Left Tromsø 27 January in a storm bad enough that the authorities were recommending people to not use their cars and the fishermen did not go out either that day or the next one.

The first day went very well. I was cruising along at over 7 knots and it did not take many hours before I was in Kvænangen. Then the wind stopped 🙁 Crossing Kvænangen in 4-m-high waves, by night, in snowy weather and with no sleep the night before was one of the most painful sailing moments in my life. I was falling asleep every other second and hallucinating. I stopped for the night in Seglvik, one of my favorite harbours on this route.

I started early the next day as the wind was forecast to stop within midday and I wanted to take advantage of it. I wasn’t prepared for such a tough ride from Seglvik to Brynilen, at which point I was finally able to use a small foresail and be pushed by the wind. The waves were easily 5 m high and the wind was around 20 m/s. The engine was barely powerful enough to move the boat forward. I experienced the strongest winds at the north end of Silda. The whole sea turned white and it gave a new meaning to the phrase “unleash hell”.

I spent the night in Hasvik. The next day, the temperature had fallen to -6 degrees Celsius and all the ropes were frozen stiff. Around Karken, I got the tunnel wind from Rognsundet at well above 15 m/s. Not the first time… Further north, it was much nicer and I got to take a couple of nice pictures of the mountains and the sun, which I saw for the first time this year 🙂

Unfortunately I did not have my waterproof camera box, so except for a couple of pictures, they are all taken on the last day, when the weather permitted.