Skjervoy

Looking North over Skjervoy 

As mentioned in the previous blog post we are now in Skjervoy, one of the busier towns in this area. We spent the afternoon exploring the town and climbing to a great view point above the marina.

Skjervoy is one of the Hurtigrutens stops, the Hurtigruten pulls in to port 34 times in total on its voyage between Bergen and Kirkenes, several less than us then!

A lovely place to stop at the top of the hill

Since Daniels mum and sister left we are beginning to think more seriously about finding a winters berth. having never been in Norway in winter and certainly having no real idea of living aboard a 23ft boat in the North of Norway for winter we need to keep as many possibilities open as we can.

The further inland down fjords we go and we run the risk of being stuck with sea ice, which could cause all manner of problems for the boat too. The further out on the coast we go and we are much more exposed to the harshness of winters winds and seas.

Sun shining through to Skjervoy on an overcast day

Many of the smaller marinas close down for winter, an indication of the weather we might be facing! Its also a necessity for us to find somewhere with running water, which again with the low temperatures, water is often turned off. We would love to find somewhere with a shower too, using the spray shower on deck in two foot of snow at minus several just doesn't appeal!

With our only transport the boat and our feet we will need to find somewhere with a shop in walking distance. While I'm sure there are many marinas that would be ideal we are beginning to get late in the season for finding them, we could easily find ourselves stuck in port for weeks at a time.

Its a fine balancing act, unfortunately having really just arrived in the North we have now got a rush to find somewhere that is suitable and willing to have us! So we are more likely to pull in to several marinas over the next weeks as we move around the area, checking out various possibilities.

Here at Skjervoy, at 70 degrees North we are actually further north than parts of Greenland, Alaska, Russia and most of Finland, in fact mainland Norway only reaches 71 deg N. We are now a stones throw away from Finnmark, the remaining northern county of Norways mainland.

Finnmark has a population of roughly 75000, similar to Tromso, whilst covering a land mass bigger than the Netherlands, Denmark or Switzerland, you can imagine its going to be fairly empty!
Finnmark also has a staggering 6844km of coastline, it would take a life time to explore it all! We, I'm afraid do not have a life time, nonetheless we are looking forward to exploring what we can.

So when the appropriate weather appears we might try to pass the next section of totally open sea to round the corner towards Alta.

Its beginning to feel a little more wintry here, the nights have really drawn in and the northern light have made several appearances, the temperature is regularly below 10degC and pleasure boats are being loaded on trailers and disappearing home to be tucked in for the winter. We are excited for what winter will hold but we can't deny we are a bit nervous, there are a lot of decisions to be made in a short time!