Our project to explore the UK and Europe by sail is now in its ninth year. We overwintered Ruby Tuesday in 2025/26 near Trondheim in Norway and rejoined her in late April 2026.
We sailed northwards from Trondheim and explored the spectacular scenery of the Helgeland coast and the Lofoten archipelago. From there we travelled further north to Tromsø, where we hired a car and spent a week exploring Finnmark, where the Sámi people live.
Then it was around the island of Senna with the many indented fjords on its west coast, before heading on the long journey south back to Trondheim, where we had decided to overwinter again. We took the opportunity on the return journey to visit many of the outer islands that we had missed on the way up.
As in previous years, the following links take you to the individual blog posts of different legs of the journey:
- A copper mine, fat birds, and a snowy start
- Sociable pilot whales, a love-sick troll, and shy puffins
- An enigmatic sculpture, a circle crossed, and a trapped crew member
- Black ice, an old trading post, and an international incident
- An exhilarating crossing, a tough climb, and fish for dinner
- Killers of the deep, jumping the Goat, and a tight turn?
- A ship in a bottle, a foreign spy, and sailing beyond the limit
- A popular pub, a colony of kittiwakes, and another naughty Royal
- Polar adventurers, flaming tacos, and reindeer road rules
- Stone Age minds, a new Parliament, and a love story in silver
- A Russian invasion, an island home, and halibut rituals
- Sacred drums, a lone hiker, and a battle for steel
- A communications hub, prosperous art, and a remote anchorage
- A maelstrom, Cold War games, and an island for artists
- A preserved shop, a poet-priest, and the duck-women of Vega
- Viking violence, a kidnapping, and continental collisions
- A beach cleaner, the problems of wealth, and a coal-fired lighthouse
