If you enjoy holiday lights, Norway is a wonderful place to be in the winter. Most Norwegian towns have a lit holiday display in the hills above the community, and their houses are ablaze with holiday lights. And with the shorter days of winter, the lights are on longer. We’ve spent many a happy hour in the cockpit off a beautifully lit town below a hill-top light display.

From Heroy, we continued north to Alesund and anchored south of the main center at Aspevagen. We made an extensive tour of the area in the tender and hiked up to Sukkertoppen (the Sugar Top) for sweeping views of the area. On our way to the top we passed Alesund’s star-shaped holiday display, pictured above, visible from our anchorage below.

Below are highlights from December 12th and 13th, 2020. Click any image for a larger view, or click the position to view the location on a map. And a live map of our current route and most recent log entries always is available at mvdirona.com/maps.

12/12/2020

Nordre Vaulen Position: 62°21.86’N, 5°40.27’E Running the narrow channel Nordre Vaulen between Remoya (port) and Leinoya en route to Alesund from Heroy.

Hessajforden Position: 62°27.44’N, 6°10.08’E Mountain views looking east along Hessajforden as we approach Alesund.

Aspevagen Anchorage Position: 62°27.79’N, 6°8.63’E Our anchorage in Aspevagen just across from Alesund in 100ft (30 m) on 300 ft (91 m) of rode.

Andenes Position: 62°27.77’N, 6°8.62’E The Norwegian Coast Guard vessel Andenes departing Alesund close behind our anchorage. Each crew was equally interested in the other vessel.

Dirona Position: 62°27.81’N, 6°8.58’E Dirona at anchor off Alesund. Visible in the background are several cruise ships in storage, including four Hurtigruten ferries.

Fridtjof Nansen Position: 62°28.11’N, 6°8.69’E Only two Hurtigruten coastal ferries currently are operating during the pandemic instead of the usual eleven. The rest are stored along the coast, with four in Alesund: Fridtjof Nansen, Nordkapp, Richard With and Lofoten. Stored in Alesund are the oldest and the newest: the battery hybrid-powered Fridtjof Nansen was completed in 2020, and the recently-retired Lofoten was launched in 1964. After passing the ships nearly every day on our last trip to Norway, it’s strange not to see them underway. We miss seeing them out on the water.

Alesundet Position: 62°28.30’N, 6°9.15’E Running the tender along intimate Alesundet through the middle of Alesund. The city is considered one of the most beautiful in Norway. After a devastating 1904 fire destroyed much of downtown, the city was rebuilt in an art nouveau style with many of the buildings overlooking Alesundet.

NMCC Position: 62°28.19’N, 6°14.05’E We ran the tender around the island of Norve and back towards Dirona through the channel Norvasundet. This profusion of satellite domes atop the Norwegian Maritime Competency Center (NMCC) caught our attentions. It’s part of the Campus Alesund, and aims to be “one of Norway’s most important meeting places for innovation, competence and development”.

OV Hekkingen Position: 62°28.14’N, 6°12.82’E The Kystverket (Norwegian Coastal Administration) buoy-laying ship OV Hekkingen at it’s home port of Alesund. This ship was just delivered—we saw it being completed at the Fitjar Shipyard earlier this year.

World Diamond Position: 62°28.17’N, 6°7.17’E The World Diamond and World Pearl, mid-sized platform supply vessels, moored at Alesund. They may be “mid-sized”, but at 263ft (80m) long, they’re pretty big boats.

Gamlemsveten Position: 62°28.39’N, 6°7.89’E 2,591-ft (790m) snow-dusted Gamlemsveten, looking northeast from Alesund.

Vagen Position: 62°28.48’N, 6°8.96’E Looking into the entry to the Alesund harbour, Vagen. We moored here on our previous visit in 2018. Visible in the background are some of the 481 steps up to the Kniven Viewpoint that we climbed while here.

Alesund Lights Position: 62°27.77’N, 6°8.61’E The lights of Alesund, viewed from our anchorage in Aspevagen, with the Kniven Viewpoint prominent at center and the Hurtigruten ships moored directly below and also to the left.

12/13/2020

Tender Position: 62°27.68’N, 6°8.09’E The tender tied ashore for a hike up 1,030-ft (314m) Sukkertoppen (the Sugar Top).

Trail Position: 62°27.56’N, 6°7.54’E On the trail to Sukkertoppen. Temperatures are moderate at at 42°F (6°C), but we’re still bundled up.

Alesund Position: 62°27.54’N, 6°6.59’E View down to Alesund from altitude 724 ft (220 m) on the Sukertoppen trail. The bright yellow ships World Diamond and World Pearl are visible at left with the Fridtjof Nansen at far right. Dirona is anchored out of the picture farther to the right.

Short Days Position: 62°27.55’N, 6°6.25’E At 12:20pm, the sun is just cresting 2,545-ft (776m) Tverrfjellet to the south of Sukkertoppen. We barely have five hours of daylight today with sunrise at 9:58am and sunset at 3:20pm.

Sukkertoppen Position: 62°27.57’N, 6°5.98’E The fabulous view east from near the top of 1,030-ft (314m) Sukkertoppen (click image for a larger view).

Kniven Viewpoint Position: 62°27.57’N, 6°5.98’E The 481 steps up to the Kniven Viewpoint, viewed from Sukkertoppen.

Godoya Position: 62°27.57’N, 6°5.98’E The view northwest to the island of Godoya from Sukkertoppen in the glow of the setting sun.

Summit Position: 62°27.57’N, 6°5.92’E The Sukkertoppen trail is popular on this clear Sunday afternoon. We saw literally dozens of other hikers, several with their dogs.

Fast Ferry Position: 62°27.56’N, 6°6.17’E Fast ferry departing Alesund, viewed from Sukkertoppen.

Holiday Star Position: 62°27.55’N, 6°6.50’E We can see the Alesund holiday star from our anchorage. Dirona is just visible behind the upper left arm (click image for a larger view).

Click the travel log icon on the left to see these locations on a map, with the complete log of our cruise. On the map page, clicking on a camera or text icon will display a picture and/or log entry for that location, and clicking on the smaller icons along the route will display latitude, longitude and other navigation data for that location. And a live map of our current route and most recent log entries always is available at mvdirona.com/maps.