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2010 Newsletter Sailing above the Arctic Circle by Geoff Saunders |
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New Stuff New Voyage Maps Page Third Topmast Up |
Thanks to John Willis for this photo he sent us of Trinovante sailing past Felixstow Port at the end of 2009.
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Highlights of Summer 2009 |
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Pilot Whales All Around Just ahead in the middle of the fjord was a huge school of pilot whales. How many we couldn't count but it could have been 60 or more. John cut the engine and Trinovante drifted for an hour while whales surfaced all around us. It was quite a different experience from sailing with dolphins where the dolphins actively seek you out and play energetically in the bow wave. Apart from a few youngsters who kept swimming under the boat these chilled out pilot whales didn't seem to care if we were there or not and just lazily swam around the boat. |
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Nice Clouds / Scary Clouds The cloud below appeared over the Seven Sisters mountains, one of the most picturesque anchorages we visit in the north of Norway. Slowly it changed shape over twenty minutes and then faded away. |
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Wild and Windy Weather |
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| Arctic Flowers Of course being onboard Trinovante is all about being on a sailing holiday not a walking holiday but we do get ashore for the odd walk. We have been amazed at how green it can be ashore and the abundance of wild flowers making the most of the short Arctic Summer. The small selection below were photographed by Ian Shore who sailed with us from Trondheim to Bodo last year. Back to top of newsletter. |
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| Sailing above the Circle | ||
Emerging on deck around midnight, I should not have been surprised to see the sun still shining, but nonetheless I was. There, amongst the scattered yellow and orange clouds in the north, it glowed well above the horizon. I had flown to Bodo, in June, to join Trinovante for a voyage along Norway’s northern coast, starting above the Arctic Circle, and finishing in Trondheim, the former capital. Along the way, we would visit some of the wildest and most remote places in Europe, and explore the coastline, under sail. Northern Norway is largely ignored as a tourist venue though cruise liners do ply the spectacular fjords further south.
Though sailing experience is not essential, to join a Trinovante voyage a willingness to learn is. With only the captain and mate, and up to seven guest sailors, handling the sails needs all hands and muscle power available. As it transpired, we had five guests aboard, all of whom had some experience, and were eager to gain more. |
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After a couple of days exploring the islands, we set sail across the open waters again, heading south, to pick up the inside passage amongst myriad islands that dot Norway’s coast. The weather was amazing. I had come prepared for cold and rain and I had expected daylight, not sunshine, 24 hours a day. From our coastal vantage we could see well inland where the huge glaciers and ice sheets of Norway’s interior glinted against the blue sky. | |
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Some days, we caught fish and my shipmates were easily persuaded to let me prepare meals. Some evenings we stopped in little ports, mooring alongside local boats. Other evenings we dropped anchor in quiet bays or sheltered anchorages, and relaxed. Watching the sun not go down with a beer in hand really is special. One morning to our astonishment, a Beluga whale popped up right beside us, and observed us carefully for several minutes. During the voyage, with plenty of practice, our sailing skills improved so that when eventually we crossed the broad fjord to Trondheim, and journey’s end, under full sail our boat must have looked a real picture. Approaching the harbour, the famous coastal cruise ship Hurtigruten saluted us with blasts on the siren. It may provide more comforts than our schooner, but could not better the thrill of sailing, nor the quality of our fresh food. |
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Leaving the schooner at last in Trondheim I could not resist a visit to Bakklandet Skydsstation, a traditional restaurant in a traditional house with rustic furniture, friendly staff and a daily changing menu posted on paper slips by the bar. The reindeer salad was excellent, but I daren’t tell my grandchildren ... Back to top of Newsletter |
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| How To Sail A Schooner No.6 Short turning away from a quay. |
John, Trinovante's Skipper, writes this series of articles about manoeuvres carried out during the previous season.You can find one in each newsletter. | |
