Our goal was always to reach at least Tromsø. Lying on 69° 38′ 57″ North, it is one of the northernmost major cities in the world and a famous travel destination for starting to explore the north of Norway.

On our way there, we made a stop in Harstad, hoping to finally get our radar fixed. We had found out that there was a dealer there who worked with our radar brand. We finally made it to the store, only to find out that they don’t even sell radars there — let alone anything from the brand we have. Very annoyed and frustrated, we went back to our boat. Living on a boat is not always fun and picture-perfect; we have our fair share of setbacks and fights, too.

After taking a break for one day and getting back on track, we made our way to Finnsnes, arriving there late in the evening in pouring rain. Somehow, we seem to be having a bit of bad luck at the moment.

Whilst we were still sailing in the Lofoten Islands, a friend of mine texted me that she was there too. We tried to catch up with each other multiple times, but somehow never managed to make it work. Then, by chance, we arrived in Tromsø on the very same day!

This lifted our spirits a lot, and we had a great evening catching up with a very old friend and meeting new people. There was something really healing about spending an evening with other young people from Switzerland, speaking the same language and not having to translate everything in our heads.

With this new energy, we were ready to face the issues of the marine industry once again. We took the bus to a store called “Maritim Center Tromsø” — you might think that sounds like a well-equipped store full of boat parts, right?

Well, the reality was that the store seemed to mostly sell snowblowers, lawnmowers and, at least, some boat parts. We were looking for new navigation lights. On a boat, you have to have a green light on the starboard side and a red light on the port side whenever you are sailing at night or in restricted visibility. Somehow, it is incredibly hard to find two identical lights here in Norway. We ended up finding something, but it meant replacing our current light because they didn’t have the exact same model as the one we already had.

We were also looking for engine oil and filters so we could service the engine. Of course, they did not have what we needed in the store, but they sent us to a mechanic close by and said that they might be able to help.

It turned out to be a somewhat shady-looking mechanic. The whole shop was filled with boxes, trash and very outdated tools. But, surprisingly, they were able to get us everything we needed. After they had gathered everything, we asked them how we could pay. The guy was completely confused, and when we offered to pay cash and asked how much he wanted, he just started adding up random prices.

In the end, it worked out in our favour. We paid a lot less than we had expected and walked away happy.

Now that we had finally made it to Tromsø, we decided to head south again, hoping to find some sunshine and warmth. So, on our last evening in Tromsø, we started researching what requirements the cats would have to meet so that we could enter Scotland in a few weeks.

This was when we found out that we couldn’t sail to Scotland with them at all, because you are not allowed to enter the country with pets on your own boat!

Of course, this threw all our plans out the window, and we now need to make new ones.

But more on that in the next blog.

Day 107: Brottøya NO - Risøyhamn NO