Boxing Day

We have had a great few days here in Bjarkoya. 
To continue the festive over eating we decided to walk up to the BBQ hut on the hill on Boxing Day evening. Having struggled to find it the past few times we were up there we thought we would take a different route to it via the Baptist Kirk and the high point on the hill. This route may well be marked but with the ground covered in deep snow and sleety showers we still managed to get well off track and had to forge our way through the snow drifts, walking on just a few inches with one step sinking in over our knees with the next! All good fun though and eventually by torch light we spotted a completely snow covered BBQ hut. 

Daniel set to cutting wood and after a while we got the fire lit, although I don't think our attempts would impress Bear Grylls, but hey, It did the job! Soon we had wine mulling on the bbq with Salmon for main course and toasted marshmallows for dessert. Fattening up for winter....
As we walked back in the very late evening we dived for shelter from a hail shower behind the shop and a voice called out from next door at the bar, next we knew we were invited in to celebrate with the locals... although one had lived in southern England for three years and other lives in Edinburgh and only home to Bjarkoya for a short time. It was a bit amazing to be sitting in a pub on a small Norwegian island and have a Norwegian speaking in Aberdonian Doric! A very special night to be welcomed in and treated like locals ourselves!

Bjarkoya is about one and a half times the size of Papay but with a much larger population. Transport links on the island are amazing though served every day by several speed ferries as well as the slower ferry, its also soon to be joined to the neighbouring island of Grytoya by tunnel, considering Papay gets two car ferries a week its surprising to us. We are currently waiting out the storms and it looks likely we will be spending New Year here in Bjarkoy too, something other to look forward to! 

God Jul, Merry Christmas from Bjarkoy

While we like our snug berth in Harstad it is also nice to change home every now and then, so we had been considering moving the boat to Bjarkoy for Christmas. We were keeping our eye on some nice cruising weather on the long term forecast which was stretching away from us and so we were set to stay in Harstad for Christmas day. With that in mind we walked up to Rema 1000 the closest shop to get Christmas dinner sorted, mainly trying to miss that last minute 24th Christmas shopping havoc, even still it was the busiest we've seen the shops. Christmas dinner as it happens will be salmon, sorry to lack a sense of adventure... 

The communications tower light up for Christmas above Harstad

Ready to leave Harstad around 3.30pm

It seemed a shame when living on a boat over Christmas not to make the most of it and head to sea, so within the space of half an hour we had decided to take advantage of the lower than predicted winds and move to Gammelhamn, Bjarkoy. A quick tidy aboard as well as filling up a couple of fuel tanks and we were ready to leave, at 4pm it was black dark so our first "night passage" in a few weeks. This was also our first official "Winter passage" in Norway. We were treated to a smooth three hour crossing with the wind following us making for a comfortable voyage. It is nice to move places but on the whole we don't take much from dark passages as we miss out on the beautiful scenery. 

Inquisitive duck

The shop on Bjarkoy with the pub next door

With that said it was great to get tied up in Gammelhamn, which was more difficult than you might have thought, with frozen solid ropes, there are some parts of winter life in Norway we would never have considered had we not seen it. The possibility had occurred to us that the clubroom might be closed up for the season, meaning we would have no access to water, showers toilets and an oven big enough for Christmas dinner!! So after securing Quickstep we marched up to the clubroom and were relieved to find it open and heated. Pleased with that we walked back down to the boat to plug in to the electricity and get the boat heated for the evening. To our surprise the electricity didn't work and after trying every outlet on the pontoon we had to make a few decisions. As we proved at the mooring in Kjotta living aboard without mains electricity at this time of year is possible but far from ideal. The prospect of spending a few days or weeks running the generator didn't really appeal to us, so we considered heading the three hours back to Harstad. 

Bjarkoy Church behind the trees

Lovely Christmas decorations

Out of options we reached out to our only contact in Bjarkoy to see if they could point us in the right direction, within minutes Glenn and Stig Johnny arrived at the marina and got everything sorted. Exceptionally kind of them to give up part of their evening and on the 23rd of December as well. Again peoples kindness is just staggering. 
Today we have gone for a walk around the village on the snowy roads, decorations twinkly in the icy air, its beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

Merry Christmas from us!

This Christmas will be different for many reasons, we are sad not to be surrounded by our families and while we cannot name everyone we would like to send special Christmas wishes to Amandas Grandparents, Angela and Rachel, Alistair, Anne, Shane, Alison and Daniel, Neville (Wendys father), Daniel (2014 crew member!) and Wendy. We are grateful to all of you who have followed our adventure and to the many sponsors and people who have made this possible, a very merry Christmas. 

So, from us here in Gammelhamn we wish you all a very Merry Christmas, God Jul!!

