Hurtigruten; Wednesday, 16 January, 2008

In the end I hadn’t needed to worry about getting to sleep, the worst of the rough seas were over in about 30 minutes, and whilst the boat was still rolling a little bit, it was actually quite restful when you were lying down. As we sailed on into the night I had gone to sleep reflecting on how far my stomach had come since I was a kid. I used to get travel sick at the mere thought of going somewhere. A 30-minute crossing over the channel on a hovercraft on a dead calm day, sick; a 10-minute car journey, sick; travelling by coach, sick; airplane, sick. Today I can happily read a book on a coach, or wander around on a ship in heavy waters, even sleep on a rough sea, with apparently no ill effect.

Whilst I was sleeping we had made the stop at Bodø, as well as another at Ørnes. By the time I got up at 8am we were well on our way to the next port of call, Nesna, but before we reached that, a about 9:15, we made an important transition. At 66° 32’ 35” North we crossed the arctic circle and left the polar regions behind us. This would be impressive, if it wasn’t for the fact it was at least the 12th time in 20 months that I had done it. I’ve crossed the Arctic circle now by foot, on bike, by taxi, by bus, on a plane and on a ship. In fact I have now crossed it more times than I have visited the British Museum. One of these is 7 miles from home, the other well over a thousand, that’ll be today’s modern global society!

A brief stop at Nesna and an opportunity to book for the following mornings sightseeing tour of Trondheim, which would allow me an opportunity to see more of the city than I would have done in the short time I had before I had to catch the train to the airport.

Sixty minutes later we were approaching the next stop of the morning, and one of the longest of the day at Sandnessjøen. I got off the boat and had a brief wander around the town, which really is just a small costal town. However the surrounding scenery is spectacular with the Seven Sisters mountain range dominating the area. The best views of this, according to the guidebooks at least, come from the southbound Hurtigruten, so it made sense to pick up a spot of lunch on land (at a fraction of the price that it would have been on board!) and then re-board the boat ready for the afternoons mountain spotting.

As we continued south, it became apparent that Sandnessjøen appeared to be some kind of cut off point. Whilst there had been the odd other boat about since Nesna we had passed a car ferry and a catamaran and south of Sandnessjøen the waters were positively teaming with trawlers, ferries and other small ships. Along the edge of the fjord the houses continued for several miles south of Sandnessjøen and it did really look like we were entering a much more populated part of Norway. A quick check on the map and it showed that Sandnessjøen was just slightly north of where the country starts to bulge outwards, so it sort of made sense.

Most of the mountains were obscured by mist and snow, so there really wasn’t that much to see, on the plus side it meant that there was a better excuse for sitting inside out of the brisk chilly wind that was blowing outside. Just gone four, and with it already having been dark for over an hour, we pulled into the penultimate stop of the day at Brønnøysund, for a short 45 minute stop. If Sandnessjøen was a small town then Brønnøysund appeared to be a sleepy village, there was hardly anyone about, even though it was still, technically, the middle of the afternoon. A quick look around an then back on the boat for dinner and the three and a half hour cruise to the final stop of the day Rørvik.

Rørvik arrived at the same time as a hefty snow shower, with driving winds decided to pass by, which made for an interesting time on deck as we watched the ship dock. There was a choice of museums to visit in the one hour that the ship was moored up for, I, along with the other four people who got off the ship to brave the elements went to Norveg. On the way back I was disconcerted to see the funnel of the ship moving, I picked up my pace a bit, more concerned as to how I had managed to spend an hour inside the museum and why my watch was telling me the boat wasn’t due to leave for 20 minutes. Thankfully, as I rounded the corner I saw that it was the Vesterålen mooring up on its Northbound trip. This was the sister ship to the one I had originally been booked on, the Lyngen. That ship had been sold and the following shuffle round of ships had left me on the Nordlys, I was quite glad once I had seen the Vesterålen as it was built at a time before the concept of the Hurtigruten cruise had been born, and looked quite like (and say this quietly) a converted whaling ship!

I got back onboard the Nordlys and went to warm up for a while, in my room, then turned the temperature down so that I could sleep and popped up to the bar for a quick drink, then back to bed for my final night at sea.