Trondheim

Summer! I’ve found it at last! Or perhaps it has found me. Today is wednesday, 17 july, and will be noted in the logbook as the first, whole, really warm day, a proper shorts day, since we left Åsgårdstrand nearly two months ago. Sitting in the sunshine in cockpit to write this, squinting a bit at the screen. Sorry to rattle on, boring for all you sun-tanned folks.

Met up with John Magnus and Mariell for a succulent Italian dinner the first evening here. Good to hear how they are getting on after setting up living together a couple of months ago. A very happy couple and a joy to be with. Mariell on tenter-hooks waiting to hear if she has got a university place.

Got to Trondheim last sunday, after quite a decent genakker-sail for some of the way, otherwise little wind and motoring, from Storfosna, a large lagoon in an island, and a well-protected harbour at the north end. Met and chatted at length with a couple on an English sailboat, who are equally enamoured of the coast up in these parts. Keep their boat in Stjørdal, in the Trondheimfjord, in the recent winters, having got fed up with the long haul from and to Cowes, on England’s south coast. Something to think about, eh?

Trondheim is “summer-busy”. Lots of tourists, including the hoards from a gigantic cruise ship. No less than 12 decks with cabins with a balcony. Really a floating, horizontal block of flats. It has just blown its shattering horn, to urge the folks back before leaving.

Had to take a long-zoom picture of a crew member busy at the bottom of the funnel. He was feverishly painting it, or at least the bits that he could reach with a long-handled roller. (Note non-energetic passengers soaking up the sun)

Trondheim has very effective public transport, one tram-line and many bus routes. Getting about is easy when you know how. All info, comprehensive, about routes, timetables and stops, via mobile phone. But is still possible to miss a bus, or go the wrong way. Done that. Trondheim has also tried hard to provide cycle-tracks and pedestrian walkways, well used, but also by these new-fangled electric scooters. Woe betide those who walk and wander!

Tomorrow is the start of the Coastal Society’s gathering, and quite a few traditional boats have already arrived. (I am one of the few in a “tuppeware” boat). Trondheim is a popular place for such an event, being sort of half way between north and south. Local motor-boaties react in various ways when told that they have to move in the morning. Notices everywhere announcing the event, but a notice can be studiously ignored, yes? Feverish activity down along the main quayside with tents and booths going up. One being built of a kit of tree trunks, (with numbered and interlocking ends, no nails, screws or pegs!). The weather promises to be just fine, so it ought to be a memorable event.

Alls well.