RSKE Year 3 Day 4.Friday 17 July: Tasty and timely home baked buns

Andørja to Tjeldbergodden camping. 46 km, 5.9 km/hr average speed. Start 0945 arrive 1945

The rain stayed away as promised. We got in the boats at 0945 hoping to catch some following currents to ease a long day. Success we covered the first 15 km to Hamnvik in about two hours with max speed of about 9 km.

Hamnvik used to a key location along the coast here and with wealth to match. As witnessed by the former bank building.

It is still an active community with shops, municipal centre and lot least the old buildings at the shore

These were built in 1794 by Jens Bing Dons and still run by the Dons clan, now as a popular tourist destination

They are also distant relatives of Erling’s friend Carl Dons, Carl if you read this we bring greetings from Gunn Torild, wife of your seventh menning.

It was very nice place but we just had a short stop for resupplies, it would be a long day and we wanted to take advantage of the good conditions as long as we could. That length turned out to be about three km… Then the head wind picked up to about 5 m/s. We decided to cross Astafjorden right away to see if there was better shelter on the other side. The crossing was a bit of a struggle we only managed about 4.5 km/hr, and there wasn’t much shelter, but we had crossed the fjord in reasonable conditions and wouldn’t get stuck on Rollan.

We paddled on a bit further before we took a break for lunch. Still 20 km to go…

Fortunately the head wind came down a bit, but it still was slow progress and not too much conversation. The promised rain came late, but it definitely came. Good that we had a cabin reserved and a friend’s visit to look forward to. And more.. the high point of the day was yet to come

When we had about one km left to Tjeldberssundet a kayak approached from port. Stein immediately understood it was John Petter. It was. And he brought his wife’s freshly baked buns. Suddenly the view was a lot less grey.

Stein and John Petter fell into conversation and fell a little behind, while Karianne, Arne and Erling made a bun-fueled dash for the camping ground.

Soon we were all fresh from warm showers, dinner was on the table and wine and flowing conversation. A great end to a long day. Tomorrow we will negotiate Tjeldsundet, Sandborgstraumen and Ramsund. Currents and Weather Permitting. CWP.