Bergen to Bodø-Across the Arctic Circle

Our first month in Norway has been packed full of new experiences and adjustments.  In the August blog entry, I left off at our point of entry into Norway from the North Sea at the Marstein light, near Bergen. We picked up a mooring ball in an idyllic, perfect little anchorage. We liked it there so much we stayed an extra day to rest after our somewhat traumatic North Sea crossing from the Shetlands. We then headed for Bergen, about twenty miles distant, spent a week there attending to business and then headed north. The last three weeks have been spent travelling each day. We are now at latitude 67 degrees which is north of the Arctic Circle (66 degrees and 33 minutes North). Our winter destination, Tromso, is at 69 degrees North. We are less than 200 miles and five days away from where we plan to spend the winter months.

Our first Norwegian anchorage

It has been a bit of a ‘whistlestop tour’ so far as we felt we had to push on while we had good weather. We were absolutely blessed with sensational, sun-filled, summer-like days from the day before we left Bergen and for about two weeks thereafter. Each day, we couldn’t believe our good fortune as the day dawned sunny, bright and with blue skies. After the Scottish weather experience, it was delightful to feel the sun again. The high pressure system that brought us the sun also brought little wind and calm seas. Lack of wind is a problem for a sailboat, but, the calm seas were a treat. They enabled us to continue on right through two of Norway’s most difficult and sometimes dangerous, navigational challenges, Statt and Hustadvika, without having to wait for an appropriate weather window.

Statt is the westernmost peninsula in Norway which juts out into the Norwegian Sea. You are in open waters directly exposed to the Sea. There is no protected inner lead available. An escort service is available for small boats that attempt to round it. We went round on a flat calm day, it was quite ‘swelly’ but no problem at all. A week or so after we passed through, we noticed that the Statt weather forecast indicated 9.5 metre waves (that’s around 30 feet!) which wouldn’t have been fun to deal with on a lee shore that consists of granite cliffs.

Hustadvika is a rock-strewn passage also exposed to the open. Again, we went through on a flat calm day and it was no issue at all.

Although we knew that wind in the inner leads is often directly ahead, or, directly behind the boat as it funnels down through the mountains, we didn’t realize just how much we’d be motoring. We have only actually sailed (with the motor off) for 2-1/2 hours in the last three weeks. The best we can hope for, the rest of the time, is to motorsail which we do as often as we can as it boosts our speed from around 5 to 6.5 knots. We hadn’t really considered the cost of diesel and the hassle of obtaining it, but, it’s a necessary evil in this environment. We burn about a gallon an hour at 2000 rpm. It costs about 8-13 NOK ($1.28-$2.08 CAD) per litre and with about four litres to the gallon, times 7-10 hours a day and well, you do the math. It’s expensive.

Another expense we hadn’t thought much about was buying Norwegian paper charts. We’d bought enough to get us to Bergen, but knew we needed more to get us north. We spoke to a couple of cruisers who are just using electronic charts, or, borrowed charts. We have the electronic charts, it was only around $400 for a single C-MAP chip that covers all of Norway, Scandinavia, the Baltic and some of northern Europe. I didn’t feel comfortable going without paper, not only for backup, but, for planning purposes as well. The coastline of Norway is so complex, it’s impossible to figure out which way to go without some kind of ‘bigger picture’ to guide you. The Norwegian charts are excellent and we needed an absolute minimum of 50 charts. It was around $1500 to purchase these in Bergen and this covers us from Bergen to Tromso only. At first glance, the charts look overwhelming and a magnifying glass is needed to see some of the detail, even at the largest scale available, 1:50,000. We hope we may be able to sell the charts to another cruiser when we leave Norway.

Navigationally, everything is very well-marked. There are a few different types of navigation markers, but, when present, they are very helpful. There are ‘vardes’, which are ancient round, brick towers with a pointer on top telling you which side is the correct side to pass on.Norway. Apparently, they’ve been there since Viking times and are still in use today. Sometimes a modern light has been put on top, or beside them. There are also ‘perches’ and bakes’ which have the same function, with a different form.

A typical Varde navigation marker

Every day, we try and leave early so we can cover 35-45 miles and stop around three in the afternoon. This gives us time to pick up more diesel, or, groceries etc. The evening is usually spent working out a route for the next day. This is non-trivial as it takes around 1-2 hours every evening. I use CMAP’s PC-Planner to prepare the route on the computer, then, I upload it to the chartplotter. The next day, it’s just a simple matter of following the plotter line.

We have anchored out a few times, but, have run into some problems getting the anchor to set, so, to avoid frustration and time delays we’ve been staying on pontoons most of the time. This time of year, everything is deserted, which gives us (me) time to practice docking the boat and the prices are reasonable. Prices each night are usually 50-150 NOK ($8-$24) and you pay via an honesty box. Showers, laundry and electricity, when available, are extra. There is a large selection of places to stop and it’s been no problem to find somewhere each day.

