Sadly, it’s time to leave Lofoten, but our exciting journey is nowhere near finished. And as we make the overnight sail to Bodo, we also discover that although the sun may have set on us for a few hours, it never gets dark up here.
Leaving at 10 pm, we still have the sun shining on us as we begin to leave these ragged hills in the distance, and even when I come on shift at midnight, the sky is lit up in oranges and pinks. We had great winds to carry us 90% of the way to Bodø, but upon entering the channel we were met with glass calm conditions.
We just have to hope the nice weather continues during our stay as we make a visit to the Saltstraumen.
Cheers from Norway!
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If there were ever the most idyllic and picture perfect spot on earth, this would be it!
This is by far one of the most beautiful spots we’ve ever traveled and it felt like the scenery around us MUST be painted in because there is no way it could be real.
We take three separate hikes within the Lofotens, one at the very famous Reinebringen, where we climbed over 1,500 steps to get to the top. 24 hour later we were in a much quieter spot all to ourselves and decided Georgie needed to go ashore to do a little exploring.
We’d been spending almost every day so far in Norway on the go in one way or another, but there’s just too much beauty around to stay put in one place for too long.
Much love from Norway!!
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Part 2 of our one day excursion in Vaeroy takes us to a vast white sand beach, were the arctic and tropics meet.
Much love from Norway!!
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After having just landed in the Arctic, we woke up on our first day in Værøy, ready to climb some mountains…except our clear skies disappeared on us. Thick fog had rolled into the harbour, and even though sea level was still clear, we knew we would not get our view from the top.
Not to let that discourage us, we still took the dinghy to shore where we rowed through massive amounts of kelp to land the boat. Walking through the former town of MÃ¥stad and learned of its history in fishing and puffin hunting.
We did eventually find the trail to make our ascent up the incredibly steep hill, but just as we expected, we began to lose visibility only a few hundred feet up. It was still a fun experience though and got us ready to head to our next destination for the afternoon…a white sand beach with a mysterious cave!
Much love from Norway!!
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With more rainy and overcast skies, coupled with fronts moving in, we leave our spot in picturesque Hope Town to hunker down in Marsh Harbour once more. We figure it’s a great time to tackle a few projects on the boat that we’ve been ignoring for awhile, but need to be handled.
Jessica goes to work patching our blown out headsail, which we noticed a tear in while sailing from Powell Cay to Green Turtle. The rip is in the leech of the sail just past where the new sacrificial cover was added, and needs to be repaired with some stitching and dacron tape.
Matt inspects the rigging and adds some tension to areas that need to be addressed. Once our projects are done and the weather lets back up, it’s off to Hope Town again, but this time under sail!!
Cheers from the Bahamas!
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GIVEAWAY WITH ABACO POLARIZED SUNGLASSES!! Details below.
We leave Marsh Harbor for the picturesque settlement of Hope Town, and have a whirlwind adventure while we’re there. Heading into town one night to play trivia with friends, we find there is a shipwreck on the north end of the island, and stroll up the beach to take a look.
Lodged in the sand is a Westsail 32 named Ellipsis that had ended up there the night before after encountering some heavy weather between Puerto Rico and St. Augustine. We only had a few details at the time, but knew it was two men and two dogs on board, and although the boat was now meant to be salvaged, everyone on board was ok.
The next day the two of us do a little more wandering around town and take a look at the world famous Elbow Reef Lighthouse; the last kerosene burning lighthouse in the world. We also walk through the grounds of Harbour Lodge resort to take in stunning views from their Atlantic coast beach.
Strolling back out to the beach, we found the owner there removing personal belongings and were able to talk to him to get the full story of what happened.
— Abaco Polarized sunglasses giveaway —
Drawing will be done on Wednesday February 14th at 9 am EST. Winner will be notified by personal message
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Only a few days into the Abacos, we realize there is still so much more to see there!
We spend one more great afternoon in Powell Cay where we take the dinghy to check out the beaches on the south side, and then head over to our new friends Brian and Shari’s boat for a lesson in silk swinging (and this girl has some talent!).
From there we head down to Green Turtle Cay in some crappy weather conditions, which are made only crappier when we found out our headsail had a tear.
Not letting that get us down though, we spend a few enjoyable days in GTC before going just a little further south to play with the pigs in No Name Cay. Abacos, you keep surprising us every day we’re here!
Thank you SO MUCH to our Patrons. These amazing supporters help keep us on the boat, our camera equipment up to date, and the videos coming. Without our patrons, these videos would not be possible.
Our first days in the Bahamas led us to the clearest water in the world, where it is like looking at an aquarium from our deck.
After entering the Little Bahama Bank, we spend a full day motoring through light winds only to get half way through. Dropping anchor in the middle of nowhere for the night, we wake us to glass calm water and a pod of dolphins coming to say hello.
Making our way to Powell Cay that night, we spend a few days exploring this beautiful and uninhabited island, hiking through jungle like trails and even taking Georgie for walks on the beach while enjoying beautiful sunsets.
Cheers from the Bahamas!
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We didn’t know how long we’d be stuck on the coast of Florida, but it turns out we were given a window to get to the Bahamas!
Getting to the Palm Beach Inlet took a full day of motoring from Stuart, full of the bascule bridges we would love to try and avoid if only we trusted the two inlets north of Palm Beach. And the weather window we had been rushing to get of course changed course on it.
A few extra days hanging around Palm Beach, and we were given the weather window we were looking for to get to the Bahamas. With nice 15 knot winds out of the south, we thought the crossing would be everything we’d planned for it to be, except the Gulf Stream had other plans in mind for us.
Cheers from the Bahamas!
Thank you SO MUCH to our Patrons. These amazing supporters help keep us on the boat, our camera equipment up to date, and the videos coming. Without our patrons, these videos would not be possible.
Music: 00:00Â – Years – Alesso ft Matthew Koma 00:40Â – Moth’s Wings – Passion Pit 03:15Â – Back In The Day – Andreas Jamsheree (ES) 04:02Â – Kick Push – Lupe Fiasco 07:44Â – Hide With Me – Sebastian Forslund (ES)
WE’VE LEFT THE DOCK!, Which means, we are full time cruisers again!!
To get here we did have to do a full provisioning of the boat as we do plan to spend a month or two in the Bahamas and we know how hard it can be to get your favorite things there sometimes. But, we’re fully loaded now and ready to go!
We also get back into our new headsail from Precision Sails, taking you through the steps where we have a consultation with Sales, take all the necessary measurements to make sure the new sail fits our boat perfectly, and talk with the head designer after he has received our measurements so he can show us what the new sail will look like on our boat, as well as bring up an issue with our old sail we didn’t even know we had.
Then it is time. We shove off the dock and say goodbye to Indiantown Marina for good. Not to mention, we get to celebrate another occasion, so a twofer day for us!
Precision Sails: www.precisionsailloft.com
Cheers from Stuart, Florida!
Thank you SO MUCH to our Patrons. These amazing supporters help keep us on the boat, our camera equipment up to date, and the videos coming. Without our patrons, these videos would not be possible.
