4: BODØ TO SVOLVÆR (16 – 25 June)

We are now in Svolvær, capital of the Lofoten Islands, having made our way here through the islands from Bodø (from where we sent Post 3 on 13 June).  Our progress since leaving Ipswich is illustrated below: 

Progress since Ipswich

Having received permission from the Governor to go and taken out the appropriate insurance cover, we have now decided not to continue to Svalbard. We shall, however, spend longer in the Lofoten Islands, which are everything they are cracked up to be.  In brief, having found out more about Svalbard we are not convinced, on reflection, that it is the best use of a month of our time. We would prefer to have longer exploring the beautiful Lofotens, get back to the UK by the beginning of August and have more like our traditional two months at Calshot.

Before leaving Bodø we spent an enjoyable evening sitting in the cockpit of Stig and Ulla Larsen’s yacht, Anorak.  Their 2-year-old 54ft Halberg Rassy was impressive.  It has 3 double cabins, two enormous heads with showers, a spacious galley with a freezer and an engine room to die for – with space big enough to sleep in and a floor clean enough to eat off. It was clearly well engineered and set up for two people to sail. Stig’s experience, which has included sailing in Greenland and Newfoundland, showed. 

Bodø marina – the largest in the north of Norway

The Lofoten Islands are considered to be the best cruising grounds in Norway and have always been one of our major objectives on this trip.  They are concentrated within a 200-mile strip, have magnificent scenery, plenty of anchorages and active fishing villages with tiny harbours.  Our route on this section of our trip is shown below:

Route from Bodø to Svolvær

To date, since leaving Ipswich, we have been “passage making”: progressing as far each day as we reasonably could, subject only to visiting places and doing things on the way that were of particular interest to us, plus, as is par for the course, effecting such repairs and servicing to the boat as became necessary.

Our passage from Bodø to date has been a “cruise”, the difference being that it has been conducted at a more leisurely pace – 15 rather than 70 miles a day. We have been more concerned with lifestyle than distance.  If we looked back on a particular day and had apparently “achieved” nothing, then maybe we will tomorrow – or the day after.  

Mike thinking seriously about passage plan

The history of the Lofoten Islands is essentially that of their fishing industry – cod in the winter, halibut in the summer and herring in the autumn. Lofoten dried fish receives the same geographical protection as Parma Ham and Champagne. There are thirty fishing villages in the area. Not surprisingly therefore the words “fish” and “fishing” appear in almost every paragraph of this Post!

We left Bodø at 4 a.m. to ensure that we caught the slack tide at the Røst archipelago at the southwest extremity of the Lofoten chain. With a northerly wind we sailed comfortably due west on a beam reach all the way.  The approach and entry to the archipelago and harbour is illustrated below.  As usual, the route looked, from the chart, to be insurmountable but in practice, with a chart plotter and magnifying glass, the pilotage was significantly less difficult than it looked at first!

Rocky Røst

  

In transit the four principal islands of the Lofotens – Moskenesøy, Flakstadøy, Vestvågøy and Austvågøy – and the Vestervålen – could be seen clearly some sixty miles off the mainland. Their tall craggy silhouettes against the sky resemble a spiky sea dragon – unlike Røstlandet which, apart from a small pimple, is only 12m above sea level.

Principal Lofoten islands from 60 miles away

 

We eventually pulled into Glea, a snug little fishing harbour between two islands linked by roads on the southwest corner of Røstlandet.  It has a year-round population of 650 and is the most southerly inhabited island in the Lofoten chain.  It is a major exporter of stockfish (air-dried fish) which can be seen everywhere drying on pinewood racks.

Fish drying on racks

We visited a processing and packing plant.  Nothing goes to waste.  The dried fish are exported to Italy, the heads to Nigeria (where they are used to form the basis of a spicy dish with peanuts and chilies), the roes are used for Norwegian caviar, the cheeks and tongues are a local delicacy and the livers are used for – of course – cod liver oil!   Since the dried fish was currently being “harvested” off the racks after three months of drying, the warehouses were full to the rafters with stacks of fish about to be exported.

