Debi and Jack sailing on SV Iroquois

Everyone knows this but, it really makes a difference to be a guest of a native instead of just a tourist. We are staying in a neighborhood, not a public marina. The water is like the street and everyone has their boats parked in front of their houses. It's such a maritime existence. We are in a little cove off a larger fjord surrounded on all sides except the path to the north sea by mountains. The cove is perhaps 400 feet deep and narrows to perhaps 50 feet wide where we are tied up to Jenny, the home-built boat of Jan, who is organizing the trip north. The cove is surrounded by houses on the steep sides of the cove. The houses sit perhaps 75 feet above the water. Each house has a small single car garage size boathouse on the edge of the water, that sit on concrete walls about four feet above the water. Each house has at least one boat, many have a sailboat as well as a small motor boat. It is shorter to go places by water than road as the land is many fingers that wind along the main fjord. This fjord is quite wide without the steep sides I associate with fjords. We watched a young family go out in their little motor boat this morning and I got a little teary-eyed. Something about this place is very emotional to me, maybe in my mind there's an association between my own young family and the Norwegian Americans we met in Wisconsin. In any case I find the scenery to be movingly beautiful. Well, there is the naval station across the way that's not exactly beautiful. It was once a hole in the mountain and disguised from above but the boats got too big so they opened the top of the mountain and built a regular roof. Apparently the day before we arrived there was a convoy escorting a large American nuclear sub with guys standing on top armed with machine guns. It would have been a sight to see. At least we didn't accidentally stray into the forbidden zone when we were looking for this place. We are feeling very privileged by the Norwegian hospitality. Last night we were invited into the impressive home of Jan and Eli for drinks and snacks---excellent home brewed beer, homemade pickled herring and cream herring, Norwegian smoked salmon, and because Jack asked about it they brought out an air-dried leg of lamb. Eli explained that the lamb is a traditional midsummer food so we can expect more of it. Everything was super delicious. The herring was caught by Jan himself. In the winter he stretched a net across the opening to their cove and watched for a gathering of seagulls, which indicated that the net was full of herring, then he pulled it in. We hope to catch some fish with Jan's guidance. He is certain that we can. Growing up in Tromso he said as soon as he could row (around the age of 9) he was sent out to get the family's meal. He has a lifetime of fishing experience that we totally lack, but maybe we can learn enough to get a meal or two. We're already staying up late Norwegian style. It started getting dark around midnight last night when we found our way back to the boat. Today is Sunday and we are relaxing on the boat, soaking up the sun with a temperature of about 20 degrees C. The forecast is for even warmer weather this week, hopefully we have summery enough clothes! I'm watching a guy work on his boat in shorts with no shirt. Iroquois is tied to Jenny, a boat that could be its big sister. Jenny is about 60 feet and 25 tons to our 38 feet and almost 9 tons. They are both green with very similar wood on the deck and cockpit. The shape of the hulls is the same above the waterline but Jenny was built in 2006 and modern below the waterline, while Iroquois has a traditional underbody. When we have access to wifi we will try to post a picture.