Laukvik and Henningsvaer

We left Skipnes on a grey morning with little wind.

Motoring most of the way down to Laukvik, a small fishing hamlet on the NV side of Lofoten. TThe sea was unsettled and we used part of the genoa and main, both sheeted midships, to reduce the rolling motion of the boat.

Laukvik, as so many other places along the coast , is still active. We found a lot of cod heads drying adding to the local “atmosphere”. Luckily, the little wind that was, blow in the right direction.

We continued south through Grimsoystraumen (Grimsöystraumen), one of the sounds through the Lofoten islands with Henningsvaer at its southern entrance. Laukvik was strategically close to allow timing the tide that runs 4-5 knots at its peak.

We aimed for the last part of the tide and had a nice following tide all the way.

Around 3 knots in the narrowsby the bridge, and a nice reach south from the there.

Henningsvaer is a large fishing hamlet with a long and narrow harbour. The pontoons are at the far (southern) end and we had an interesting docking reversing in behind a large sailboat with 15 knots wind on the bow and rocks just behind the pontoon. All went well. We had valuable help from the other sailboat skippered by a Swedish girl from Malmoe.

The fishing hamlets was in full swing already in the 12th century when the export of dried fish through Bergen had developed. There could be up to 30 000 fishermen in 20-30 hamlets in Lofoten dusing the winter.