Day 8 Ånstad to Værøy

Day 8/Saturday 20th of July. 26 km. Ånstad was a good site to land the kayaks, but medium minus to pitch the tents.
Or maybe the medium sleep quality was not down to the rocky ground but more the anticipation of Moskenesstraumen today.
Anyway, for once we were on time on the water at 1002 to have some time to adjust for currents before the turn of the current at 1130.
In short we planned carefully and successfully to make the crossing of Moskenesstraumen uneventful.
And we succeeded. Crossing over 45 minutes before the turn of the current meant flat water and no issues at all, and soon we were in between the skerries north of Mosken. Lots of birds and probably good fishing grounds, not a place to be on a windy day, but our weather was perfect.
We padddled on to the white sandy beach at Nilslisanden and stopped for lunch looking back across Moskenes Straumen.
No problem. The protagonists of Jules Verne’z novel “Twenty thousand leagues under the sea” surely got their timing badly wrong.
We paddled on to Eidvik on the east side of Værøy. Another idyllic sandy beach, but not perfect for camping: A lot of rotting kelp made the beach a smelly option and elsewhere the grounds was rocky and uneven. An advantage to have small tents.
Since we arrived early we had time for a walk to Måstad, once a rich fishing and hunting community famous for their catch of puffins which were salted and sold southward as meat.
Now it is long abandoned but with a number of well kept houses used as cabins.
The track was quite narrow and if anyone falls seaward, that will be fatal.
Ann-Cathrin and Sigurd decided to continue up the the highest point, but the sandal clad rest of us decided against following.
About midnight with the sun low on the horizon we went to sleep to be ready for tomorrow’s (Sunday’s) crossing over to Røst, about 25 km open sea.Okumaya devam et