With the weather staying fairly settled (always a bonus in Norway!), we decided to press on north and so, after another early start headed up to Sandnessjøen. This actually turned out to be a great sail. We got the sails up just outside Berg and sailed for an hour or so until we got to Brønnøysund. This required a bit of weaving to get through the town, so we had the engine on for a while, but once clear, up went the sails again and they didn’t come down until shortly before Sandnessjøen.
A couple of times though we were led to reflect on how remote and isolated this coast is. The first occasion was just outside Brønnøysund when an ambulance went hurtling past in the opposite direction. Round here though, the ambulances float ……
The last part of the passage took us past the Seven Sisters (De syv søstre). These are the same seven troll sisters who were being chased when Torghatten was formed. They were the daughters of the troll king Suliskongen’s. Now we don’t wish in any way to stereotype trolls, but they noticed that Hestmannen (who was chasing them) was an attractive troll prince with the added bonus of being the only son of a troll king. So one after another they stopped to let him catch them. He rode past as he only had eyes for their maid – Lekamøya. But …. they had mistimed their moment of infatuation with the troll prince and one by one they were turned to stone when the sun came up.
Now, the thing about trolls is that they are big and that is true even of troll king’s daughters, so the mountains are between 3,000 and 3,500ft high and remarkably evenly spaced. They are named Botnkrona, Grytfoten, Skjæringen, Tvillingene (“the twins”), Kvasstinden, and Breitinden.
There are apparently marked paths to the peak of each and the current record for climbing all peaks is under four hours. We were happy to admire them from sea level – much less effort.
Sandnessjøen dates back quite a way and was granted special trading privileges in the late 1600s. Oddly though, despite this, didn’t get town status until 1999. The guest harbour was nothing particularly to write home about, but a useful stop ….. We planned to head off again first thing the next morning.
