The Third Day On Hurtigruten’s Coastal Voyage in April 2015

This blog details the next day in our Hurtigruten Coastal Voyage in April 2015 and follows on from my earlier blogs.

Day 3 – April 16th 2015

We had arrived in Tromso at 23:45 and left at 01:30 in the morning. I regret to say this was one sail out that I missed.

Similarly I missed Finnsnes but I did set my alarm and woke early to see the next port, Harstad and against the quay was the MS Nordnorge.

It was a beautiful morning and here’s the view as we approached the quay.

The buildings where we tied up had lots of Street Art so this was another port where I left the ship to grab some more pictures.

If you missed the inscription on the side of the building it reads

“In the town where I was born there lived a man who sailed to sea and he told us of his life, in the land of…”

Click on any picture to see the paintings, some of which were from around the side of the building.

And here’s MS Finnmarken alongside the quay. This port was the first one that I could get access for a ‘bow shot’

After leaving Harstad there were some stunning views.

We then sailed through Risoyrenna which is a 3 mile long man made channel …

… and stopped briefly at Risoyhamn.

After leaving Risoyhamn I spent a long time on deck just taking in the views

This is my favourite view.

Then we approached Sortland.

And docked there

At Stockmarknes we had time to leave the ship and visit the Hurtigruten museum and to explore an older Finnmarken that was at the Hurtigruten Museum. Stokmarnes is the home port of Hurtigruten. This ship was brought ashore after it was decommissioned and it stands across the road from the museum itself. Entrance is free to passengers on Hurtigruten’s ships and it is well worth the time to visit.

Click any picture to view the gallery from the older Finnmarken.

The view looking past  MS Finnmarken.

After leaving Stokmarknes the ship sailed through the narrow straight Raftsund.

 

Trollfjorden

Next we came to Trollfjorden and some passengers left the ship to join a boat to see the resident sea eagles.

As the boat pulled away from MS Finnmarken the eagles appeared. Next time I will make sure I have my bigger lens to try and better capture a picture of them.

The Finnmarken sailed in the main waters
and we soon lost sight of the little excursion boat until we neared Svolvaer when it re-appeared on a parallel course.

As we entered Svolvaer the fish drying racks were alongside the channel.


We had ample time in Svolvaer to explore

Dinner was served at 20:00 with a lamb roll roast with victory onion, Viking bread and marmalade. The main course was fresh cod and desert was a meringue with vanilla custard and almonds. During dinner our path crossed with MS Trollfjord

Night had fallen when we reached Stamsund.

Here’s a video of the hectic activity that accompanies every short visit to port.

And if you look carefully at the side of this building, that is at the quayside, you can see a Hurtigruten ship

Summary of Day 3 – April 16th 2015

Port	Arrival	Depart
Tromso		01:00
Finnsnes	04:15	04:45
Ms Nordnorge	08:00
Harstad	08:00	08:30
Risoyhamn	10:45	11:00
Sortland	12:30	13:00
Stockmarknes	14:15	15:15
Trollforden	17:00
Svolvaer	18:30	20:30
MS Trollfjord	20:30
Stamsund	22:00	22:30