A night on Anchor

After yesterdays early start to catch the nice weather, which appeared to be totally off the mark as we fought a side sea, we made our way between Dyroya and mainland Norway and the sea calmed down to another beautiful day. We have been so spoilt with the weather that as soon as there is a ripple in the ocean we are thinking its rough! I'm guessing we will have to get over that idea in the coming months though! 

Leaving Andorja and the region we have spent several weeks

Besides calm seas we have been fortunate to have seen very little rain throughout our time in Norway, yesterday though we seemed to have plenty. With the cold rain on the windows visibility its quickly ruined by the steaming up, so most of yesterday we ran the generator to use the dehumidifier, it also puts out a bit of heat which is great as the temperature has dropped below the double figures. 

We weren't entirely sure where we were going to stop for the night, the fjord which leads towards Tromso from the north tip of Senja requires an amount of planning for our slow speeds, so we knew we would likely pull in to somewhere on Senja. As we turned to head north along Senja we had reached the same point we had driven to a few days earlier and so we are again in our most Northern place! 

Autumnal trees

Approaching the bridge which joins Senja to mainland we noticed someone on the coast taking photos of us, which we have since seen on the AIS ship details! Shortly after the bridge we spotted Gibostad a small town on Senja and decided in the pouring rain to pull in to marina there, a night plugged in to electricity seemed appealing to keep the boat dry and cosy. Having tied up to the finger berths we discovered that the electricity wasn't fully wired in down the pontoon and so we decided as we were closer to houses we couldn't run the generator for the evening and so we untied and left again. 

Bridge to Senja 

Windows misting up we found an anchorage just north of Gibostad, throwing the anchor over for the first time in weeks. Strange feeling relying on an anchor again, its been so long that even in the light winds we were a little uneasy, so we ended up throwing a stern anchor over too. 

The current can run up to 6knots through aptly names Straumsfjorden, 6knots is over our current top speed, so we had to look in to what state of tide would help us through. The rising tide flows easterly so we set our alarm for 5am hoping to get through the fjord with ease, The strongest straumens are near the island which is dotted in the middle of the end of the fjord, virtually blocking it. This island Ryoya was historically used for executions, now though it is the Universities Muskox reserve, so landing is not recommended! 

Sunny morning

With another early start due we had an early night. We are currently making our way along Straumsfjord which as yet has no real strong currents, possibly the neap tides will keep things in check, if not we have hopefully timed it right so that it will carry us through. We are considering aiming towards Tromso, one of the few large cities in the North. Tromso is known as the Paris of the north due to the fashion sense, so heading there in our rough boaty clothes is a bit laughable, hopefully they will go easy on us, who knows maybe we can set some new trends!! 

Speed ferry, sending out a significant wake!

Misty early morning