Sarah Pedersen 20th June 2023
As we had arrived a bit late (again) to our destination, we enjoyed another late meal without really realising because of the light. The light this evening was almost pink and gave the sky a real summertime vibe. So we decided to sit up and talk and watch the sunset & sunrise which actually means looking at the sun move across the sky and disappear behind a mountain for a while!!
We are getting a little out of synch with time because of the relaxed travel style and the late nights – we don’t realise it was 3 am before calling it a night, so yesterday we had a very slow start sleeping until lunchtime. But we ended up leaving and going to a small anchorage 18 miles away at Helløya.
This was a very cute little group of islands that created a closed little spot to drop the anchor; or so we thought. After a few attempts of getting the anchor to hold on to the bottom we gave up. The thin layer of white coral sand on top of rock bottom did not give the anchor much to work with.
We decided to give it a try at one of the other group of islands, but the water went from very deep (around 30 meters) to very shallow and close to the islands. The anchor has to have 3-5 times as much line out as the depth and also have some distance to the nearest obstacle in case it loosens, which is why the perfect anchorage can be difficult to find.
We found a corner which we felt could be used and we could get the anchor to grap hold loosely. Steve decided to call it a night as he was looking forward to burgers and also a little bit because the area was well protected with islands all around.
We decided to call it a night at a reasonable hour, because we had a long motoring to Tromsø today.
The good night sleep was dramatically (this is mostly for the excitement of the story. It was not that very dramatic) abrupted at 2.30 am by the anchor alarm. For a short while the wind had picked up and the boat had floated closer to the islands.
Steve decided to start the trip towards Tromsø early while Sarah decided to support this by sleeping in the cockpit. Apparently missing a bunch of seagulls harassing a poor sea eagle.