Norrbyskär Excursion

The benefit of a harbor with crew activity is that my day time sleep routine can be performed uninterrupted. Norrbyskär is one of those - I can send the crew for an excursion and enjoy the sleep.

Of course I keep in mind my responsibilities as a chief of the vessel and keep the boat on eye.

Norrbyskär was a home island to a large sawmill operation about for 100 years ago. The buildings in the pictures are the worker's accommodation, four apartments per building. Today they are summer houses. The map and link to the wärdshus with tasty lunch and dinner and inviting little hotel. 

Bowling lane from late 19th century. 

Enjoying the High Coast

Update on Tuesday August 6th:  The weather has not pampered us but yesterday we forgot all that in the sunny 5-9 m/s S. Pics added.


Just a short update. This is really a place to sail.

More updates coming as the connections allow on Trysunda, Örnsköldvik and Vågön.

The Quark Passage and the Company

I think that this leg of this whole journey was the most important to the crew. It was six hours only but a passage is always a passage. This one was done mostly in fog. 

Finally the captain got the credits on his wintery instrument additions - the first mate was very pleased how the radar made us aware on approaching ships long before they appeared from the fog. 

We left Valassaaret after 5 am. It was still foggy. The small spot of light in the pic is the light house. It was designed by an engineering office that later created an other steel structure in Paris. I think it become quite famous.

We observed almost ten ships on the shipping lane; one of them can be seen on the right hand corner. But more interestingly we learned that a gray seal can have velocity of 6 knots as this beautiful individual escorted us for some time. His head is the black item in our back wave.

We did not know where all these insects came from but suddenly we noticed that they were everywhere and that there were hundreds of them. These passengers stayed in the ship all the way to Norbyskär. I really did not understand what happened to the captain when he took his portable vacuum cleaner, started to sing "Ghostbusters..." and vacuumed these poor little things away. Maybe the passage was mentally too demanding to the crew?

Lovely Norbyskär was equally foggy as we arrived at noon. There was a lot of sightseeing for the crew for my nap time so I will post more about the island and how the wind kept us busy even in the pier.

Tasty Target in Valassaaret

This may look at the first sight a regular post in this blog as it includes a handsome seacat and a beautiful sunset. However this is not. This is about a target I am eyeing at: oh, that lovely, plump, gorgeous seagull. My teeth just went klak-klak-klak... 

Of course, this all was only about watching and enjoying, not really to get try his tastiness... Pah.

This all however ended well. The first mate had caught a bird and she was working on it down below. As you can see I took my large scratching pole with and located it strategically by the crew food processing station. It turned out very practical solution as you can see in the last pic. (Most of the foods the crew eats I do not care but this kind of birdie, an organic chicken, wakes my appetite...)

Way to the Whale Islands

It was a long day of motoring in no-wind conditions and the air was hot and moist. It can be almost seen in the pics. 

However during the last hours the Kvarken welcomed us with a brisk wind and we got some sailing. The fog had hidden the islands as we arrived.

Arrivederci Tankar!

Returning to the start of our trip, starting from the very beginning...

Earlier we had said goodbye to Mustakari and felt nostalgic already as we really liked staying the three weeks there. The marina was very welcoming and friendly, I got a lot of complements and admiration (I will return to this matter later) and who would not enjoy being encircled by such a beautiful and well maintained vessels! Also I would like to add that I enjoyed those quiet moments when the crew had their lunch at the restaurant - they say the food was excellent and I say that it was exactly when I like to have my nap and prefer some time for solitude.

The crew was quite tired when arriving at Tankar. The captain had done the big dry ingredients grocery shopping for the journey and had installed the last minute installations. The first mate - how inconsiderate of her - got sick on her last day at her daily-non-sea-activity before the vacation and could not eat and mostly slept the day. However she had enough energy to greet the wise old lighthouse and consult him for upcoming sailing and the upcoming winter.

As we aim to south we do not expect to see him for some time. Goodbye for now, the old wise lighthouse!

Upcoming next: Tankar to Valassaaret, a long day...

At the High Coast

We continued yesterday from  Norbyskär to south, to Höga Kusten. This is one of the World Heritage sites and it is no wonder. As we arrived my sleep was disturbed by all the oh-la-la from the crew. Some of their comments were "like fjells raising from the sea", "those mysterious foggy mountains", "over 50 meters depth very close to islands", "reminds us about Vancouver island" and it continued. Well I did have an interesting day too as we arrived. The marina is packed of life, birds, fish, boats, dinghies and everything. I did stay out late. There was also some not so pleasant new experiences that I will tell you later. I can say that it was an wet encounter...

Now I return to my retrospective posts about our way here.

PS My connection is slow so I may have less visual content for few days.