Although we have suffered from a high degree of ‘sticker shock’, Norway, in general, has so far been everything we expected. The scenery is absolutely spectacular, it is uncrowded, the waters are protected and the weather is good. As a cruising ground, it probably doesn’t get much better than this. Ok, maybe a bit more wind, water you can actually swim in and a warmer winter would be nice. There is also quite a bit of shipping to dodge, there are a lot of fast ferries travelling at 30+ knots and some large freighters and fishing boats. Norway seems to have its own version of the ColRegs as well i.e. all leisure boats need to keep out of the way of the commercial ones. Only foreign boats seem to alter course for us, it gets tricky with the Norwegian ones who stand on, no matter what. It’s resulted in a few anxious moments while we try and get out of the way.

A little too close for comfort

Each day we would see the Hurtigruten pass. The Hurtigruten is Norway’s famous ‘coastal express’ service. A boat leaves Bergen each day and travels north to the Russian border and back. The one-way trip takes eleven days and the ship stops at a lot of small communities on the way. Some of the newer boats look like cruise liners and are very luxurious, with food included in the ticket. When we factor in the cost and effort involved in our cruise, we sometimes think we should have just bought a ticket on the Hurtigruten as it would be a lot easier and we’d see all the same sights!

One of the Hurtigruten coastal ferry cruise fleet

We have been struck by how much the landscape resembles Muskoka and Georgian Bay.

When out walking, sometimes it’s like being back walking on the Torrance Barrens and we forget how far away we are (and so much further north). The difference is they have a lot more height to the mountains and the fjords are distinct. It is more of a wilderness in Canada as well. Here there are quite large towns, fishing villages and historic trading posts around every corner. We have seen hardly any wildlife: one seal, a couple of sea eagles and a bunch of seagulls. In places, though, the water is just teeming with fish and we’ve seen a few large ones jumping. There are also interesting and colourful jellyfish.

Here are a few highlights from this month:

BERGEN

Whenever you see a tourist photo of Bergen, it usually shows Bryggen, the row of sixteenth century merchant shops on the quayside. We docked Black Sheep II against the quay right in front of Bryggen which was just across the street. We were also a few steps away from the front door to a rather swanky Radisson. We couldn’t help but contrast what guests there were paying, probably $300 a night, to our $16 a night across the street on the quay. We spent a week there. At first, it was interesting being on the busy quay with all the tourists strolling by. After a while, we realized that we (the boat mainly) had become a tourist attraction and sometimes our privacy suffered. There were a lot of Canadians in Bergen and we ended up meeting every one of them, I think. We did enjoy speaking with them though and many compliments on the boat were received and appreciated. However, one Chinese tourist went a little far. He asked G if he could take a photo of the boat (at least he asked). G said ok, he then proceeded to climb down onto the boat, out onto the bowsprit, did a Leonardo DiCaprio Titanic pose over the water while his girlfriend took the shot!

Bergen's Bryggen

Bergen 

Bergen tall ship

Bergen tall ship

Bergen was a delightful city, surrounded by mountains and full of quaint neighbourhoods with all wooden houses, clean, green, great walks and museums. I’d like to say great restaurants, but, I think eating out in Norway is maybe an annual treat, it’s so expensive. We didn’t eat out at all. Some idea of prices? A hamburger in an American-style restaurant, $27, pizza $32 (plus 25% VAT on top), take-out coffee $3.20+ minimum, small bottle of coke $6.50, Big Mac, $13, loaf of bread $6-8, small bag of chips/crisps $5. We treated ourselves to a soft ice-cream cone before leaving town, $8 and a shower, $10.

We’ve tried a few Norwegian delicacies, like Torrfisk (dried cod sliced really thin like a cracker) without much success, it must be an acquired taste. However, the bread is excellent. Even the crummiest convenience store will have fresh-baked, grainy loaves for sale and we’ve been eating way too much of it.

The houses in Bergen and all over Norway are so well-kept: small, spotless and charming. Board and batten is my favourite house exterior treatment and just about all the houses here have it along with lace at the windows and window trim flourishes reminiscent of American ‘Carpenter Gothic’ architecture.  I don’t know how they keep their paint so nice, every house looks freshly done.

Kristiansund carved wooden doorway

We spent a couple of days doing tourist activities, one day on museums alone. There was a fascinating leprosy museum, among others. We also took a day and did a commercial ‘Norway in a Nutshell’ tour. This was a scenic train ride (about ½ way to Oslo), then a bus ride down an incredible switchbacked, mountain pass road, then, a fjord boat trip on the ‘Narrow fjord’. To reach this fjord on our own boat would take about two weeks of motoring, so, we felt it was easier to take this trip instead. A great day out and the weather was cool, but, perfect.

View on the 'Nutshell' tour

Narrow fjord on 'Nutshell' tour

Waterfall on the 'Nutshell' tour

Alesund

A very nice, unique town.

Alesund, Black Sheep II is moored in the inlet right in the centre of town. We hiked up a lot of steps to get this shot!

Alesund street view

SVARTISEN GLACIER

This was a definite highlight and also a learning experience. We made a detour from the main route to visit the Svartisen glacier. We’ve seen glaciers before, but, this one is easy to access on foot and quite spectacular. We arrived in early afternoon, hoping to get docked and away to do the two-hour hike to the glacier’s snout before dark. So, we were in a bit of a rush, our first mistake.

