Ben Edwards, crew all 4 legs, From moored in Vardo, Norway
Hello, we’re in Vardo. We arrived this morning at nine o’clock. I got up when the engine went into reverse as we made our way inside the harbour. We tied up on a small pontoon just by the harbour wall. The town of Vardo seems to be mainly supported by its fishing industry. We’re the only yacht on the pontoon and the whole place smells of fish. The town itself is nice. It has a wildlife reserve and an old Viking fortress. It also has a really nice church about half a kilometre from where we are. Some of the buildings are in need of repair but generally the town is in pretty good nick. We spent most of the day walking around and just seeing the town. We don’t have anything to do until John turns up with the parts. The latest news on that is very promising. He should be here by 7pm tomorrow. In town I bought a birthday present for The Mother. Her birthday is during the north east passage, relatively close to Nikolai’s. Some rather worrying news came in from Nikolai earlier. The way the ice is behaving at the moment it is looking increasingly likely that we may have to stop when we get to Greenland and wait for winter to pass before going over the Atlantic. I’m going to be on the lunchtime news on ITV tomorrow and again at six thirty, in theory, so if you’re interested you can watch that. I’ll write again tomorrow, bye.