RSKE Year 3 Day 2. Wednesday 15 of July: Every expedition need a member with good luck

Rødberg fort to Kalvik. 42 km, 5,3 km/hr average speed. Start 0745 arrive 1915.

As planned we started to break camp just after 0500. The cargo hadn’t shrunk as much as hoped so packing took a bit longer than expected. Still we were happy for a 0745 start and set off for Gibostad. A place featured in a novel by Knut Hamsun (…no we couldn’t remember which one). Anyway at about 15 km a good place for a break. Maybe some shopping? A café?

As we turned around Rødberg fort we saw a big open stretch of water and soon felt a head wind. It took us almost 3 hours to reach Gibostad. We paddled the shortest way, and that meant we were close to or in the shipping lane for parts of the paddle. As we approached the narrowest point Hurtigbåten from Harstad and a huge MTB appeared in short succession, but just as Erling and Stein reached for their VHFs the boats turned and followed a lane to our starboard. Half an hour later three more boats passed us in quick succession. Stein and Erling haven’t seen a busier seaway than Finnsnesrenna since they paddled the river Svir.

Finally were reached Gibostad. To Karianne and Arne’s disappointment we were a couple of decades to late for any shopping or cafe visits. Still we found a nice place to pull up the boats and have lunch

Gibostad toward Finnsnes started with another long slog along the shipping lane, the water was wider and we had no problem staying clear as Hurtigruta passed. The head wind and currents continued. Stein had studied the current conditions and there was hope that a following current should appear sooner or later. As far as we can tell it was never. Just as we saw the bridge at Finnsnes we decided we needed an out of plan break. Good choice. We enjoyed the last sun of the day on a pebbly beach. We all agreed that the quality of the breaks is as important for a successful trip as the paddling speed.

Finally we reached Finnsnes. We found a beach and pulled up the boats and went to “work”. Stein, Karianne and Erling to shop supplies while Arne went to the post office to send a package of stuff he had brought by mistake/confusion. All went approximately well. Supplies no problem, and Arne sent some stuff home, …..mostly stuff he didn’t need.

As we got ready to paddle on it turned out one of the things Arne had sent that he did need was the dry sack for the deck cargo. Arne is both resourceful and optimistic; he packed his deck cargo in an IKEA bag and paddled off.

Since we had had a long slow day, we planned to make it short and just paddle a short stretch to and find a place to camp near Dødmannsvik (Deadman Cove). Upon closer inspection we decided that the dead man probably was killed by mosquitoes. Since we felt better, wind was down and speed was up, we decided to keep going and cross from Senja over to Dyrøy.

An hour and a half later we found a good campsite by an old boathouse. First a cabin “neighbor “ and the the owner appeared. No problem we were welcome to camp for the night.

As we unpacked the boats we found that not only had Arne packed deck cargo in an IKEA bag, he had also paddled with his front hatch open. But…everything was dry. When planning fails all expeditions should bring a member with that kind of luck!

For dinner we had some Lapskaus that had hid in Erling’s basement for three years since Arne, Stein and Erling paddled Mandal Tønsberg in 2017. It had aged well, at least with 42 km paddled before dinner.

Tomorrow we plan to paddle about 40 km to the eastern tip of Andørja. WP.