Boreal is back in the water 30th May 2016

Last Friday, just before landing, we flew over the scattered tiny rocky islands off the Bodø coast under a glorious sun playing with the horizon line without ever setting. As we walked down from the airport to the harbour, we fell again under the exhilarating effects of the polar days, as we did last year as we crossed the Arctic circle. Despite the unusual warmth of the night for the season, the snowy tips of the Lofoten mountains reminded us that winter was probably not far behind. And despite the late hours, the small city town of Bodø, 200 years old, was buzzing with great animation, the Norwegians enjoying every moment of light and sun shine throughout day and night. We could have joined the fun but we opted for the wise option and happily fell into Morpheus’s arms.

Saturday morning, we reached the shipyard where Boreal was waiting for its annual pampering and realised the task we had ahead of us. Were two and half day be long enough? The thought of being able to work all through the night if required brought us some relief and we got started. We started by hosting a mini executive committee to divide the task and avoid walking into each other toe. As much as we work very well as the team, clarity of role and responsibility is a golden rule. It would be the bottom half for M and the top half for G. Cleaning, scrubbing, painting, tidying-up, cleaning, scrubbing and painting, for 48 hours to get Boreal’ s hull back to a proudly shining state. G upstairs was de-winterizing the engine and other equipments, slightly nervous to discover some faults or break-down resulting from 7 months in the deep Arctic cold. Luckily, with the exception of a bursting pipe under the sink, and a confused autopilot actioning a ‘man overboard’ alarm in the middle of the shipyard, the outcome was not too bad. Our engine roared proudly at the first attempt to G’s contentment and we were almost ready to go.

 

It was time for a drink and we joined our friend Gareth, who we met in Svalbard last year for an Arctic beer under the sun with a stunning view over Bodø and the Lofoten.

We then went for dinner on board Eliot, our friend Fred’s boat, who treated us as royal guests with fresh crab and cod, his catch of the day. We know what tasty wild fishes mean and that’s not what we buy at the price of gold in London. As Fred would say, ‘here you just have to bend and catch it. If you are at the right place and you have the right technique it takes less than two minutes!’.

On Sunday morning, Gui and Fred went to Biltema the french Leroy Merlin or the English Homebase, to buy the stuff of the perfect fisherman. Next crew you should have plenty of fresh fish to cook….if everything goes well….

On our way back to the shipyard, we briefly met another French Ovni boat from Cherbourg on its way to Svalbard. The season is starting again.

This morning, at AM 9.15, a shining Boreal was put back to sea.

We took her from the shipyard to the Marina. It was very hard not to head Westwards under the sun for another adventure.

Time will fly though until departure day 20th of June for a rather challenging crossing to Iceland.