The Glacier

It was time to go south, fast. But, we had one detour to do on the way - Svartisen Glacier. It was a few days sail from Bodø, so after stocking up, we slipped off the dock and started an upwind sail to a wooden dock in a tiny bay near Sør Arnøy. It was pretty slow progress upwind, but we were happy not to be slamming away in waves and lots of wind for once, so we trundled along until we reached the island. Our charts told us there was no water where the dock was, but some comments online assured us there was, in fact, water. So we gingerly motored in watching for the bottom, but turns out the internet was right and there was plenty of water. It also turned out to be a lovely little spot with an old restaurant attached. There was even a little outdoor shower - with warm water!! And a patch of wild strawberries! This was going to be our shelter from another storm, so we spent two nights wandering the island and relaxing as the storm rolled through. Did we mention we were sick of rain yet?

When the storm cleared, the wind switched as well, and we realised we could actually carry the breeze all the way to the glacier in one hit! So it was an early start and a fantastic 42.5NM sail through all the little islands and fjords to the guest dock next to the glacier. Navigating through all the little passages and figuring out what the wind was going to do next was a fun challenge, as well as dodging big ships coming through the passages. The rain even managed to mostly hold off, though we had leaden skies the whole day. As we sailed further up Holandsfjorden towards the glacier, the water became more and more turquoise from the glacial runoff, which made the dark green and black mountains rising out of it almost look fake. Miraculously, the wind followed us down each bend so we had a downwind sail the whole way! Usually it does the opposite for us…
Eventually we sailed into sight of the Glacier, and wowee, it was worth the detour, even whilst partly shrouded in cloud. Pretty surreal being able to sail almost all the way up to a glacier.
Luckily there was enough space left for us on the dock. Most of these docks in Norway are first come first serve, so if there’s no space you’re shit out of luck and have to figure out somewhere else to go.

An evening hike turned out to be the go as it seemed the whole place would be swarming with tourists during the day. Unfortunately the weather came in a bit so we didn’t get to see the whole glacier when we got closer to it, but it was still a magnificent sight, and the whole trail was stunning!

The next morning we enjoyed our coffee on the dock (in sunshine!!!) while watching both the glacier, and the ferry loads of tourists being dropped off…turns out doing the hike the night before was a good idea. We also got chatting with the French skipper of the expedition yacht tied up next to us, so we compared boats and he gave us some leftover beef stew (big highlight for Russell who had caught and lost a prize fish on the way in to the fjord).Read more