Starting to Feel Like Summer

After what was quite a hectic day and late night, we were all very thankful for a sleep in with nice calm weather. It turned into a beautiful sunny day with a gentle breeze and we figured this would be the best chance for paragliding while Rob was here. Hiked up a hill where we were anchored and had a lovely time relaxing in the sun while we waited to see if the wind died down a little - it was a bit too strong to launch our paragliders. Eventually the breeze softened enough for us to give it a go. Rob managed to take off but had to work a bit to push through the breeze and get out of the lift, so Russell decided to give it a miss this time - he didn’t want to have a hectic flight as his first in 6 months! It did mean that Rob got to enjoy the sun and be the local talk of the village while Angela and Russell walked back down the hill.
The next day we tried again. Early when the wind should have been lighter. Unfortunately, we were going off time on the clock, not taking into account the fact that even by 10am the sun had been up and heating the rock face for about 8 hours, so there was already a strong thermal - no flying for either Rob or Russell. Angela had been smart and decided to have a relaxing time on the yacht in the sun, and was rewarded by looking up to see a moose swim past the yacht. Yes, you read that correctly.
Because it was such a beautiful day, and quite warm, we all decided to go for a swim - turns out the water is still crazy cold! After that we headed back to Tromsø for Rob and Russell to fly out the next day. After a beautiful trip back to the city, we needed to stay at the marina in the town centre, as the berth we used in Skattøra was busy. After a slight near miss with the Havila cruise under the bridge (we thought we had lots of room to get through before the Havila, but hit about 4 knots of current just before the bridge, so that slowed us down to 1.5 knots making our heaps of room, not heaps of room), we pulled into the city centre. Conveniently it was Norway’s national day the next day, so we got to see a lot of the fanfare and flotillas right from our yacht!
Then it was time for us all to head our separate ways. And for Angela’s friend Isabella to arrive, keeping Angela company for a week while Russell was away.Read more