A Rather Long Day(s)

As the weather cleared, we made our way down Sørøysundet towards an anchorage on Seiland that we had read about where you anchor in a small pool and run a line to the island behind you to stop from swinging into the rocks. It wasn’t supposed to be super calm so we had a backup plan to go to Kårhamn.

Unfortunately there was a line in the water between the two islands which made it impossible to anchor well, and with some decent gusts coming through we decided it wasn’t worth the risk, but it was an amazing little spot, so well worth the detour to see it.

After a quick downwind sail in the sun surrounded by steep mountains we got to our backup anchorage. Motor on to drop the sails and just as we were cruising into the bay a fishing boat whose engine stank passed us. Unfortunately the smell lingered even when the fishing boat was past us so Russell quickly went to check the engine. Upon opening the engine cover, he was met with a wall of smoke. Oh fuck, again. A slightly mad rush to quickly shut the engine down and put up a sail to let us sail away from the rocks was then followed by a frantic search to see if anything was on fire. Thankfully no fire, and after some digging the solution seemed that the alternator belt had slipped or jammed. So we sorted that, then went to fire up the engine. Nothing. Double fuck. Thus ensued an evening of trying to figure out a sheltered anchorage that we could sail into while figuring out why on earth our engine wouldn’t even try to start.

As we came out of the shelter of Seiland, the wind funnelled very strangely around and into the bay we had picked, so we tried even further up the harbour - not easy sailing into the wind, only to find the wind increasing more and the light decreasing. We turned and ran, one last quick look at the bay we wanted to anchor in, but it was just too risky. So as evening slipped into night, we ran for the Lee of the island, hoping to get back to Kårhamn and try again there - a two hour sail away. Ironically we were then becalmed so in desperation tried for Sørøya again. We were extremely grateful for the large amount of daylight we have now, because as we approached Sørøya at 12:30am, the light started to come back - nice to be able to see the rocks! Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough wind now to get into the bay, and the current and swell was trying to pull us onto the rocks so once again, we turned and ran (maybe not the best description…turned and slowly floated trying to use any breeze we got).

In the end, we decided that this was getting ridiculous, so we would sail through the night and try to get all the way to Alta. Figured if we were lucky we should make it by the following evening. Spent the next 4 or 5 hours barely moving as there was no wind (this made missing the Hurtigruten that came through rather exciting), and then as we approached Rognsundet the breeze went from 1-25 knots in about 10 minutes. So now we were sailing upwind with fully reefed sails in a fairly small channel. Great. Well, we were at least happy to have wind, and even though it seemed like it was going to be upwind sailing for the next 12 hours or more, we should at least make it to Alta!

As it turned out, our little yacht sails beautifully upwind so we were making good ground, although it definitely hasn’t been sailed hard for some time, as little bits of sailing hardware started breaking or ripping along with some rather large bits of furniture downstairs. Oh well, good to test it out properly finally!

We pulled into the marina at Alta sometime around 8pm, again grateful that the sun was well and truly up still. We had tried to contact the coastguard to help us into the marine, but their non emergency number wasn’t working, so we contacted the marina and the guy was nice enough to come and catch us as we sailed in. A quick wine with the guy to say thanks, a shower and then a very short tidy up (the boat really had taken a hammering) and then bed, glorious bed!

Not bad for Angela’s first overnight sail…Read more