Long Nights and Cristmas traditions

Every year we can be pretty guilty of saying "the nights are so long" or "I just can't belive its getting so dark so early" as if it's something new....but surely this year we can be forgiven! 

It's been a few weeks now since the sun last rose and we're fast approaching the shortest day. 

We are still low enough in Latitude that while we don't get any sun we still get a very usable twilight around 4 hours a day. It's quite a difficult light to explain, the camera manages to over compensate and gives an idea of full brightness, but particularly on cloudier days the light is fairly dull though. It kind of gives the feeling the sun will be rising soon, that bluey very early morning appearance which just never comes to a head, instead the next you know it's gone again and the long black darkness starts over again. 

Its a complete mind mangle sometimes, We've seen us going in a shop and coming out shortly after to total darkness and its barely 3pm. Without a watch to look at we could easily see us heading to bed by 4pm thinking it must be midnight. 

For us, its all quite exciting really, though we can understand that year after year some people really struggle with it, it nearly puts you in a state of hibernation! 💤

All in all if we were given the chance of spending another winter above the Arctic Circle it certainly wouldn't put us off, that's not to say we haven't caught ourselves looking a little longingly at some of our summer photos and being drawn to the shadows, the Orange bathed hills and the little yellow ball in the sky! 🌞

Summer and sun can wait though, we have other things happening! Christmas is just around the corner now and it's going to be an unusual Christmas for us, we've tried to keep in the Christmas Spirit though and have a little tree, lights and tinsel aboard. 🎄

Unlike the UK where turkey sales skyrocket the traditional Norwegian Christmas dish is either Pork Ribs or dried mutton, from what we have heard slightly more households opt for Pork Ribs. Gløgg is a mulled wine type drink and is popular for kids and adults with non alcoholic versions sold in shops everywhere (remember the rules meaning supermarkets can't sell anything over 5% alc). Of course, no Norwegian Christmas would be complete with out aquavit, the national potato based spirit...which is highly potent! Norway is great for homebakes and biscuits too so it comes as little surprise that on Christmas seven different types of homemade biscuits are served, most popular being pepperkakes, which are gingerbread biscuits. 🍪

Afraid with the set up aboard we won't be able to serve up anything as exciting! We have noticed that brussel sprouts are in the shops though, so Daniel has no excuse!! 😏

Another tradition in Norway is that Christmas presents are opened on Christmas eve, how we wish we'd had the foresight to try that excuse as a eager kids waiting for Christmas!! Again, we're afraid it is a different kind of Christmas for us so presents will be limited, we guess we could always leave a stocking out for Santa!! 🎁

Do you want to build a snowman? 

Kjøtta in the snow

We have been out gallivanting for the past few days in Kjøtta. The KNBF mooring buoy stays in the water all year and so we tied up to that. There is a small pontoon set up on the island but we weren't originally sure if they allowed visiting boats or not, as it happens we spoke to a local who said we were welcome to tie up for the weekend as several of the finger berths are free over winter. 

Moored up in the calm

Kjøtta is a beautiful little island and even more  amazing in the snow! The mooring buoy is a little distance away in the bay formed by the calf of Kjøtta, so we rowed the tender across to the pontoons and tied up before each walk. After barely making the first walk upright we brought our brodders with us for the next few...remembering of course to take them off again before jumping in the inflatable!! 

After one of the many snow blizzards!

We also rowed across to the calf in the evening and watched one of the best shows of northern lights we have seen yet, very dramatic surrounded by snow clouds and further from the cities glare. 

Walking around in the dark with the fresh snow on the ground, northern lights in the sky and Christmas trees lit across the water we were feeling very christmassy. The only thing for it was to return to the boat, get some Perry Como on the radio and make our first mulled wine of the year! Bliss, the boat still smells of cloves and cinnamon! 

We seemed to time each walk with a blizzard so dived for cover in the ferry waiting room several times, the locals must have thought we were mad, sitting in the waiting room hours before a ferry was due. 

It's been a while since we have spent much time off grid at an anchorage or mooring and its a different experience at minus a few to the summer temperatures! Having only received the parts for the heater on our return from the UK we hadn't even tried it out before getting to the mooring, thankfully it seemed to get going and get the boat heated quickly, it saves running the generator for hours and hours with a fan heater. With all the trouble we have had with the heater up to now we still need to build some confidence in it, so we didn't leave it on over night. In a mostly uninsulated RIB that means we go to bed with temeperatues in the high 20s and walk up with temperatures in the low single figures! 

Inside the ferry terminal

Our poor dehumidifier has been becoming less and less effective for a while now, we really don't want to have to fork out for a new one but the boat is virtually awash with condensation at some points, worse when we are on a mooring with no heating left on through the night. Condensation is becoming a real trial actually, with temperatures inside sometimes 30℃+ what it is outside the walls particularly behind the lockers are just running, mopping up is a daily task. We have had to choose carefully on positioning things aboard and so have placed the more sensitive items in the lockers below sea level, which have a more static temperature and suffer less from condensation. 

