With four more stops, we sail the final stretch towards Tromsø. Lovely that we have time for this and don't feel any hurry 😊. The first stop is in Sortland, a town located on the passage to the north. We are well protected on the inside of a large sturdy floating jetty behind a fishing boat. There is a sauna here in the harbour and we reserve it for the next afternoon 👌👍.

Sortland is also called the blue city; lots of buildings are painted blue 🤣. The weather is lovely and sunny and we take a bike ride along the coast to the north against a strong wind and on the way back with a nice tailwind 🚲👌. At the end of the afternoon, we go into the sauna for an hour. We are alone; what a beautiful experience it is. The sauna is wonderfully warm with a view of the boat and snow-capped mountains beyond. We cool down by immersing ourselves in the harbour water which is 10 degrees. How nice and physically relaxing that is 🥵🥶🤗 !!!

The next stop is a very sheltered anchor bay near the islet of Helløya. It is 35 nm of sailing and we do everything by engine due to lack of wind. On the way, we are in contact with Richard and Tricia from the Liajnad 🇱🇷, and we agree to meet them there for a BBQ. Along the way, we see many puffins swimming and diving into the water close to the boat 😊🐧. The anchor bay is small and so they come and cozy up to us. We have an incredibly enjoyable evening together, with salmon from them and meat from us on the Kamado Joe 😊👍☺️.

The next day we set off for another anchor bay some 25 nm away. Partly sailing and partly motoring in lovely sunny weather. The Liajnad stays another day; they have more time to get to Tromsø and then return home for three months. But I am sure we will meet again in autumn and winter 🤗🤗.

The sun shines all night and keeps the boat well warm ☀️☀️. For the first time, there is no need to turn on the heating in the morning. Bizarre and special that at 2.30am, the sun is still above the sky 🫢.

The last stop before Tromsø is Finnsnes. This association harbour is where the Polaris Helvetica enjoyed mooring last winter. We would also like to moor here next winter. We meet Jon (manager) and Lars (deals with the moorings) with the result that we will get out of here. Not sure which spot yet, but I'm sure that will work out 🤗👍.
There is a fine X-Extra supermarket next to the port and there we do our shopping for Svalbard between showers. We drive onto the jetty with two trolleys full of groceries back to the boat. Very practical 🛒👍.

We motor the last 40 nm to Tromsø with no wind and regular rain showers. Again, we see many puffins swimming and diving below. Tromsø has a spacious harbour with a special arctic vibe 😊❄️👌.

We spend four days moored in Tromsø's city harbour that are mainly dedicated to final preparations for Svalbard. We don't have the peace and quiet to do any sightseeing in Tromsø and besides, we have plenty of time for that in autumn and winter. Surely the next step to Svalbard is quite an undertaking and we both and especially I feel some “departure” tension about that. We sleep a little less well, which incidentally is a combination of noises outside on the street, the light/sun all night and the excitement for Svalbard (in me). Oh well, that's part of it and we know from experience that the tension dissipates as soon as we leave ☺️☺️.

What do preparations consist of?

• Visit to the Polar museum; a beautifully set-up museum about all the bare tours and voyages of discovery to Spitsbergen, Nova Zembla and the North Pole. What toughies 💪❄️. At the museum, I buy a small polar bear as a second mascot 😉 🐻‍❄️.
• Keeping an eye on the weather and rout using Predict Wind, Windy and the Bracknell weather charts. By the day, the weather models are becoming a bit more stable and similar.
• Visual calling with family and friends 🥰.
• Checking the boat from outside, lines under the dinghy and “running lines” on the deck (to clip the lifeline to if we need to get out of the cockpit).
• Buy handy baskets for in the hatches under the floor to put food in that needs to stay cool. As a result, we have an extended fridge 👌😊.
• Final shopping of fresh vegetables and fruits.
• Making an appointment with the police to check out of Norway at 12.30pm on Sunday, June 29.
• Making an “icepool” out of two pecking hooks with tie-raps attached. So that we can push small ice floes away with that.
• And of course picking up Marinthe from the airport on Saturday early evening 🥰❤️. How incredibly nice it is to see each other again after 4 months. We go out for dinner and chat 🤗🥰.

I am reading “A Woman in the Arctic Night” by Cristinne Ritter. A beautiful book that puts me well into the mood of Svalbard. In the harbour, we have regular chats. We meet the crew who sailed the Ziggy Stardust across and chat for a while. Tom himself is coming on board with girlfriend and daughters next Tuesday. We give them our old airfryer; nice that it got a good destination. The manager of the marina also comes for a chat and we discuss with him that we will be able to stay here for a few weeks during Christmas and New Year's Eve. Most amusing is a group of five twentysomethings who have an outing from work dressed with balloons have to do all kinds of tasks. Like a picture of the Titanic pose on a boat 🤣.

On Saturday, an Italian expedition boat is coming for us (Perlo do Mar) that is also going to Spitsbergen (with guests of different nationalities), and then on to Iceland and Greenland. We exchange contact details because we are in Svalbard during the same period and you never know when you might need each other. The Liajnad also arrives and is cosily behind us.
For the last two days, the weather has been lovely and sunny, so sitting outside you automatically get a lot of attention in this harbour.

The last night we sleep and certainly I sleep very well 😊. We have a nice coffee/tea with Brian and Tricia from the Liajnad 😃. The weather looks good enough for the next three days according to Predict Wind and other weather sources. The first two days bft 3-5 half to high winds. The last day bft 6 with gusts in 7 is expected, but half or broader incoming.

We are going to experience it; the boat and we are ready 💪💪. For Marinthe, it's an immediate baptism of fire but she is a tough one and is looking forward to it 😅. So are we ... Svalbard, here we come 💪❄️🗻🐻‍❄️⛵️🥰 !!!! We expect to take a little less than 3 24 hours. Along the way, our position will be updated every 15 min on the map on this website.