Tern's Travels

Five Gold Star Day 8-9th July, 68 deg N
The journey south from Finnsnes involved some tidal gates through leads which were bounded by the mountains of Tjeldsund on the west and the mainland to the east.Whereas the leads on the west which we followed northwards were through innumerable peaks with abrupt shorelines, the leads south are wider, more winding with wooded foothills, homes and small farms and mountains slightly further inland. There is inevitably a coast road which appears to be populated mainly by motor home holidaymakers.
There wasn't much wind so we motored much of the way with intervals of downwind sailing with the Yankee. Indeed, two excellent methods of seeing Norway are by motor home or motor boat. Suddenly we were motoring into 15knts of SW, on the nose, so we bailed out a bit before schedule on Thursday 6th to a small harbour on the island of Andora, where we found a youth outdoor pursuits competition underway, activities such as summer skiing with skis on wheels, complete with marquee and live bands at night. Compared with the Caribbean, this liveliness was nothing, but it was different from the usual, quiet Norwegian harbour.
The wind stayed in the SW so the next day we followed the recommended path to the WW2 ruins where the largest gun in the world at the time was located, together with a whole village of army building ruins. There was also a marked route to the top of the mountain, (there's always a mountain), which we followed through ancient natural birch forest and onto granite heathland up to a summit of 370m. Back at the harbour, our friendly neighbours pointed out some special places in Vestafjord mainland, our next southerly destination.
After another 40-odd NM passage south and a night in the harbourof Lodingen, at the south end of Tjeldsund lead, we headed across Vestaford and sailed most of the way to Hammaroy. Picture a horse shoe with toe pointing north, Bodo is at the bottom
right heel and Rost is the southern tip of Lofoten, the bottom left heel. We sailed from Bodo to Moskenesoy, about a quarter of the way up the left side of the horse shoe, all the way to the top, then about 100 NM north through leads and sounds to Tromso, then back via a slightly more easterly route to Lodigen, and then resumed the horse shoe to go down the east side to Bodo again. Tranoy, where we are now going in our story, is about half way down the east side of the horse shoe.
Many people have praised the Tranoy area so we followed instructions and headed for a "secret" anchorage in the bay of a small island called Tannoy, wiggled our way in and picked up the mooring buoy. The bottom was very rocky so the mooring buoy was most welcome. This place may be the most beautiful and memorable anchorage of the trip. No one had used the mooring as we pulled it up to disturb a huge growth of mussels. They were mostly small, just this year's growth, but they made a delicious moule spaghetti for supper. I energetically pumped up the canoe, which we had not found a use for since the trial in Bergen, and toured the pool. Shellfish shells predominated on the bottom, which undulated dramatically and was beautifully visible as there was no wind. I could barely wait for the next morning to get Larry into the canoe for another tour. At the end of our explorations I fulfilled another dream and went for a swim inside the Arctic circle! I started in a shallow bay and collected some corrals, then took the plunge and swam back to the boat while Larry paddled not too far off, bliss. Nevertheless, it took ages to warm up afterwards despite the bright sun and the relatively balmy, shallow sea. Just to crown things, a pair of sea eagles soared overhead.
All good things must come to an end and the next day there was a fair wind to sail the short way to Tranoy, also highly recommended. We moored in the small harbour and then wandered through the village, taking in the sculpture park as we went. The village had been the home and work place of Knut Hamsun, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1920. Hence there is a gallery in the place which was once the shop he worked in. It is, indeed, a lovely area and great fun to visit each sculpture as well as walk along the shore with it's incredible view of Lofoten, across the Vestjord. The tip of the peninsula has an installation of numerous abstract silk screen prints fixed to the sloping and rounded granite boulders. Larry wasn't sure if they didn't detract from the landscape, but the path went on to a completely untouched section to satisfy the nature purists. As we sat and watched the never-setting sun an OTTER came out to hunt and we could watch it for about 10 mins as it dived amongst the kelp before disappearing along the coast.
So, to add to the Gold Star list of Wishes Come True, in addition to otter watching (which was too much to expect),anchoring in secret pools, swimming north of the Artic circle, exploring in the canoe, eating foraged food (mussels) whilst sea eagles soar overhead, I CAUGHT a FISH! I casually sauntered onto the pontoon where a few lads were fishing, cast in my simplest hook and promptly caught a small cod. It was the largest fish any of us caught. One of the lads caught a slightly smaller one, but gave it to me as he didn't want to eat it
and the pair weighed in at about 1kg, two delicious dinners. Tranoy is pretty close to heaven!