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Box One Here the boat is lying alongside the quay and needs to turn through 180 degrees in not much more than its own length to head out of harbour. Alongside this particular quay in Kabelvag there were big piles with gaps in between. We had to initially position the boat so once the swing began the end of the bowsprit would rest on a pile. Trinovante has a bowsprit specially designed and fendered for this type of operation.. |
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Box Two The stern line is slipped. Soon the stern catches the wind and the boat has no option but to swing out as it moves forward and the bow spring pulls the bowsprit in. The engine is not needed as the boat swings gathering speed as it turns. If the wind had been blowing more onto the quay a little shunt with the engine might have been needed to push the stern through the wind While the boat is swinging round the crew efficiently transfer the fendering from port to starboard side starting as soon as the boat starts to peel away from the quay and the load is off the fenders. |
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Box Three The fenders have been positioned where the boat is going to land on the piling at the end of the quay. The bow spring has now become a bow line and at exactly the right moment when the skipper shouts 'let go forward' |
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Box Four Sufficient power is applied to stop the ship blowing astern but no more. The rudder is put over to port. as the bows swing out pushed by the wind. The boat blows clear of the quay and Trinovante can now head out of harbour. |
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Fish On
One young man (would have been gentleman, but for the ‘f’ word) achieved his three ambitions for 2009 when on Monday15th June he crossed the Arctic Circle, caught a monster cod and was sailing in Norway. The cod was caught in fifty metres of water over a sea mount, where we think thirty pounds of fish bent the line and caused great excitement as we all peered over the side to welcome him from the depths. |
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To tell you fully of our shipmates there was In the early days of our two week sojourn to Arctic climes the sea was a cold, steely grey, a suppressed, glassy mass, slipping past silent islands of rock that began life in another more violent age. Staggeringly anything of a size to be built on sported a house and jetty, picturesque and colourful they lifted the rocky outcrops from their stark monotones. Even more amazing was that all were connected to the grid; slender telegraph poles rose from the ocean and marched their relentless path across the islands dipping seaward to the ocean floor and then up again at the next island. |
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The skies were mesmeric when the sun shone, azure blue backed by ranks of serried clouds. Then again they were lowering and low, guarding peaks from our ever seeking view and camera lenses. For this latter purpose number nine stalked the decks on an unending quest for the perfect snap, ‘making a picture’ as the Dutch say. We never saw them because they were heading home to be primped and preened on the computer ready for first prize, we hope, at his local camera club. As for the good ship Trinovante, she thrust on through the seas; comfortable, solid, robust and of pleasing lines; she is a pleasure to sail on. A credit to her builders, numbers ten and eleven, Trinovante took all the seas in a comfortable fashion. We did do our fair share of motoring with the Perkins 130 horsepower engine humming in the background as we ploughed our furrow through to colder climes and then later, with the engine cowling raised, we utilized the latent heat to dry our rain sodden romper suits. |
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Food was discussed in unending detail and eaten with great alacrity, no menu proved too taxing for our chef and her sous chef, number three. From a tiddly freezer and cold box we ate like heroes with seconds and thirds the norm; Delia Smith eat your heart out. Number five managed a twenty pound cod by ensnaring it in his mackerel line. Coated in the batter, number eleven fried it to perfection. Most mornings number three prepared sterling porridge and tea and still the Lofotens loomed ever nearer. | |
The Lofotens came at last, beautiful, isolated, quaint, charming, but reminiscent of a Hitchcock thriller with deserted streets, no lights, no people and no dogs to disturb the peace. Perfect, but empty, on our arrival at a very civilised hour. However, the next day the mood changed as the whaler came in sporting a purposeful harpoon on her bow and her annual quota of minke whale meat. Once, on our final day, these seas were disturbed by a pod of two dozen pilot whales, sporting around us while blowing and squealing; it was an unforgettable ending to our wonderful voyage.We certainly all learnt a lot and enjoyed a lot and it was a shock to enter the hustle and bustle of Bodo airport, at the end of our trip, and then later the melee that was Heathrow. We will miss the Trinovante, her owners and Norway. |
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