Friday 31 December 2010

Another month has slipped by and as planned last month we spent it very quietly. The increasingly dark days weren’t that conducive to much activity anyway. One highly anticipated milestone was reaching December 21 as it’s the shortest day of the year. We were very curious as to how much daylight we’d actually have on that date. As you can see from the photo below, taken at noon on December 21, a very clear day, there is a kind of a grey/blue twilight for about two hours a day, 10-12. Before 10 and after 1 p.m. it’s pitch dark. You know the sun is there somewhere below the horizon, but, you can’t see it. It’s just enough daylight to mark the coming and going of each day.

December 21, noon

December 21, sunset

 Now that we’re past the winter solstice, we can expect each day’s light to become longer. On January 21 the sun will rise above the horizon again for the first time since November 21. We’ve been told the days lengthen very quickly and by Easter we should expect almost 24 hour daylight. Once the days start to lengthen, the ski season will also start in earnest. Some people are already taking advantage of the lit, cross-country ski trail that runs the length of the island, along its spine. We don’t have skis yet, but, hope to buy some used ones at the local recycle centre soon.

One negative to all this ‘darktime’ is that it has been playing havoc with our sleep patterns. There’ve been a few episodes of going to bed at 3 a.m. and not getting up until 10-11. We’re trying to maintain a ‘normal’ sleep pattern, but, it’s difficult. On the plus side, it’s been a welcome break in our usual hectic lives and has allowed us to get back into reading for recreation. Unfortunately, we have now gotten through every book we had on board and all those we traded with the neighbouring boat. There are some English language books on sale here, but, they’re expensive and not a great selection. So, I have ordered myself a Kindle from Amazon (electronic e-reader) and am eagerly awaiting its arrival in late January so I can download books anywhere and everywhere. In the meantime, what a treat it’s been to finally read a lot of books that have been on my list for years, like Mutiny on the Bounty (a really good yarn). In addition to quite a few sailing books, I have also ploughed through the Stieg Larsen ‘dragon tattoo’ trilogy, Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance (very good), Jonathan Frantzen’s The Corrections (well-written, but didn’t like the characters or story much) and about a dozen other varied titles.

Three books that really resonated were all by the same author, David Howarth. I mentioned in an earlier blog that we met the author’s son-in-law on a neighbouring boat in Stornoway which is how the author first came to our attention. Usually, I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in war history, but, these three are just good all-round adventure stories as well as historical books. I think they’re still in print and if you’re interested in a good story, these are all a very fast, enjoyable read. For us, having visited the sites in both Scotland and Norway and right across the North Sea where the action took place made it all the more real and gripping. In the spring, we’re planning to visit the Toftfjord and the Lyngen Alps mentioned in the books. Would recommend reading The Shetland Bus first, followed by We Die Alone. The Sledge Patrol can be read independently and is set in Greenland. If you like these books, you may also like The Last Gentleman Adventurer: Coming of Age in the Arctic, by Edward Maurice which I found fascinating for its insights into the Hudson Bay Company and Canadian Inuit culture just prior to ‘modernization’.

December, of course, also brings the Christmas and New Year’s period. We were interested to see how Norwegians celebrate. This was also our first Christmas spent living aboard and we wanted to celebrate old traditions while perhaps also making some new ones.

For us, Christmas dinner is always turkey. For Norwegians, it’s usually lamb or something else, so, first we wondered whether we’d even be able to get a turkey (‘kalkun’). There were a few, in boxes, in the grocery store, so, we nabbed one when we first saw them. The next question was whether it would fit into our propane oven. With some rearrangement of the interior we were just able to fit it in. The next worry was would it cook properly as the oven heat is somewhat irregular and localized and we could run out of propane. We were having guests (Mark and his daughter Marissa from the boat Tevakenui and Celia, my new friend from New Zealand who has been here six years teaching English), so, were worried that not only might we ruin our own Christmas dinner but others’ as well. As it was, by rotating the turkey every hour, it was done to perfection and the dinner was a great success. We made an effort to have all the trimmings as well. We didn’t make stuffing, but, the requisite Brussels sprouts and other vegetables were easy to find. Not so easy was mincemeat. We searched every single grocery store in town and found a single, dusty jar of imported Robertson’s mincemeat which was only one month past its sell-by date. We grabbed it! Our guests brought homemade Christmas cake and shortbread which rounded out the traditional meal.

New Year’s Eve was highly anticipated. We knew there would be a fireworks display from the top of the chairlift that goes up the mountain adjacent to our marina. We anxiously watched the weather throughout the day as we first had some fog, then heavy snow, which obscured the mountain top. We thought the celebration might be cancelled. In the evening, the skies lifted and it looked like a go. Around 11 p.m. we made our way to the town square to find that there were only a very few drunken foreigners milling about, no Norwegians, no music and no scheduled events. Disappointed, at 11:45 we decided to make our way back to the marina to watch the fireworks from there. Halfway back, the mountaintop around the detonation site was first surrounded by red flares and then a ring of bright white, flaming, torches. Then, the fireworks started and we soon realized why no Norwegians were downtown. They were all at home setting off their own elaborate firework displays. The private displays were almost as good as the official display. We’ve seen better quality fireworks, but, the sheer volume of the displays, which must have numbered in the hundreds was truly amazing and went on for almost an hour. Both sides of the channel which separate the island of Tromsø from the mainland and up the mountain sides were ablaze and the air smelled of gunpowder. At the stroke of 12, the Hurtigruten (coastal steamer) sounded a few long, deep blasts of its horn and followed up with some red parachute flares of its own. Then, for additional atmosphere, a light snow started which complimented the warm (0C) and windless evening. A very memorable evening after all.


I wish I had a tripod so I could have taken better pictures, but, here a few which really don’t do the scene any justice at all….




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