Ski and Paddle Norway 2009

Distance 14km | Time 2.5hrs | Ascent 0m | Descent 0m

It was a beautiful morning when I woke at 0800 after really too little sleep. I was falling hopelessly behind with the blog and photo updates due to this good weather and it was hanging over me. So I decided that today I would paddle the short distance to Havoysund, get a room and have a marathon writing session to catch up. It would also give me a rest.

After another two herring gull eggs on bread for breakfast I slowly started to gather my things and pack them. Maasoy was not the place to hurry. There was a beautiful functioning robuer still here with a jetty, where the boat would moor and unload. On the jetty was lots of fishing equipment, lots of cod hanging on racks drying and the shed where the cod was filleted and processed, long lines were baited and equipment was repaired. All the offal and waste from filleting the fish would drop into the sea beneath. Long ago the fisherman and his family would also live in these quarters with. This particular robuer was really more of a working museum than modern practicality.

As I packed the kayak the men of Maasoy gathered to see me off. There was Astor, his son-in-law, his grandson and 3 others. It was a nice gesture. I shook hand with all of them then dragged my kayak across the sand into the clear waters in the bay and paddled east round the headland. I waved before I disappeared. Maasoy was a special place. In this sunny weather it was quite idyllic and the warm friendly welcome and hospitality can only really be found in such rural communities untarnished by the stresses of fast living.

There was a small kittiwake colony on the cliffs at the entrance to the harbour as I turned south and then west along the south coast of the island. The south coast itself was really quite lush with huge bunches of the succulent rock rose growing on all the ledges on the crags. There was another isolated beach here.

There was a bit of a current along the south shore in my favour and I was paddling at about 8 km an hour. A fishing boat from Havoysund passed me. He had the wind behind him and he had deployed a small sail to help him along. I also heard that this sail helped to stabilize the boat when fishing.

I rounded the southern tip of the lovely Maasoy and Havoysund came into view some 12 km to the west. It was a larger town of over 1000 inhabitants built on the south shore of the small island of Havoy. Between Havoy and the mainland was a narrow sound some 300 or 400 hundred metres wide and a couple of km long. It offered a good harbour and the town developed as a fishing centre. The town was now connected to the mainland by a bridge.

On Havoy itself, apart from the town, were about 12 large wind turbines. There were a couple more but during a storm the brake mechanism failed and they spun themselves to destruction, one flying apart in a centrifugal frenzy.

I made good time across the open crossing despite the wind being against me. At one stage it was nearly a force four. There must have been a considerable tidal flow as I was still doing nearly 8 km per hour.

On my right hand side was something new and welcome. It was a large island called Hjelmsoya. Here were even a couple of islands beyond that one with the world’s most northerly lighthouse on the inhabited and remote Ingoya. Since the Russian border I have largely had the open ocean on my right and been very much at its mercy.

I arrived in Havoysund rather quickly. It was almost industrial compared to what I was used to. The fish processing operations here were on a larger scale than Kjollefjord and Mehamn. There was a small marina in the sound in front of the hotel. I pulled into that and levered the kayak onto the jetty. There were a lot of sea angling boats here which Germans and Swedes were chartering to fish cod and halibut.

Near the hotel was a quiet pensionat with cheap rooms Astor had told me about. I found it quite easily and got a lovely room at a great price. It even had a washing machine. I showered, put on a wash and then settled down to write and process the photos. Some 8 hours later after a marathon blog session I had wasted some exceptional weather but was completely up to date and my clothes were clean. The forecast was still good for a while which made me feel less guilty.

It had been a good day again. I managed a small paddle and caught up with all the paperwork.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 10th, 2009 at 11:46 pm and is filed under Update. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.