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| the weather |
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| the Seven Sisters |
Weather forecasts can be very depressing.
When we left Møyhamna, all the predictions were for rain, rain and more rain.
We have got used to the rain by now, but the problem is that the grand scenery of
Helgeland demands to be seen! Mountain islands as far as the eye can reach,
some famous ones like the
Seven Sisters on the island of Alsten – it occurred
to me that many places around the world have this mystical number after which
they name their mountains, two of them are in the U.K. alone.
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| Hjartøya at 23:00 |
Our anchorage in Hjartøya (66º00’.3N 12º
24’.2E) was chosen for its wild remoteness and the views of the Seven Sisters.
We enjoyed the first bit, however the views were slightly limited. The
unsettled sky at night (11.00pm) made up for the rest.
Knowing the skipper, you should have
guessed that she wanted to see one of the islands, which lies at the fringes of
the ocean. Lovund and Traena are monolithic offshore islands that attract you
(i.e. the skipper) like a magnet as soon as soon as you set eyes on them.
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| Lovund (Traena in the background) |
Lovund (66º 22’.1N 12º 22’.2E) has another
particular attraction: the whole mountain (most of the island is the 600m high
mountain) has a very large nesting colony of puffins. It is a world heritage
site. Thousands of puffins can be seen returning from the sea each evening to
feed their young. They do that for 40 days a year and then they all leave. Each couple has only one egg, which they look
after in turn. They return every year to
the same nest. You are not allowed to go very near, so all we saw were black
dots in the sky and lots of noise.
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| Leading the way |
We had another extraordinary encounter
yesterday.
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| introducing our guide |
We wanted to walk up to a lookout with a particularly nice view from
the mountain. The path was very difficult to find and we got lost at first. We
were going to give up and noticed that
we were being followed by a black and white sheep like a dog. Baah! Baah! (you
are going the wrong way!). And then it showed us the way! It seems daft to say
so, but it really did, following the track, climbing rocks until finally we
were, together with the sheep at the wind swept top. (…usually sheep are
followers rather than leaders…)
Today we are having a lazy Sunday in the harbor which is strongly affected by katabatic winds currently up to 30 knots.