Towards Ona and the outer skerries...

Entering Ålesund from the North

When we left Øye on the 14.07 early in the morning the clouds had started to gather over the mountains. The water was completely flat and all the surrounding mountains and clouds were reflected in it. By the time we arrived in Ålesund (62º 28’.3N 6º 09’E) you could hardly see any mountains around you and a drizzly rain had started to fall on this handsome Art Nouveau town, rebuild in this style after the great fire in 1904. 
Ålesund today is teeming with large amounts of tourists considering its size. Every day, big cruise ships (three one day) dock in the south harbour and hundreds (thousands) of tourists, mostly senior, alight for a few hours or for a day. Some go on to do a express tour to the Geiranger fjord, many do the guided tour of the town. I was fascinated by the amounts of iPads and smart phones used to take snap shots of everything (without even looking…) It made think about my own behaviour, taking my camera everywhere… do I also look at the world through the viewfinder rather than experiencing it directly? The vast amounts of wheel-chairs also made us feel that we perhaps were living also on borrowed time… we both felt sad thinking of those who were not with us any more.
One of our missions in Ålesund was to find charts to go a little bit further north to finish our journey with an ‘encore’.  We found a bookseller who had all the charts up to Svalbad (close to the North Pole). When entering the shop, two men were sitting at their computers who hardly bothered to look at us as we came in. One of them spoke a little bit of English and finally ‘condescended’ to sell us the charts we wanted.
I was very happy and we also bought the harbour guide to the North of Norway (still to be decided! But it is a good first step towards the Lofoten?)
we have spoken to so many enthusiastic sailors who say that the Lofoten would be a great shame to miss if we have come all this way already. The couple who were moored right behind us on the pontoon in Ålesund had just sailed down from Tromsø (69º 39’N!) and were raving about so many places on their way down. Kristopher, a snow cannon producer, came on Easy Rider and circled all the ‘must see’ places between here and the Tromsø. Were the dice thrown at that point for us?

Ona looking over the harbour wall

For now, however, we have chosen a couple of gorgeous outer islands on the Harøyfjord which lie between Ålesund and Kristiansund. One of them, Ona (62º 51’.9N 6º 32’.7E) is right out into the North Sea and surrounded by skerries. The approach was tricky but well worth it! We arrived there on a very rainy Thursday (17/18.07) and left in glorious sunshine on Saturday. Ona has a impeccably well maintained old fishing village. Twenty people still live there permanently. It has a lovely small wooden hotel/restaurant run (leased for the season) by three women, an accountant, a ceramicist and a dentist from the centre of Norway. It is their way of spending their holiday.

old fishing village of Ona

'motorised whale' as a ferry

A ferry arrives 4 times a day, bringing visitors on bikes and cars. It has a funny bow which looks sort of cut off (too me it looks more like a motorised whale). I suppose that the shape has been conceived to fit exactly in the tiny harbours of the archipelago.

Spot Easy Rider

Today we have moved on to another of these tiny islands Finnøy (62º 48’N 06º 30’.4E) (20/21.07). It has a very pleasant new marina and even an indoor swimming pool looking out onto the skerries. The harbour is packed with large motor yachts (we are in motor boat country after all!). We are the only sailing boat and we stick out like a sore thumb! They all seem to know each other. The pontoon is occupied/obstructed with their deck chairs, BBQs and all the paraphernalia you seem to need for a picnic on the pontoon!

No, you can't do it like this..