Settling in for Winter-Tromsø, Norway

People speak of short winter days and how winter evenings ‘close in’. Well, here in Tromsø, at 69 North, the evenings have ‘closed in’ permanently. The sun has disappeared below the horizon and we won’t see it again until late January. That doesn’t mean it’s totally dark all the time (yet!). Right now, it gets light about 9:30 a.m. and is pitch-black by 2:30 p.m. The ‘light’ period gets noticeably shorter every day. At first, it was very peculiar. It would be very dark out and we’d have this feeling like it should be after dinner already. It felt like you were always late for something, then, look at your watch and realize it was only 3:00 p.m. and could relax, still lots of ‘day’time left. We can still see the loom of the sun below the horizon, but, at 10:00 a.m. it looks like you’re viewing a sunset rather than a sunrise.

Sunrise/Sunset

Black Sheep II has pretty much settled in now for the winter at Polar Havn Marina. Life at the dock has taken on a bit of a routine. Between daily trips to the library (we don’t have internet access on the boat), the gym/pool and the daily chores, the days seem to fly by. Daily life is a bit more difficult and time-consuming than on land. We have to get all our water in jugs from a public supply, fairly close by and transport it to the boat to fill the water tanks. So far, the boat’s water system hasn’t frozen, but, it’s still a worry that it might. Likewise, both propane and diesel have to be bought across town and carried to the boat. We don’t have hot water, so, when required, it must be heated on the stove. Showers aren’t an issue though. I have joined a gym within easy walking distance and Glenn has a pool membership, so, we’re well served in that regard. As we’re close to downtown, we have a choice of grocery stores and Glenn enjoys getting an English newspaper once in a while. Laundry is a problem, we have to travel by local bus ($16 round-trip) to a campground that has the only public laundry we’ve been able to find in all of Tromsø. To wash/dry a single load is about $16, so, it’s not an inexpensive chore. They only have one machine too, so, to do just two loads is an all-day task costing about $54. Needless to say, we only go when we absolutely have to. Hand-washing is out of the question, we don’t have the space and humidity/condensation is already an issue on the boat.

In our slip at Polar Havn Marina

Mark (our New Zealand neighbour) drops by to visit quite often. A Norwegian friend of his had been out fishing and left a couple of freshly caught fish on the back of Mark’s boat. As it was dark he didn’t notice them there and woke up to a commotion in the night which turned out to be an otter stealing one of the fish. We were given ½ of the remaining fish, a very large cod and it was delicious. Other than that, we haven’t seen any wildlife here, it seems strange.

As I mentioned earlier, I have joined a gym and it’s been really good to get back to a fitness routine again. They have all the same types of classes that I’m used to. However, doing a yoga or step aerobics class when it’s all in Norwegian and you don’t understand a word can have interesting consequences! One nice perk is that I met a couple of ladies at yoga who are part of the English-speaking Tromsø ex-pat community of mostly Americans. We got invited to their annual American Thanksgiving pot-luck celebration. It was conveniently located in a building next to our marina and we really enjoyed the turkey with all the traditional trimmings including pumpkin pie. They were able to buy the only eight turkeys in town and people had saved up cans of pumpkin. Couldn’t find cranberries, but, local Norwegian lingonberries were a great substitute. We met some really nice people, most of them professors at the University.

We’re managing to keep fairly warm on the boat with our little electric heaters although we are using way more electricity than we’d like to. The boat isn’t insulated and condensation is a problem requiring continual wiping up. It was fairly cold this week, around -10C and the heaters were struggling a bit, so, we’re hoping it won’t get too much colder than that, or, we may have a problem.

There is a two-page list of boat jobs waiting to be started. However, we have decided to take a bit of a hiatus from boat work until the sun comes back. It’s just too dark and cold to be trying to do outside work. Some jobs had to be done though. We weren’t sure how cold it was going to get here, so, thought rather than worry about it, we’d winterize both the main engine and generator. Sourcing out the correct antifreeze took a while, but, we managed and got them both done as well as topping up the diesel etc.

The snow that arrived with us in late October is still here along with a bit more. The temperature seems to stay fairly constant with little fluctuation between the day and night temperature. They don’t use salt on the roads here, so, the snow stays white and is very dry, quite nice actually except for the ice on which I’ve slipped and fallen twice already. A lot of people are wearing crampons on their boots, guess I’ll have to get a pair.

People here seem to take the winter and darkness in stride and even revel in it. It still amazes me to see construction workers, up on a roof, building trusses in the pitch-dark, not even wearing head lamps. There are even many bicycles about on the snow-covered streets, using studded bicycle tires for traction. We haven’t seen any of the Norwegian kick-sleds in use yet, although we’ve seen them for sale in the stores.

Cathedral

Tromsø is really a lovely town with a great quality of life. No highways and driving to malls and big box stores to deal with. There are three very small indoor malls, so, the old-fashioned main street with all its wooden buildings is still the primary shopping area and it seems to be thriving.

Florist

Part of the street is a pedestrian mall. On Saturday, even when it’s really cold, the street is just crammed with throngs of people of all ages. Elderly ladies with canes decked out in fur garments from head to foot, young families with very small babies all bundled up, gypsies on street corners playing accordion and saxophone, street vendors selling shrimp and waffles, it’s all very charming. The street has been hung with Christmas lights now and the stores are being decorated. Many stores have candles lit up on the sidewalk outside to lead shoppers in. There are many coffee shops packed with patrons. One really nice innovation is that they pump seawater underneath the sidewalks, so that they remain ice and snow-free.

We don’t have much planned for the winter and expect it to be a quiet time, will be spending our energies just trying to stay fit and warm. We won’t be sailing again until probably May, so, it will be a long layoff. However, we’re looking forward to a bit of a rest as the last year has been so busy what with multiple intercontinental moves opening/closing apartments in three countries, refitting the boat, finishing up work and preparing ourselves for our first year’s cruising. It will be good to slow down a little. Probably won’t have too much to write about, but, will post monthly just to let you know how we’re doing. When the sun comes back in January we hope to become more active again.