Caroline Hack

Very much so 🙂

Watching Simon and Garfunkel’s 1982 Concert in Central Park (BBC2) and thinking about the following year when I saw them at Wembley Stadium

An iPad sketchbook glasses and phone sit on a table next to a window on board the Midnatsol

Grey sea and sky are separated by a rocky landscape with a small red fishing hutch give some sense of scale

A navigation light on a rocky headland

Grey sea and sky the wash of the ship disappears into the distant rocky landscape

Last day of my Hurtigruten adventure 15 years ago. This is the seat I spent most of my waking time on board when I wasn’t dining or being seasick! The scenery gliding past as we sail to Bergen

Weak sunlight shines through the bare trees and across the gravestones in a snowy graveyard

Complicated architecture at the end of Nidaros Cathedral Trondheim. The various roof lines are coated in snow and snow lays on the ground

A view up a wide snow covered avenue leading to Nidaros Cathedral with its copper spire green against the grey sky

Heading back to the ship, the Midnatsol stands against a blue sky. Glimpses of snow covered mountains in the distance across the fjord

Ooops, missed a day. And it was lovely return to Trondheim where the slippy ice had been replaced by beautiful snow.

A narrow strip of machine sewn part words of a nautical theme where the edges of the letters are fading from light blue to dark green blue in seven rows/ increments and an edge of a whaling shallop in black

Continuing development on a new body of work and here is a machine embroidered sample to see if a light blue to dark green blue works with existing threads I have in my stash. Strip is 6cm wide to fit a spool that my samples will be joined together and wound around (hopefully).

A male muntjac deer eyes me warily through a tangle of branches and ivy

Assuming I am not a threat the male muntjac hesitantly moves out from cover and stands side on head lowered looking at me

Deer of the day. This male low muntjac decided I wasn’t a threat and emerged from the tangle of branches to carry on feeding.

Yes. I loved that. The ebb and flow of other passengers coming and going changing the atmosphere. A very different experience. We sadly didn’t make it to Kirkenes but they were very prompt with refunds.

On a smooth rock island a globe stands o. A dark plinth. Behind is a large snow covered mountain. It is grey and overcast

The Midnatsol moored up behind a small submarine under grey skies and snowy hills behind

A tall bridge in the background towers over the white wooden houses, boats and harbourside buildings in the foreground

Rising from the sea a huge rock has a square hole through the middle of it. A result of geology and meteorology. Or a troll’s hat pieced with an arrow before turning to stone. Whichever

15 yrs ago today heading south, and other busy day. We get to see the Arctic Circle marker in daylight, moor in some small coastal towns, each for not more than a couple of hours and see a big mountainy rock with a natural square hole through it.

I learned my basic computing on a machine like that. I had a year out a uni and the company I worked at had one of these you could take home. So armed with the Lotus 123 manual I taught myself spreadsheets.

A group of people walking through the snow to an old stone church at Trondenes

Driving alongside the edge of a fjord with broken up ice like crazy paving against the shore. There are snow covered mountains in the background

A zebra crossing in the foreground leads to a stone and glass building that houses a museum. There is a pretty large ship poking out round the back of the building. In the background there is a more traditional red wooden building

A wonky slightly blurry photo of the inside of the reconstructed long house with some displays of crafts etc. horrendous evening. Luckily I got to visit in daytime a few years later which was much better

15yrs ago today we start our journey south and I had great excursion around some of the islands Including an v old church, an icy fried, the Hurtigruten museum and a Viking evening at an amazing reconstructed long house

It was awesome! So much great stuff!

Tromso library. A huge glass box with sweeping metal arches over the sides and roof incorporating chutes at the edges for the snow and melt water run off easily

Against snowy hills and the fjord are the glass structure that contains a preserved research/sealing ship. Next to it looking like tumbled domino’s or I suppose piled up ice floes is Polaris, which used to have a decent shop

A museum display of a pretend Viking long house with mannekins dressed as vikings doing vikingy stuff. In Norway they obviously don’t call them vikings, they are just ‘us’

A mounted Skelton of a Bottlenose whale in a museum. It is suspended over a bed of large pebbles and very artfully lit

For our second day in Tromso 15 years ago today we all got a free coach tour of the city and visit to the university museum up on the hill. Another lovely day when I wasn’t throwing up with seasickness.

Photograph of the remains of the Mary Rose showing the decks and superstructure.

Strangely enough, visiting the Mary Rose.

Until today.

Wooden lid with incised grid some with dots from the Mary Rose

Wooden lid with incised grid some with Xs from the San Juan in Red Bay Labrador.

Fascinating to compare the two ‘binacle’ lids? One from the 1565 Basque Whaler San Juan and one from @maryrosemuseum.bsky.social

View from my outside table at the Mary Rose cafe with views of at least 4 warships including the swathed Victory on the left under blue skies and out of the wind.

Half way through my (fab) @maryrosemuseum.bsky.social visit have stopped for lunch and the weather is lovely so I’m sat outside. In March.

Chart from the 1819 Parry North West Passage expedition with Resolution Island marked on it

Present day navigation chart of the Labrador Sea including Resolution Island with pencil marks showing my route in 2024

The modern on screen navigation chart showing in close up our path around Resolution Island

A blue sea with and iceberg in the middle distance and a hilly landscape in the background, a section of Resolution Island

At @phdockyard.bsky.social today I saw this chart from the 1819 Parry North West Passage expedition and Resolution Is land caught my eye as I sailed past this in 2024. The maps have improved a bit since then.

