Warm Days, a Hippy Island and the Midnight Sun

With Russell back in Tromsø, we could continue exploring the Troms area. Russell was greeted with a shock stepping off the plane in Tromsø; over the past 3 weeks, almost all of the snow had melted, the hills and mountains had turned a vibrant green and it was warm! Angela had met a guy at the marina organising a little festival at one of the islands a little further north, so we had a couple of days to relax while working our way up there. It’s such a change sailing around in warmth and sunshine, and even though the water is still very cold, it’s all a lot less stressful now - much less fear of death if we get something badly wrong with the sailing! The ability to catch fish easily is still a welcome part of our diet, and saves a tonne of money given how expensive good food is in Norway!

Once we were at Karlsøy for the festival, we found out it was not just a hippy festival, but a whole hippy island community! We ended up with 5 yachts moored on and around a small floating dock, which we felt good about until we were told that the dock got blown off its anchor points the year before…
So we explored the island and the festival a bit, but on returning to our yacht the first night we found out that it and all the others had been saved by our German friends staying there (the only ones not there for the festival) as some swell had rolled in and made life rather interesting on the dock with up to 2 meter waves! So we didn’t get much sleep that night, and not because of the festival! We spent the next day returning the favour to the German couple by helping diagnose what was wrong with their engine, and trying out their strange offshore rowing skiff. The festival was a very quaint affair, with only around 100 people in total, but a cute setup and friendly people. Definitely met some characters though!
The next day we headed off to a new floating pontoon that was tucked away in one of the outer islands, with a plan to go see the midnight sun the next day. Cute floating dock and all to ourselves. Perfect for a little yoga session in the sun the next morning.

After getting out to north Grøtøya, we once again found out that what would typically be a sheltered bay, was not in fact sheltered at all, so we turned and ran to a spot on the south of the island. We are now in the land of a million little rocks and islands, so navigating is a much more involved task, and we are eternally grateful at the invention of GPS…it’s hard to imagine trying to navigate by paper chart and compass through here and actually enjoying yourself.
Once again, a bay that was exposed to the south, turned out to be perfectly sheltered in a south westerly - go figure… No midnight sun in this bay, but a beautiful spot and a really beautiful island for a little explore, and our first lake swim! We finally found our midnight sun spot at an island called Sandøy. So with a good scotch we sat and enjoyed watching the sun dip close to the horizon and then start rising again for the first time. A much weirder experience than we had anticipated!
The next day we headed in to Kvaløyvågen to pick up our Dutch friends Merel and Axel that we knew from NZ!Read more