailing at the whirlpool we also saw porpoise and a very unusual thing – a deer swimming across the big lake.
The guide had frozen fish to feed the eagles and he was really excited as he had never seen an eagle come as close the boat as it did today. It was a great day for everybody at the boat, except maybe for the Swiss guy who threw up several times during the trip.
We ended the day at a great pizza restaurant and are now ready and energised to continue the journey.
