Restock, Repairs and a Good Shakedown Upwind

From Blokken where we had another windy night, we headed for Sortland to pick up some engine parts and do a restock of fuel for our stove, food and other bits and pieces. We were feeling pretty miserable by this point as it was still raining and cold, and our heater had stopped working so everything inside the boat felt damp and horrible. Combine that with lack of sleep from gusty anchorages, and we were feeling ready to leave the yacht tied up in Sortland and go somewhere warm…
Sortland was a bit of a hectic stop as we were only allowed 2 hours on the dock. Sounds like plenty but when you have to walk everywhere it eats up the time! So after a scramble we threw all our bits and pieces into the boat and then headed back out into the rain. It was supposed to be very windy again overnight so we agonised over which anchorage might work, and found ourselves in a cute small spot north of Blokken called Innerhamn. With a good hold on the anchor and (just) enough swing room we decided this would do. Time to install our engine parts and fix the damn heater! Mercilessly, and ironically, the sun came out as soon as the heater was fixed…but at least we had sunshine! We decided the next day we would have a bit of fun sailing upwind in 20 knots to a place called Hennes that looked beautiful, had a washing machine, and potential for Russell to do some paragliding. It was also a good staging ground for an early start to catch the 4 knot tide running through Raftsundet the next day as we had decided we were sick of the weather on the north side of Lofoten, so we would try the south!
It was a stunning sail up to Hennes, with sunshine (and some rain) and strong wind with a decent sea running so it was slow, hard progress for the poor Millennium Falcon. Our Genoa is also absolutely on its last legs, so we aren’t sure how many more hard upwind days we should do…but she held together for this one!
Unfortunately, the paragliding spot in Hennes sits within managed airspace so no paragliding here (Russell hadn’t found out the given thing is just to call the airport and tell them your flying by this stage), but it was a beautiful spot, and we went for a scenic run before heading off the next day.Read more