Bodø

Having moved from Stott to Burøya for a brief anchor over night amongst the skerries we chased the nice weather to Bodø. 

Bodø is the 12th largest city in Norway. Our guide books suggested the marina had a lot to offer and having watched the harbour webcam through the winter months we decided we must visit it on our way north. 

The town itself tells another tough story, destroyed during the war it had been rebuilt with some interesting architecture. 

Friday night was probably the wrong time to pull in to Bodø marina, the biggest marina in the north of Norway, which only offers a limited number of guest pontoons for such a large town. We did however find space on the 4th guest pontoon after some confusion as to where the guest bearths actually were. 

Unfortunately first impressions can stick and as we were tying up another visiting boats captain came over to tell us we weren't welcome. 

The marina seems to be the centre of crew changes aboard mainly sailing expedition yachts, with good train and plane connections as well as a good choice of shops it offers all that is needed during a crew change. For us through we were made to feel unwelcome, albeit by the visiting yachts, reminding us again as tourists we have a duty to be an ambassador for Britain but also Orkney. 

After a disheartning start we went to see the sights in the town centre, as the night went on the centre became the place to be, with open air music and queuing for the bars. 

The centre was a little unusual, not that we are complaining it was interesting! There were various paintings on walls that were different to say the least, whether these were part of folk stories or not we don't know?! 

There were hundreds of painted bikes around the town that we can only presume to have been an art display and some lovely buildings. 

Cash is far from king in Norway and for everything within Bodø marina from the stay, electricity to showers was paid by card, unfortunately for us paying a card fee per transaction we missed out on showers and electricity. So another swim in the Arctic waters with shampoo is due! 

It was fun to spend a night in a town, it's always a bit of a culture shock to go from secluded anchorages to buzzing towns, but it's nice to do it all. 

This morning we left Bodø going via the fuel bearth to fill up our empty petrol tanks, disappointingly the card machine didn't accept foreign cards so we will have to find somewhere else on route. 

We are now just a few miles north, but it feels like a world away from busy Bodø, anchored between two uninhabited islands. An eagle watched over us as we came in and the only noise we can hear are the oystercatchers and seagulls, a little different to last night's open air concert within a town of 50000! 

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