Meteors encounters on the way to Gävle - 6 & 7 July 2016

On 6 July, after there days in Norrtälje to change the propeller of the bow thruster, we decided to leave early afternoon, and to sail overnight to head up north rapidly. The first encounter was a typical nordic sunset in summer, with the sun going down very slowly almost parallel to the horizon, accompanied this time by two small sun dogs. Can you see the sun dogs?

On of the most astonishing discovery when living up north is the fact the the sun tends to set up north. As we are sailing north tonight, the sun is showing us the way, setting at 22:00 on North-west, and rising around 3:30 on the North-east. Never being low below the horizon at this time of the year makes the northern direction very clear and lightful the whole night. I was hoping for the green flash, but it did not show.

 Few minutes after the sun set, we could see a very clear Venus belt. Can you see the Venus belt? It is the blue band above the sea which correspond to the rising shadow of the earth as the sun is setting in the opposite direction with a pinkish band above related to refracted sunlight.

Later on, the sun highlighting the clouds from below reveals some "mammatus" cloud patterns. 

The night sailing proved to be very tough, with a strong land brise pulling the polar north wind to the north-west during the night, culminating to 25 knots by 5 in the morning along with a strong residual swell from the gale two days ago.

Exhausted, we headed up west to Gävle after 117 nautical miles.