Børge Ousland

17.00: We made a brief stop at Manshausen, an island near Nordskot in Steigen Municipality.

Vincent peering down at the astonishingly calm sea.

As mentioned in earlier posts, we arrived in Nordland County yesterday, and celebrated with Nordlandspils bought in Sandnessjøen. Great beer!

The last couple of days we have had lots of calm weather; the wind has come and gone. During the calm spells we have been running the engine. We had a beautiful night with midnight sun and mirror calm water.

Bodø was grey with a bit of rain. We only stopped to fill petrol, before heading to Manshausen, an island off Nordskot that Børge recently bought. For many centuries this island was part of Grøtøy trading post. We were invited to visit the main building at Grøtøy, which is now a heritage site with lots of atmosphere.

We are now on our way across the Vestfjord to Lofoten. Despite its name, the Vestfjord is a stretch of open sea between this archipelago and the mainland – and not a fjord. We expect to reach these famous, scenic islands in the course of the night.

19.00: The Lofoten Islands are within view, their jagged peaks towering above the mist.

In magnificent weather, just past midnight, we crossed the Arctic Cirle into the “Land of the Midnight Sun”. Here was our position at 00.45. If you zoom out on that map, you can see where we are relative to Bodø. That’s our next port-of-call. We should arrive sometime later today.

Update 10.00: We arrived in Bodø. The town is rather quiet – it’s a rainy and grey Sunday. Our plan is to continue on to Steigen shortly, stopping briefly at Manshausen near Nordskot, before crossing the Vestfjord.

We’re working shifts at the helm, in order to sail around the clock. Now it’s my turn to sleep!

The island of Meløy, with Svartisen Glacier in the background.