Floating Low to Lofoten

by Martin Edge

Overview

“Floating Low to Lofoten” is the story of a trip to the Norwegian Arctic aboard my 27ft yacht.

In 2008 we crossed the North Sea from the Firth of Forth, then I cruised northwards, above the Arctic Circle to north of the Lofoten Islands. Most, but by no means all of this journey, was sailed solo.

Having decided to explore the west coast of Norway a friend asked me how far up I intended to go. Without having bothered to look at a map I replied casually that I’d probably just nip up to the Lofotens. He seemed surprised. So was I when I took a quick look at a chart and saw how far up they were.

This is not, as I’m sure you can tell, a tale of conquering the savage seas against all odds. Neither does it claim to be a pilot book or sailing directions. It’s just the story of a holiday in a wee boat that went a bit further than most people manage in a summer cruise.

The whole of the landscape of the Atlantic coast of Norway is fantastically scenic, but the further north you go the more stunning it gets and I’ve tried to give a sense of that in this volume. The verdant hills, populous towns and thriving economy of rural Norway, even way up beyond the Arctic Circle, offer lessons for our barren glens and depopulated communities in Scotland.

Cruising alone in this marvellous, sheltered environment could be said to heighten the critical faculties. It could also be said to cause me to rant a lot. This is not the kind of detailed sailing log that documents the minutest of wind shifts and the colour of that morning’s ‘Y’-fronts. As well as the story of a sailing cruise it’s a series of observations about the nature, culture, people, economy and boats of the places I passed through.

This is the second in a series of cruising ‘logs’ about Zophiel’s voyages. “Skagerrak and Back” is the tale of a North Sea circuit, “A Gigantic Whinge on the Celtic Fringe” is the story of our circumnavigation of Ireland and "Bobbing to the Baltic" describes a trip from Edinburgh to the Russian border.

Recently some of the people who have been slandered in these tales have suggested that they should be used for kindling. I’ve taken these kind words to heart and published them first for Kindle and now for other e-readers.

Soon I'll be publishing two volumes about some land-based travels, entitled "Travels with my Rant" and "The Front of Beyond". These are gripping tales about nipping over dodgy borders in places like Nicaragua and Burma and being kidnapped, after a fashion, in East Timor.

This volume contains a lot of colour photographs. If you’re struggling with grainy black and white on an e-reader, there’s more sailing tales and the full set of colour photos from this volume at www.edge.me.uk/Sailinghome.htm

Product Details

BN ID:	2940032975274
Publisher:	Martin Edge
Publication date:	01/03/2012
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

"Travels with my Rant" Most of my writing is about my travels. Mostly very slow travels. For some years now I've been plodding round the seas of northern Europe aboard a small sailing boat. To date I've published three accounts of these trips. For years I poked around in some of the more obscure parts of some developing countries, hitch-hiking and travelling by boat, train and bus. Some of the buses were slower than my boat. The record was 12 hours to go 11 miles in the Shan State in northern Burma. I'll soon be publishing two volumes entitled "Travels with my Rant" and "The Front of Beyond". These will include tales about hopping across dodgy borders in places like East Timor and Nicaragua. Whilst travel may broaden some minds and narrow others, travelling slowly and alone changes your perspective on the world around you. I like to think it hones the senses and heightens the critical faculties. Others have agreed that yes, it does make me rant on and on about everything. My travel writings are not gripping tales of derring-do and one man's survival in a savage wilderness against all the odds. I am, in fact, something of a wimp. Neither do they consciously seek to maintain the mythology and exoticism of travel to far flung parts. The fact is that more or less everywhere on earth people wear jeans and ride scooters. The documentary makers must have a hell of a job editing the world so that it's full of tribal head-dresses and loin cloths. Culture shock isn't all it's cracked up to be and nowhere on the planet is as alien as it appears to be from a distance. Except Manchester of course. I've tried to give a flavour of the places I've visited and to discuss those aspects of their landscape, environment, people, culture, economy and politics which make them interesting. In 2014 I published a sort of pilot book entitled "105 Rocks and Other Stuff to Tie your Boat to in Eastern Sweden and Finland". It's full of photos, maps, descriptions and waypoints for, as the name suggests, 105 Scandinavian rocks and other harbours. It's available FREE of charge at my website (www.edge.me.uk) as a web file and as a pdf. There's yet more stuff on my web page at http://www.edge.me.uk/index.htm. This includes a pile of more academic papers written while I was Head of Research of the Architecture School in Aberdeen.