This is all very grand, but today in the preparation for leaving the mooring our water container was placed in the cabin area and at some point the tap was knocked meaning 5+ltrs of water poured in all the under deck lockers and all over the bedding!! thankfully we noticed before to long and could minimise the damage, so we are now counting on the dehumidifier to give a good push today and have the boat nice and dry by bedtime!! 

This little mishap meant we were a half an hour later leaving the mooring than planned and so we knew part of our trip back to Hagan would be in the black dark. On the journey back we also got in a thick snowy blizzard and dodged between three ships, having just thought the other day how we basically get the sea to ourselves cruising at this time of year, we certainly didn't today! 

We had been hoping to head out to some live music and maybe a Christmas beer tonight but alas there was some lockers needing sponged out! The joys of boaty life! 

All in all a great few days in Kjøtta, we're back to the safety of the marina in Hagan in time for the gales forecasted for tomorrow and over the next week, so will probably stay put for a day or two!  

Oh, we have also lost our camera charging lead... so all photos are from our ancient mobile phone!

Walking around Harstad

In the last week since our trip to Gammelhamn we have explored our local area on foot. When we first decided that Harstad likely ought to be our winter stopping point due to ease of access for flights and a temperate climate, we thought that it likely was the least 'in nature' location of all the winter possibilities. There were no great walks right from the 'door'. How wrong we were! 

Not only is there the 'Folk Park' there are also the walks leading to the town centre.  There is the walk directly across the hill that saves us following the road in a dogleg to town, but also a veritable maze of other paths including those that lead to the communication tower on the hill. This is lit for the Christmas period making it look like a giant Christmas decoration. Catch it at the right time of day and you can watch the lights dancing, flashing between blues, greens, reds and more, quite northern lights like! 

Yesterday too we found great walking and scenery heading west. Walking armed (or footed!) with our Brodder, over the freshly fallen snow in the half light had a Christmassy magic about it. We only found the walk by chance having been drawn to a beautifully decorated area high on a hill, with two bright trees and a star clung to the edge of a very precipitous ledge, looking over the village below. We had walked along the same road we had explored back in the summer that lead away from the town when we spotted the decorations. Finding a path past a youngster enjoying tobogganing down a steep field we walked steeply up into the trees and into a real winter wonderland of trees hung heavy with snow and totally untouched snow covered expanses that took the breath away... took the breath away through sheer beauty and by steep climbing in deep snow! Hard going when shoes disappear into foot deep holes on each step! Eventually reaching high above the road, with sweeping views across the bay towards Grytøya, we arrived at the wonderful decorations. Possibly an amazing private or an equally wonderful community effort we stood quietly taking in the view lit by the blue evening light and the colourful Christmas lights, but at -9C we didn't stop for too long!

Wanting to take a new way back but with only one torch we set off quickly towards the very distinctive 'homing beacon' of the communication tower in the distance we knew to be the right direction for heading back to base. After a lovely walk we saw house lights in the distance and shortly, crossing a home made style over a fence we made our way into the housing area high above the boat. A great new walk to be added to the growing list! So cold was the day that the sea was actually steaming with a 16 deg temperature between air and sea, the waters around the boat however froze over leaving Quickstep surrounded by ice

Snowing in Hagan

Much later than expected the snow eventually has started falling in Harstad... and it doesn't seem to want to stop now!
We went for a lovely walk in Folk Park near Harstad centre today which looks very Christmassy with all the snow and hidden Christmas trees too!
Snow in Papay when it rarely falls disappears almost as quickly as it arrives with temperatures mostly above freezing so we aren't used to thick coverings of it and as a result we turn in to big kids! Unlike kids though we do get cold, it does hurt to fall over and we appreciate the snow most from the warmth inside the boat!
Here is a few photo's and videos from our wanderings today!

Snow falling in Hagan marina

Over night the whole area is covered in a blanket of snow, pavements and roads merge in to one

Snow replaces leaves, creating Christmas card like scenes

One of the many Christmas decorations around Harstad, this particular one is a metal tree covered in lights (Good idea for Papay!)

Walrus feeling at home in the snow

Think he has seen us!!

Amazing military vessels in the town centre 

Top speed of around 60knots, catch most things on the water! 

 Town centre berths are rather exposed in a north wind, glad we are in Hagan!

Main town Christmas tree

Skiing, BBQ spots and great walks: Folk Park

Little Christmas tree in Folk Park

Not many people around today, we did bump in to this pair though! 

Frozen Lake in the fading light around 1pm

 Early evening blizzard, filmed from inside... We don't plan to venture out in to this one!!