Warehouse full of dried fish awaiting export

  

Værøy, our next port of call and the second of the “southern isles”, 20 miles northeast of Røst, is 5 miles long with a flat coastal strip to the south beneath bare mountains. It has been inhabited for 3000 years. Cave paintings and buildings dating back to 900BC have been found here.  It has an active fishing fleet based in the colourful narrow harbour of Røstnesvågen.  Two modern “fishing camps” catering for enthusiastic anglers also operate from the main harbour.  A group of anglers was busy filleting their catch. The five of them had caught 300 kilos of cod that day!  They kindly provided us with two enormous fillets, which we enjoyed for supper.  

What, no chips?

Before leaving Sørland, in Værøy, we strolled down to the Co-op to buy some essential supplies (beer and bread, to be precise). By chance, on our way back, we met a young woman walking her dog, which turned out to be the mythical Måstad puffin hound (Lunnhund).  It is one of only two remaining dogs of that breed on the island. (There are nearly a thousand of them in North America where the US Kennel Club formally recognizes them as a breed.)  Until the 1950s the inhabitants of Væroy used to supplement their fishy diet with puffin meat.  The small innocuous Lunnhund was specifically bred to catch puffins in their burrows. To help them do so they have evolved double joints in their neck and legs, plus the capacity to stop dust and water getting into their ears.  This dog was appropriately named Karma – since it was sheer luck that we met her.

Puffin hound’s double-jointed neck being demonstrated

The Moskenstraum race between Væroy and Moskenesøy, our next destination, has a fearsome reputation for its currents, overfalls and whirlpools that occur at the change of tide.  Indeed, it is said to have been the model for Jules Verne’s Mælstrom.  Having been forewarned and after a few basic navigational calculations with reference to the Norwegian Tide Tables, we made sure that we had an uneventful crossing!  We even got the benefit of a 3-knot current behind us through and after the race. 

Moskenesøy’s dramatic mountains rise steeply above a narrow coastal strip only just wide enough to accommodate a few traditional fishing harbours and villages – all on the more protected inner (eastern) side of this 34-mile-long island.   After a 4-hour sail we berthed on the guest pontoon at Sørvågen. There we saw the first British yacht we’ve seen in transit since leaving Ipswich.  The 39-ft Najad Kelpie was being cruised by David and Annette Ridout with their friends Nigel and Angela.  They are based in and had come from Lymington.  David and Annette took 9 years, after retiring, to sail around the world.  Interestingly, he is now Chairman of the Royal Cruising Club Pilotage Foundation, which publishes their pilot books through Imray. We had a very pleasant evening with them in their cockpit. They left the next morning on their way north to Tromsø.

Sørvågen harbour with the 

only other British yacht we’ve seen

We had stopped at Sørvågen in order to visit Å – the last village on the Lofoten Highway called simply by the last letter of the Norwegian alphabet.  The Highway runs from the mainland in the north along the coastal plains of the Lofoten Islands, connected by bridges and tunnels across the numerous sounds. As a consequence we have started to see many campervans from almost every European country, including one from the UK.  Since we are not yet in season (even at the end of June), we hate to think what it must be like in season.

Å – the end of the road (and the Norwegian alphabet)

  

Å is still a working fishing village but unfortunately has limited yacht facilities, which is why we stopped at Sørvågen and walked the two miles there, and back.  Unusually, much of this old nineteenth-century village has survived and today the whole place has been restored and developed as a living museum.  The village is, in season, a popular tourist attraction with excellent rorbuer accommodation, the cabins originally built to house seasonal workers in the fishing industry.  

Å’s rorbuer accommodation - with kittiwakes

  

The village has two museums, one dedicated to stockfisk (dried fish) and klipfisk (salted cod); the other spread around the village in different buildings illustrating life as it was. We purchased delicious cinnamon buns and a loaf from the nineteenth-century bakery, which still uses its original oven, fired by birch wood. It can bake 120 loaves at a time and was built to satisfy the requirements of the seasonal fishing workers.   At the fish museum, a 17-minute French film (with English sub-titles) showing the process from catch to the end product was fascinating, particularly the late 19^th-century black and white clips of fishermen fishing from their traditional rowing boats.  

