{"id":5873,"date":"2009-06-19T14:52:47","date_gmt":"2009-06-19T19:52:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/tindsoya-island-facing-the-norwegian-atlantic\/"},"modified":"2009-06-19T14:52:47","modified_gmt":"2009-06-19T19:52:47","slug":"tindsoya-island-facing-the-norwegian-atlantic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/tindsoya-island-facing-the-norwegian-atlantic\/","title":{"rendered":"Tindsoya Island – Facing the Norwegian Atlantic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Skipness-Linden-Norway-111\"<\/p>\n

Enough of these protected waters already. Lets stick our nose out into the North Atlantic and see what the west coast of the Vestralen Islands are like. After more than a month of calm seas, it feels really good to have Wind Horse<\/em> moving a little under our feet. And as you will see, this little visited area does not disappoint.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Skipness-Linden-Norway-113-1\"<\/p>\n

The coastline is more rounded than the Lofoten Islands a few miles south. But the “ambiance” of the North Atlantic, and the myriad of reefs and rocks, make it significantly less benign.<\/p>\n

\"Skipness-Linden-Norway-145\"<\/p>\n

There are so many small villages and anchorages that we decided to just point a finger and go, rather than making a concerted effort to learn where was best. We are at anchor in Tilden, on Tindsoya Island. The anchorage is protected from all directions, holding is good, and there is a historic general store cum post office on shore.<\/p>\n

\"Skipness-Linden-Norway-120\"<\/p>\n

The proprietor for the past 50+ years has recently passed on, and his store is being maintained as a museum by a trust.<\/p>\n

\"Skipness-Linden-Norway-116-1\"<\/p>\n

There used to be a variety of food, hardware, sewing, clothes and fishing supplies here for the local residents.<\/p>\n

\"Skipness-Linden-Norway-118-1\"<\/p>\n

The shelves are stocked with all sorts of interesting items.<\/p>\n

\"Skipness-Linden-Norway-124\"<\/p>\n

The signs are the best part. How could resist buying Sunlight Soap with an image like this making the pitch.<\/p>\n

\"Skipness-Linden-Norway-140\"<\/p>\n

This is a little Goofey, but if you are here in winter we bet that warm water image had the Del Monte juice flying off the shelves.<\/p>\n

\"Skipness-Linden-Norway-160\"<\/p>\n

A five minute dinghy ride from our anchorage is the traditional fishing village of Skipnes. We came by for a look, an afternoon walk, and to find out more about the local history.<\/p>\n

\"Skipness-Linden-Norway-201\"<\/p>\n

That’s Astrid Rortveit, the proprietress of Fiskevaeret Skipnes, giving us a heads up. Astrid’s great grandfather began building this establishment in 1900 (and the family was still at it in the mid 1960s when the fisheries collapsed). This was a working establishment, where fish caught in small boats, processed on the premises, with the fishermen lived in traditional cabins. They dried fish, salted it, and even made cod’s liver oil.<\/p>\n

\"Skipness-Linden-Norway-186\"<\/p>\n

Astrid and her husband have rebuilt the family facilities into a resort. The salting room (above) has now been made into a bar, and dining room.<\/p>\n

\"Skipness-Linden-Norway-189\"<\/p>\n

Their buildings are filled with interesting photos and relics from the past. The dining room even has a stage, surrounded by models of Colin Archer life boats (her Grandmother helped to start the local rescue service).<\/p>\n

And they are busy. In the summer Fiskevaeret caters to tourists. During the winter they are occupied with weddings, birthdays, and other special events.<\/p>\n

\"Skipness-Linden-Norway-164\"<\/p>\n

We found particularly compelling Astrid’s stories of the World War ll resistance to the German occupation.<\/p>\n

\"Skipness-Linden-Norway-174\"<\/p>\n

This fishing boat made dozens of trips with refugees, resistance fighters, and weapons. She would meet up with larger vessels offshore. In 1944 the Germans were tipped off. Knowing they had been betrayed, the captain and owner, Mr. Normand, decided to try and sink his little ship by ramming her with the bigger vessel. She washed up on shore and the family thought he had gone down with her. He continued his work with the Allies and Norwegian resistance until the Germans were driven out. After the war he was reunited with his trusty vessel and they went back to fishing.<\/p>\n

\"Skipness-Linden-Norway-169\"<\/p>\n

The fishing cabins have been kept in traditional style. This includes nine bunks, a small galley, and sitting area. Towards the war’s end, as the Germans retreated, they burned the towns on the mainland behind them. This created a refugee disaster with winter coming on and nowhere to live. Two to three families, sometimes 16 or more people, shared these rooms for two years at the end of the war. <\/p>\n

When they were used by the fishing fleet, each boat consisted of a captain and a crew of 8, hence the 9 bunks. The cabins are named after captains that stayed in them and descendants of the fishermen are grateful to be able to visit and envision how their fathers and grandfathers lived and worked.<\/p>\n

\"Skipness-Linden-Norway-235\"<\/p>\n

Linda and Astrid are standing on the lookout point, facing the narrow entrance into the bay. With west quadrant winds, and an ebbing tide, the entrance breaks. If you are trying to run it in a small oar-powered fishing boat, loaded with the day’s catch, you had better be good and lucky at picking your wave.<\/p>\n

The women would stand up here to wait and watch for their family’s return and sometime to see the waves claim their loved ones and friends.<\/p>\n

Astrid’s great grandmother lost her brothers, her father, and all her sons to the sea. Her great uncle was the only surviving male on his side. Tough life.<\/p>\n

To find out more about Fiskevaeret Skipnes visit their website www.Skipnes.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Enough of these protected waters already. Lets stick our nose out into the North Atlantic and see what the west …Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dashew-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5873"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5873\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}