Evolene - Nauticat 42

21/7/25 to 28/7/25 Family arrived!  And what a magical week it has been!  Rory (Stuart's brother), Katharine (sister-in-law) and Oscar (nine year old nephew) arrived to glorious sunshine on the Monday afternoon and the weather continued in that vein for the first half of the week.  After an early introduction to the manoeuvring of Evolene  (we needed to let the boat inboard of us leave the marina then move directly alongside the pontoon ourselves) we settled down to a very relaxed evening, sitting in the cockpit, watching the boat traffic and catching up.  Oscar even managed the first dip of the week in the harbour, bravely testing the Arctic circle waters on behalf of all of the family! The fun begins With the sun blazing the next morning, we slipped our lines and enjoyed a leisurely motor south to a bay at Fleina.  We had passed this spot the previous week when enroute to the archipelago with 'The Arctic Hideaway' and thought it would be a good spot....

14/7/25 to 20/7/25 With Kirsty ashore and on her way to catch her flight home, we decided to motor a short distant west to an anchorage in the northeast corner of the B liksv æ r archipelago, approximately 9 miles to the west of Bodø.  The sun was still shining and we enjoyed a relaxing evening, soaking up the surroundings and thinking about the next few weeks ahead. The following day was gusty but we knew  Evolene's  anchor was secure and we took the opportunity to have a very leisurely day, catching up with boat jobs, admin and connecting with friends and family.  Stuart was continuing to investigate the malfunctioning chat plotter.  Raymarine had responded to his enquiry but could offer little further to what he had already ascertained - the flickering of the screen was not due to any electrical interference but an issue with the unit itself - and would require local dealer input.  We asked if they could recommend a local Raymarine dealer and are still w...

10/7/25 to 14/7/25 A trilogy of blog posts to come as we enjoy the  Bodø  area while hosting friends and family!    Bodø is such a convenient location for crew to join and leave as the airport terminal is just a 15m minute walk from the marina.  Many sailors use it as a stepping off point for crossing to Lofoten but there is so much to see and explore around the  Bodø area itself, and it is beautifully understated. With Kirsty aboard, we said goodbye to our lovely Swedish neighbours aboard Tess on the Thursday morning and slipped the lines to head north to Kerringj øy.  Unfortunately the southerly winds that we had been hoping for turned out to be much lighter than forecasted but that did give us the ideal opportunity to hoist the cruising chute (a type of spinnaker sail).  I love the colours of this sail (it came with the boat but we had no idea what it looked like until a few months after purchase!) and it was great to see it flying again. Prett...

5/7/25 to 10/7/25 These few days very much developed on the hoof!  Initially we had thought we would continue south eastward, round the top of the horseshoe where the Lofoten Islands run into Vestfjorden and  then the mainland, following the coastline back down to Bodø, and with that in mind we headed south out of Harstad.  Winds were light and given that we planned only to go a short distance (9 miles) we took our time, occasionally drifting, under sail.  This worked very much in Stuart's favour as he is a bit of a Formula 1 fan and, with this weekend's race at Silverstone, he was able to watch qualifying as we coasted along to Store Rogla.  All was going to plan until the final exciting seconds which coincided with the time to anchor!  However, the bay was large and anchoring straightforward and soon we had established our home once again for the evening, enjoying the glorious, golden sunlight and continuing stunning scenery.   Store Rogla ...

1/7/25 to 5/7/25 As the gale passed through on the 1st July, gusts were in excess of 40 knots, but Evolene  was safe and secure, and whilst our sleep was not the most restful as we listened to the wind howling overnight, lines creaking and fenders squeaking, it wasn't a particular hardship to endure!  We had also doubled up a couple of the lines to the pontoon as a precaution but all in all she weathered it in her usual untroubled way and soon we were on the move again. Leaving  Stø  with the ridge we walked behind As we left the harbour we edged north round the tip of the island where Stø is situated, reaching a latitude of 69 ° 0 1.723N.  Whilst it was momentarily tempting to push on to 70 °north, we would have just been doing it for the sake of it and it would have involved a further 120mile round trip in variable winds.  Therefore, instead of chasing numbers, we decided to continue on our explorations, edging east and then south, with the plan to start...