Today we wake to blue skies in Norway’s most westerly town of Florø. First order of the day is to cook up a batch of pancakes to celebrate the change in weather and then we set sail for Nordfjord to explore another of Norway’s beautiful fjords … in fact as we move further north, the scenery is becoming pretty stunning in every way you look, with sheer cliffs rising in every direction and snow-capped peaks and glaciers peering out from the gaps in the clouds.

All this good weather and scenery is a much needed balm as yesterday everything did not go exactly according to plan. We had a long day pulling up the anchor at 7:30am and not coming to rest until after 10:00pm. We had an ambitious goal ahead of us in terms of distance to travel but the trip was much lengthened by the fact I forgot to top up the day tank with diesel. The result? The engine dried out and I had to spend the better part of an hour bleeding new fuel through the system while hanging upside down in an oily engine space in heavy swell. Of course I lost the required spanner down the dark recesses of the bilge never to be seen again, requiring various appellations to the Norske gods. This seemed to work – she coughed back to life after drifting helplessly on the seas for nearly an hour. Finally, while checking the fuel lines a final time on arrival I managed to break another essential item on the motor (the engine manifold intake – where the air comes in) requiring another quick fix involving wire and tangential thinking …. Rough but strong …..

After all that we finally descended on the town of Florø after midnight passing the welcome lighthouse superimposed against a beautiful orange sky. Thus I staggered into the town line an oil-covered spectre raised from the deep in search of a cheap hamburger at the local fuel station. The horror of this looming creature was somewhat diminished by the daylight still lingering at midnight this far north but I still raised some eyebrows.