Å’s fishing museum in the background

After lunch back on Island Drifter we sailed a taxing five miles to Reine, a snug landlocked harbour formed by linking two islands and a peninsula. By any standards it is located in a spectacular mountain setting.

Reine harbour’s spectacular mountain setting

  

While still an active fishing village, it has significantly expanded its rorbuer accommodation to cater for the tourist trade. The word rorbu, incidentally, comes from the Norwegian to row (ror) and to stay (bu).  It evolved since the fishermen and workers, who were farmers in the summer, used to row from the mainland (a distance of up to 60 miles) to the Lofoten Islands and then stayed for the 4-month season in the rorbu cabin accommodation. Nowadays the fishing boats are big enough to house the crew and the old rorbuer have been converted into holiday lets while many new ones have been constructed.

Reine’s guest pontoon

As we came out of Reine harbour, our exit was almost blocked by The World, the enormous liner on which people can buy an apartment and live in as it goes around the world – a lifestyle (and a tax dodge?) for those who can afford it!

 

The World gets in the way

Our next objective was to reach the village of Ramberg on the north coast of Flakstadøy, the next island north in the Lofoten chain. Unfortunately Sundstraum, the narrow sound separating Moskensøy and Flakstadøy, has a 16m bridge over the sound. Arguably it would be theoretically possible to have gone under the bridge at low tide with our 17.5m mast and a 2.5m tidal range. We chose, however, not to do so and therefore took the longer route northeast along the east coast of Flakstadøy before turning north up the Nappstraum between the latter and Vestvågøy, where the Lofoten Highway conveniently goes under the sound in a tunnel.

Flakstadøy is very different from Moskenøy. While both have a few fishing hamlets in protected natural harbours and dramatic mountains rearing up from narrow coastal plains, Flakstadøy’s fertile plains are, however, situated to the north facing the open sea to the west. These narrow plains are inhabited by small scattered farming communities on land edged with small beaches of silver sand.

Coastal farming hamlet on Flakstadøy

Given the additional distance, we split the sail to Ramberg into two legs, pulling in, halfway, to Strømøya – a lovely isolated anchorage, with good holding in sand, inside a small island at the southern end of the north-going Nappstraum.  That evening the skies, which had been cloudy all day, cleared and we sat in the cockpit watching six sea eagles circling around the anchorage’s steep granite hills, which we climbed next morning.

Looking down on Island Drifter in Strømøya anchorage

Earlier, Mike had caught a couple of large mackerel while spinning, which we filleted and pan-fried for supper. We used the heads to bait our “new” collapsible crab pot.  It was the first time we’ve used it, so we were rather pleased to catch six small crabs – which we threw back.  It showed that the pot worked.  A Norwegian passing by in his speed boat told us that if only we’d put the pots a couple of hundred meters away in deeper water we might well have caught some large spider crabs.

Next day, as we were leaving the anchorage to catch the north-going tide through the Nappstraum, we were surrounded by a pod of six orca whales that were in quite a playful mood. They swam next to us, at and under the yacht, for a good 20 minutes before they got bored and left.

Orca whales playing around Island Drifter

Reaching the end of the Nappstraum we turned west and sailed back along the outside coast of Flakstadøy to Ramberg, a mole harbour surrounded by skerries.  Once we’d landed Mike made a new friend:

Mike and a friendly Troll

The village is known for its very attractive long silver bay, which fronts a (literally) blue-green bay and is backed by steep granite peaks.  One could be in certain of the Caribbean islands, were it not for the fact that the water was freezing.

Ramberg’s “Caribbean” beach

At midnight, the day before the summer solstice, we walked back to this west-facing beach to see the “midnight sun”.  It did not sink as low as the horizon and started rising again about 15 minutes after midnight.

Midnight sun seen from Ramberg beach

We returned from Ramberg to the inner coast of the Lofotens via the Nappstraum again.  That evening we stopped in Ballstad on the island of Vestvågøy, the next island north on our route. It has fertile valleys that stretch inland between steep mountains in addition to its coastal plains.  In Viking times it was a wealthy community. Ballstad, on the southwest corner, is a very large natural harbour, which has, in more modern times, been improved further with moles and breakwaters. We stayed in a quiet corner of the harbour behind a mole on a brand-new pontoon, which was arguably one of the best we’ve been on.

