Trondheim

Monday 1st July - the wind and rain died back around 3am so we set off at 9.30am and had another good sail over to Sjursvika in the mouth of Trondheimsfjorden.

A matched pair of Dufour 40 yachts - a very unusual sight.

We got onto the guest pontoon before rush hour for holiday-making Trondheimers started. Two more Dufours arrived soon after, the first we had seen on the trip so far.
We went for a walk up to the Hysneset headland and examined the coastal defences which are now set up as a museum. The main bunker only opens on Sundays so we clambered over the gun batteries and enjoyed the softer, more rounded landscape of this region.

Need a command bunker stormed? Send for the A-Team!

Great view, even through an 88mm tube.

Fun in a gun. First, a game of "where is the gun?"

A game some of us took a little too seriously.

Returned to the yacht to try and catch some dinner as supplies of fresh food were running low and we'd not had any luck lately when fishing on shallow spots when sailing.

First go with a spinner off the rocks since Anglesey aged about 11 - feeling nostalgic!

Caught a 71cm, 3.6kg (8lb) cod. This size of cod would have caught me for dinner when I was 11!

Tuesday was "mingin' " as we'd say in Glasgow so we hid it out in the marina, only venturing as far as the Hasselvik Joker minimarket.

On Wednesday we set off deeper into Trondheim fjord under Genoa alone, regularly topping 7 kts in the gusting Westerly wind.

Big fancy ro-ro ferries in Trondheim fjord. In proper ferry fashion, we had to dip behind both of them even when we should have had right of way.

We rolled into a sheltered anchorage at Hyndøyvågen in Åsenfjorden and cooked up the rest of the big cod.

Just round the corner from where the Tirpitz was hidden for a large part of WWII. We later passed the spot where the fishing boat "Arthur" was scuttled during Operation Title, an attempt to sink Tirpitz using manned torpedoes.

Steve said it's a later start tomorrow so we compared and contrasted two types of Highland Park and a Macallan 12 year old, just to be sure he didn't change his mind. Results of our deliberations will be published if we can remember them. I think we'll probably demand a re-count.

Not much sailing on Thursday until the wind filled in towards the Eastern end of Trondheim fjord, but we saw the last remaining Norwegian seal! Sea eagles are so common up here we call them "seagulls", and we've seen the odd otter and dolphin but seals have proved very elusive so far.

No fish up here - the solitary seal's had them all.

We finished up at the head of the fjord in Verdal, where we plan to collect Pete and Orla's buddy Nikita who joins the crew from Friday.

Exploring Norway on a budget.

Not thet most glamorous of our stopping off points but is adjacent to the Kvaerner shipyard, so looks like Govan in the 1990s - happy days!

Aw that over there used tae be Govan...

... Govan

Room for a wee one standing up?

On Friday we visited Stiklestad by taxi / bike (foredeck crew don't earn enough for taxis, and they need the exercise) and toured the culture centre and museum. The battle of Stiklestad is seen as a pivotal moment in Norwegian history, when Viking king Olav Haraldsson was killed and then made Saint Olav as the region transitioned from paganism to Christianity. The museum was fantastic, with buildings from the Viking era through the middle ages to recent times, cooking pits in use, actors playing out scenes from past times and Stiklestad church, supposedly built on the site of St. Olav's death.

Stiklestad church

Cooking meat wrapped in horseradish leaves and buried with hot rocks.

Middle age and later houses.

Nikita Krähenbühl joined the crew early on Friday morning and we set off to Trondheim. A light breeze abaft the beam meant only one thing - spinnaker time!!

They said it could never happen...

Ataraxia alongside the guest pontoon in Trondheim yacht marina: a great facility, housing more yachts than we've seen in the whole of Norway.

Trondheim shoreline

Fishing with intelligence: fishing in Norway is by line only (no net trawling) and there are clearly defined minimum sizes of fish you can keep. It was a great place to fish, showing the effectiveness of this type of conservation.

Susan watching the world go by.

The world going by, Trondheim style.

Entrance to the Dora U-boat pens. The Norwegians wanted to blow them up after the war but they ran out of dynamite before they made a dent in it, so they've made a business centre.

Very strong but no prizes for artistic merit.

Nidaros cathedral, the world's most Northerly cathedral.

Ossified congregation stacked up on the front of the cathedral ensures a regular attendance.

South down the river Nidelva from Solsiden towards the Gamle Bybro.

The sun is setting again in Trondheim.