Torghatten is a famous landmark in Norway due the hole through right through the mountain. A hiking trail leads up and through the hole and back down the other side, and you also can hike over the top to the summit of Torghatten. We did both.
Below are trip highlights from May 15th through 17th, 2018 at the island of Torget, Norway. 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
5/15/2018
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Blue Screen
Position: 8 30.35, 63 22.97
We’d planned to hike Torghatten today, but the nav computer locked up this morning and we got a blue screen when we tried to reboot it. The abridged version of the event is that the shorter member of the team accidentally renamed the wrong system folder two weeks ago when attempting to resolve a Windows Update issue. The problem didn’t surface until the first reboot afterwards, which was this morning at 4am. It took us a day to get the system booting, troubleshoot the issue and fully recover, but we eventually were able to get the system back healthy again.
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Sunset
Position: 12 1.73, 65 22.94
A beautiful sunset after a long and stressful day troubleshooting the navigation computer.
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5/16/2018
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Switch Box
Position: 12 1.78, 65 22.95
The monitor in the salon that repeats the four monitors in the pilot house wasn’t getting signal this afternoon. Here James is investigating if it is a switchbox issue. We hope not, as that is something we don’t have a spare for.
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Monitor Failure
Position: 12 1.78, 65 22.95
We chased down the problem to a faulty monitor and replaced it. That’s two monitor failures in the past five months—we guess they’re coming due. But after 78,000 hours of continuous operation, it’s hard to complain. We still have four more spares after this replacement, but we’re conservative so are thinking of buying another one, which is easy to do at only $169 on Amazon.
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5/17/2018
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Goal
Position: 12 1.72, 65 22.47
Our goal for the day is to climb to the window in Torghatten.
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Tender
Position: 12 6.19, 65 23.61
Tying off the tender in a small cove near the base of Torghatten.
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Trail Head
Position: 12 5.83, 65 23.76
At the trail head.
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Steps
Position: 12 5.60, 65 23.91
The hike to the window isn’t very long—barely a half-hour. The trail is steep, but well-maintained, with stone steps near the window.
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View from Steps
Position: 12 5.58, 65 23.90
The great view looking north from the top of the steps just before the window.
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Window South
Position: 12 5.55, 65 23.89
Looking south through the window out to the islands where we’re anchored.
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Inside Window
Position: 12 5.59, 65 23.91
The window is actually a very large cavern that extends right through the mountain. Here Jennifer, at bottom left, is looking back up through the north side of the window from stairs that lead down to the cavern floor.
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Window North
Position: 12 5.32, 65 23.84
The hike to the window is popular and at least a half-dozen others were here on this weekday morning early in the season. Two people arrived at the north end while we were in the cavern.
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Lunch
Position: 12 5.31, 65 23.84
Lunch while enjoying the fabulous view south through the window. Dirona is a barely-visible white dot at the far right of the picture, directly above Jennifer’s head (click image for a larger view).
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Unknown
Position: 12 4.86, 65 23.49
We returned back through a track leading down to the valley from the south side of the window. En route we passed this small platform with an open-ended tube mounted on the side. It looked like the kind of stepladder used to pass over livestock fences in New Zealand, but no such fences were visible. We didn’t come up with any theories as to its purpose.
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Cove
Position: 12 5.01, 65 23.41
The trail leads alongside a shallow cove. The water in this part of Norway is quite clear—we often can see our anchor chain snaking way down into the water when dropping hook.
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Summit Trail
Position: 12 5.26, 65 23.57
Rather than return to the tender, we took yet a third track to the summit of Torghatten. This is the view south partway along.
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Climbing Chains
Position: 12 5.32, 65 23.69
The trail was steep, but well-marked and generally easy to follow with climbing chains in a steeper section near the top. We’re above and slightly east of the window now. Dirona is the small white speck in the distance at center (click image for a larger view).
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View East
Position: 12 5.38, 65 23.71
The view east across Torgfjorden as we near the summit of Torghatten. Our tender is moored, but not visible, in the little cove roughly at the center of the picture.
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Brønnøysund
Position: 12 5.47, 65 23.90
A fabulous view looking north to the town of Brønnøysund from the summit of Torghatten at 968ft (295m).
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Path Down
Position: 12 5.52, 65 23.99
We found an unmarked path down the north side that we hoped would join with the trail to the window, or at least end somewhere we could easily reach the tender. We could have just returned down the path we took up, but always prefer to take a different path if there is one.
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Bird Feeders
Position: 12 5.99, 65 24.17
The unmarked trail down was well-trod and easy to follow. Near the base of Torghatten we passed a copse of trees with perhaps a dozen bird feeders of various designs strung from the branches. Fresh shells below indicated someone is filling them frequently.
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Trail Head
Position: 12 6.17, 65 23.94
The well-trod path we were taking out didn’t intersect with the trail to the window, but came out on the road close by at this large rock. If you were trying to take this trail on the way up, it would be hard to find the entrance.
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Torghatten
Position: 12 3.54, 65 23.15
Looking back to Torghatten as we return to Dirona. We climbed from the other side of the window to this side, the over the right side of the mountain to the summit and returned back down along the north flank.
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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. |
Hi James and Jennifer. Just wondering how Spitfire adjusted to life aboard Dirona. Have you ever had any near misses with him going overboard etc? Does he ever go ashore with you? Only curious because our cat Freddie is Spitfires twin and I don’t think he’d like being afloat! Thanks for everything you put on here.
Good question. We don’t let him off the boat with us or without us. He rarely will head to shore on his own but we keep a close eye on him and this only happens once or twice a year. He’s pretty good about staying on the boat.
He’s also pretty good about travelling. If it gets rough, he will get sea sick but, for the most part, he doesn’t seem to notice it or worry about it much. Falling in was a massive problem during his first year. He went in 4 or 5 times during that year, then he went 10 years never falling in and he’s now heading for 16 years old and hasn’t been in the water since. Like kids, cats get smarter as they age and they start to respect risk more and generally take less chances.
The worst situation was off the west coast of Vancouver Island in the winter. He fell in and for some unexplainable reason, didn’t swim to the back of the boat as he always has before and since so I had to jump in to recover him before he swam further away. It was unbelievably cold but we got him and I back on the boat and warmed back up.
It didn’t occur to me that a cat could get seasick! I suppose if he goes ashore he knows to return to the boat because it’s home to him the same as a house would be. What a life he’s leading! It reminded me of the book Dove by Robin Lee Graham who sailed around the world aged 16 and had a cat with him for a good part of the journey.
You may have better luck but Spitfire has not proven to be great at finding his way back to the boat when he steps off at a strange marina. In Florida, we spent hours looking for him and he did the same thing a decade earlier at Elliott Bay Marina in Seattle. He goes somewhere, then gets scared or there is dock traffic and he hunkers down and and just stays still. Fortunately, it’s very rare but, in the two times it has happened, it can be truly challenging to find.