Solid pontoon behind protective mole in Ballstad

We had come to see the mural on the enormous boatyard repair shed’s wall, said to be the largest mural in the world. It was impressive both in terms of size and quality of painting, as was the large boatyard, which had the best technical chandlery we’ve ever come across. The son-in-law of the owner explained that the boatyard had to be totally self-sufficient of the mainland regarding spares, etc.  Interestingly, unlike in its UK equivalents, there wasn’t a fashion item on sale, with the possible exception of a very smart black and yellow flotation suit!   

"The biggest mural in the world", Ballstad

We continued northeast along the inner coast to the next island of Austvågøy, the largest island in the Lofoten chain. On the way, we crossed paths with a local whaling ship.  They were obviously on the hunt since the crow’s nest and harpoon gun were manned.   (By coincidence, this June’s National Geographic has an article on the declining whale industry in the Lofotens.)

Henningsvær, in Austvågøy, which we next visited, is made up of two low parallel islands protected from the southwest by a mole (stone barrier) across the sound and from the north by steep mountains on the mainland and a series of small islands and rocks in between.  A road joins Henningsvær and a number of small islands to the mainland. The village’s nickname of “The Venice of the North” may be a bit of an overstatement but it is said, in season, to be the trendiest place in the archipelago.  Hard to believe in the low cloud and drizzle with no one about! We did discover, however, a place advertising a two-day fish and music festival.

Henningsvær’s long narrow harbour

We had no intention, however, of paying the “trendy” charge being levied for the use of their public pontoon (without any facilities) and therefore simply phoned the local boatyard owner, whose number was on a handwritten notice on their quay. They were quite happy for us to park on their empty pontoon and even asked if we needed electricity. The lady Helen spoke to said: “If anyone comes along, tell them that Hilda gave you permission.”  No one came along!

Our free boatyard pontoon for the night in Henningsvær

It took only a couple of hours to reach Kabelvåg.  In the Middle Ages this was the most densely populated area in northern Norway because of the Lofoten fisheries.  Fish was shipped from Kabelvåg for onward export to the continent. Today it is pleasant, cosy little harbour some five miles south of the Lofoten capital of Svolvær.  Its heart is in a small village square bordering a tiny harbour. We tied up to an empty (and solid) wooden wharf.

Well-protected quay in centre of Kabelvåg

We’d calculated from the tidal atlas for Narvik (some 80 miles away!) that with a tidal range of 2.85m we would hopefully not go aground at low tide.  Fortunately, we just about got it right:

 

Calculation of depth under the keel at low tide just right!

These days the town is renowned for the Vågen church, otherwise known as the Lofoten Cathedral [www.lofotkatedralen.no]. The first church was built on the site in 1103. The current cathedral was built in 1898 to seat 1200 persons, in order to accommodate the influx of fishermen in the area during the cod-fishing season (January to April). Fishermen were given priority regarding seating and there are some splendid old black and white photos both in the cathedral and the town showing the cathedral full of bearded fishermen in the Sunday best with the locals squashed in at the back.

Lofoten Cathedral in Kabelvåg

Peter and Jeannette Engelhart from Holland on Yacht Passe-Partout rafted on us in Kabelvåg. We had previously met them in Reine and again at the entrance to Strømøya anchorage where we both watched the orcas playing. They provided some excellent Dutch beer and thick cod fillets which we cooked when they joined us for a very pleasant evening on board Island Drifter.  They departed next morning. When we came to do so, our batteries were flat and the engine would not start.  It is just possible that Helen had used a little too much "juice" on the computer! Obviously we need to be more careful and switch one battery off when we stop.  We solved the problem by pulling ourselves across the harbour with long lines and rafting on a Norwegian yacht Celin who kindly hooked us into their electricity point so that we could recharge the batteries and eventually start the engine.  

We have yet to look round Svolvær, which we’ll do as part of the final stage of our extended cruise in the Lofotens.  Given our change of plan regarding Svalbard, we’ve yet to decide our route back. To an extent it depends on how much longer we stay in the islands.