Navigating through the Norwegian fiords has been truly magnificent. With grand mountainous landscapes, winding channels with strong currents, a scattering of fishing villages and the midnight sun we have enjoyed every mile of it. We can see many similarities with the landscapes of Patagonia and South Georgia. At the start of the year we were sailing past the abandoned Norwegian whaling stations in South Georgia. Now the cultural links between the southern whaling grounds and this part of the world are even more evident to us as we sail past small isolated fishing villages that resemble in some ways the Norwegian settlements in the south.
For those of us with biological clocks regulated to the mid latitudes we are finding it somewhat bizarre to experience 24 hour sunlight. Visiting some of the many bars and restaurants in Tromso during our stop over, it just does not feel right when you leave a bar at 2am in the morning to a bright sun overhead. During our stop in Tromso we were also able to buy final provisions and continue work on the generators and engines. Joining us on board are Romain Trouble, head of logistics for Tara Arctic and Mathieu Weber, our instrumentation engineer for the winter.
Dropping the lines in Tromso this morning we are now on route for Murmansk where we are obliged to stop to complete the official requirements for entering into Russian waters.
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