Three old large fishing trawlers lined up against the quay. Modern industrial port building behind merging into urban Tromso

Behind some low brick buildings are two ski jumps, one small and one large that towers over the trees behind

A view from the ship with a deck rail in the foreground, port buildings and white mountains in the distance separated from us by the water of the fjord

Day 7 Hurtigruten 15 yrs ago. After the quite stressful events around the North Cape excursion the day before, and the rough seas triggering seasickness it was rather pleasant to head back to Tromso to moor up for a couple of days. Missing a lot of stops, but refunded the cost of the whole trip!

As I drove down the A11 past turnings to Mildenhall and Lakenheath this morning and as I sit in Portsmouth dockyard I am a bit more pensive and vigilant

A stuffed whale and a cannon gaze out of a window at the harbour where a range of naval boats and a big ship are moored

View from the cafe the green grey water holds a number of boats tied up to pontoons and a whacking great Victorian warship

A statue of a sailor looks out onto the bus station, outlet centre and a tall tourist attraction. The naked branches of a tree cover the top left hand corner of the photo

Roaaaaaaad triiiiiiiiip

A photo at an oblique angle looking out of the window of the North Cape visitor centre at the marker globe in drifting snow (it was too windy to risk going out for a look)

It’s night and the view inside the visitor centre looking out. The snow is piled up outside above the head height of the person walking across the visitor centre

Stranded at the North Cape visitor centre, only the cocoa and waffle cafe was open and by late afternoon we’d stripped the place of anything edible. The military bought soup from the ship and we were scoping out places to sleep But the wind finally dies down and we were back on the ship by midnight.

A grey Norwegian navy ship almost disappearing in the heavy swell and grey water. In the background are snow covered mountains.

A snowy landscape with a barely discernible road. A snowplough heads a convoy of excursion coaches.

A snowy landscape with a barely discernible road. A snowplough heads a convoy of excursion coaches. It is very windy and in places the road goes along steep slopes that end in cliffs plunging to the angry sea.

In heavy snowy tracked military vehicles are disgorging passengers from the coaches that blew off the road on the way up.

Day 6 Hurtigruten 15 yrs ago. And it was a doozy. After more delays we made it to a very windy, snowy Honningsvag& the North Cape excursion. A snowplough headed the coach convoy but 5 of 8 coaches were blown off the road. We made it to the visitor centre. Where we were stuck til the wind died down.

None at all. Though they did get me a maths tutor for a bit cos it was the days when you couldn’t get into uni without o level maths

Gaaarh “course” obviously

Mostly grey tones snowy mountains with a small town at the base in the distance across grey water

Tiny red cabin by the fjord’s edge dwarfed by the trees and rocky snow dusted landscape sloping up steeply

A bloke in a dark warm cloak with hair and a beard that looks like it’s made from a mop head carries a trident. He stands in front of a barrel of very cold water. Behind him some of the crew and some bottles of spirits to chase the cold away

A fjord-side town with wooden houses mostly white, amongst the snowy ground. In the foreground a red barn in need of fresh paint sits on a small jetty

Day 5 Hurtigruten 15years ago. Lost time to make up, some stops cancelled. In the Arctic now (crossed in the dark) so lovely snowy scenery as we sail north. Later Neptune (looking v like the Asst Cruise Director) initiated us into his icy realm with v cold water down our backs & a certificate

It’s interesting that there is a corse of original bricks half way up. I wonder if a car crashed into it or a fire and they were whimsical with the insurance money?

Quite excited about visiting Leeds in a few weeks, but I will be driving there.

A sewn image in portrait orientation. Digitally printed fabric of the ice in the fjords (background), the internet access code receipt on the white 'sails' of the building with overlaid organzas in grey, purple and brown.

This was an early piece of my textile art that was inspired by the architecture of the heritage centre in Rorvik. Digitally printed fabric of the ice in the fjords (background), the internet access code receipt on the white 'sails' of the building with overlaid organzas in grey, purple and brown.

Congratulations!

Watercolour and ink sketch of a red harbour-side wooden building

Pencil drawing of the heritage centre with its sail like architecture and the high level bridge in the background

Watercolur of the navigation lights on a smooth rock outcrop. I think this is one of my favourite sketches from the whole trip.

And some sketches I made on the trip. And I feel that they get better as the trip progresses as I do more sketching

Morning in Rorvik on the ship looking out onto the harbour. Crates are stacked in the foreground. The heritage centre has three sail like walls and further away traditional wooden harbour side buildings in ox blood red

An ochre yellow and ox blood red wooden harbour side buildings with roof extensions over the water for loading and unloading goods

Leaving Rorvik (eventually) sailing past a rocky shore and scrubby trees. A big bird flys parallel with the ship as I look out of the window. I realise years later that it is a magnificent sea eagle.

One of the many navigation lights, whitewalls with a rear top under which the light sits on a smooth rock outcrop in the fjord as we sail past in the late afternoon

Day 4 Hurtigruten 15 yrs ago, a brief stop at Rorvik turns into a long one as we have engine problem and we are waiting for here for an engineer. The local heritage centre is opened for us and I have a wander round the picturesque boat yard and little harbour