We arrived to find the floating pontoon mentioned in all the guide books was no longer there (we found out later it had been removed the day before we arrived for winter storage). There was an old, rickety pier and after a careful approach we thought we’d be able to tie up to it, which we did. We were the only boat there. We tied up, left a fair bit of slack in the lines for the tide, which we thought we were probably on the bottom of (although we didn’t double-check) as it was noticeably ebbing for the last few hours on the way in. We had to climb up to the pier to get off the boat, but, thought no more about it and went off to do the hike which we really enjoyed, another beautiful day and we had the entire glacier to ourselves!

On our return to the boat, the tide had dropped about another six feet and the boat was now sitting about 10-12 feet below the pier. We hadn’t noticed the absence of any ladder, or, tires, on the pier that we may have used to climb back down to the boat and we had no way down! Anyway, we felt like two fools and stood there for two hours trying to think of a way out of our dilemma. Finally, we found a piece of 2x6 laying around that we ended up using as a slide to get down to the boat. It was just getting dark by this time. Were we glad to get out of there in the morning! G is still complaining about the slivers.

Svartisen Glacier

G on Svartisen Glacier hike

TRADING POSTS – Haholmen, Mageroy, Selsoyvika, Kuringvagen

Of all the places we’ve stayed so far, we’re finding we like the old trading posts the best. They have often been there since the 1600’s and have a variety of interesting old buildings, exhibits and goods available. They are also usually privately-owned and have friendly owners offering excellent value for money. Although, we’re in the off-season now and most of the associated restaurants/shops etc. were closed up, we still enjoyed our visits. Especially to Haholmen , a resort island in the middle of rocky Hustadvika, Mageroy, on an island/nature reserve and Selsoyvika where the owners opened the store just for us to allow us to purchase some of their home-smoked salmon and they also baked two fresh loaves of bread for us! They also had the best docks we’ve seen in Norway so far, they actually had cleats (most of the other docks have just rings, or, rough boards to tie onto). We also got a mini-tour of the main building, which the King and Queen had visited the year before.

Crossing the Arctic Circle

Crossing the Arctic Circle didn’t feel much like an event as it would in Canada, where it seems so far north, remote and inaccessible that it is an achievement to get there. In Norway, we just motored by VikingVagen, an island with an Arctic Circle monument on it and kept on past the towns/villages that exist all around it.

Arctic Circle monument

Torghatten, mountain with a hole through it

Here are a few lowlights from this month:

BOAT PROBLEMS

Another cruiser once said that ‘…the cruising lifestyle is a way to get to fix your boat in a lot of exotic places’. Unfortunately, this is proving true for us as well.

Our new electronic battery monitor, installed in Savannah, has died and will need to be replaced.

We turned on our watermaker which we hadn’t used since the Atlantic crossing only to find that all the water ended up in the bilge. Another repair job to add to the ever-increasing to-do list.

We noticed our main engine water pump was leaking quite severely. Closer examination revealed that it probably had been doing this for quite a long time. We spent an extra day in Kristiansund, which had excellent service shops, and Glenn was able to remove the pump, get it machined, new bearings/gasket/impeller installed and he reinstalled the pump all in one day, must be a record. Good news is the engine is now running about five degrees cooler.

Glenn noticed some diesel in the bilge the other day. Today, we confirmed that one of our tanks is leaking. The tanks have already been replaced once on this boat, so, we thought we’d dodged this bullet. Guess not. It’s a major undertaking to remove and repair/replace a tank. For now, we’re going to pump it dry and rely on the other tank for a while. The leaking tank is the only one the generator is capable of using, so, it is now out of action for a while as well.

I mentioned previously that we noticed that our shaft seal was leaking a lot more than it should be. With all the motoring we’ve been doing, it has been exacerbated and when underway it is now a constant stream. We’ve been able to keep it under control by pumping the bilge twice a day, but, began to realize that if we want to be able to leave the boat at all this winter we’re going to have to get it fixed now, not in the spring as planned.  Unfortunately, this means taking the boat out of the water as the shaft has to be taken apart. We knew there was a travelift available at a boat manufacturer near Tromso and had hoped to make it there to have the work done. However, we took on a lot of water one day, could hear the water running into the bilge and thought we’d better not delay any longer, or, we may lose the boat and ourselves as well. The next large town with a travelift was Bodo and we made a beeline there. They can accommodate us, but, we’ve had to order the new shaft seal from West Marine in the U.S. as there wasn’t one suitable in Norway.

So, we are now here in Bodo, waiting for our new shaft seal to arrive. We expect to be here 1-2 weeks to get the job done. The weather is closing in now, we saw a dusting of snow on the mountains outside town this morning and the boat is very cold. We have heat from our new hydronic heater when the motor is running. When the motor is off, we thought we had a good diesel stove. Unfortunately, it has proved to be next to useless, dirty, finicky, smelly and without much heat, so, it is going to be retired. We’re hoping to sort out some Norwegian extension cords and plugs so we can run a couple of electric heaters. Hopefully, this will be enough to get us through. We are now anxious to get to Tromso and get settled in for the winter which is fast approaching here.