The weather is gorgeous! The long fjords are serene. Steep mountains etch sharply against skies of deepest blue. We have made a 7 hour trip down to Central Troms to get the engine head pressure tested. The birch forests are greening, wild flowers line the roads and mountain streams rush urgently with the spring melt. Reindeer are getting fat and you could hardly want for a better place to fidget while summer rushes on. Lately Archangel’sk has seemed a long way off, but Nordic Motors have done Tainui proud – there is no crack in the head and our coolant loss can only have been an internal leak through the head gasket. Maybe the trip can continue, after all.
Now for the long, lovely drive back to Honningsvåg, where we can have the engine reassembled.
High plains south of Honningsvag
Off Thursday morning, weather permitting. This engine business has been extremely expensive, Norway prices being what they are. I can only hope our coolant loss will become just a fading memory, like all those other problems which make long distance cruising what it is. Maxine has been splendidly optimistic and good-humoured. Without her sharp wit, enthusiasm and patience this last week would have been truly miserable for this impatient old curmudgeon.
And the baby orca is alive and well, accepting fish scraps from local lads in small boats. How exciting!
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