The barometer is sitting on 1017mb and a compression gale is whistling about us at anchor. So once again we have time to catch up with photos and comments on cruising the Lofoten Islands.

Being “stuck” at anchor like this is welcome as it gives us time to collect our thoughts, relax a bit, and catch up.

It often leads to culinary experimentation about which we now wish to report. This may be the ultimate chocolate chip cookie formulation. These are granola cookies, from the Betty Crocker Cookbook. Light on ingredients, very crunchy, exceptionally tasty, and they do well in the freezer. To the standard formula we added a cup of chocolate chips and about an 1/8th of a cup of sunflower seeds.

When we first arrived in French Polynesia in 1977 we and the rest of the cruisers were in shock at the prices, except for pineapples. You could always tell the yachties by the folks walking away from the central market loaded down with this delicious fruit. 32 years later the same logic applies in Norway. Somehow Dole gets its pineapples to taste good at 68 degrees north latitude at a reasonable price (about US$4.00).

We are into reading labels and have no idea what the meat is inside of this packaging. But can guess at the subliminal message. Buy this product, feel your Viking heritage, go raiding, find women!

In Ireland and the UK RIBs are the dominant small ocean going vehicle now. Not so in Norway. We’ve seen a few, usually loaded with tourists dressed in wet gear or dry suits (not our idea of fun). We are not sure if it is because there is less need for the sea-keeping ability of the big ribs up here (with more sheltered waters), a cost/longevity issue, or resistance to change.

Speaking of which, most of the newer fishing trawler with wooden hulls have aluminum superstructures. If you can do the superstructure, why not the entire hull? Properly jigged it would cost no more to do the hulls in aluminum and they would require much less maintenance. But then you would not have that lovely varnished timber hull to set your heart aflutter.