January 2019 I ran a photography workshop in northern Norway, side by side with professional skipper Albert Bjørnerem, and organised by Seilnorge.
This blog entry have as a goal to give you a glimpse of what to expect if you want to join us for such adventure in the future.
What does it takes to makes an adventure successful?
Gear and preparation are indeed primordial, especially when it comes to sailing north of the Arctic circle during the winter.
But even with the best preparation, Luck is having a great deal of responsibility for the outcome.
To recognise our luck is a powerful ways to increase the quality of our experience.
I have to say, we have been extremely lucky with this trip.
We ticked all the boxes: several close encounters with whales and orcas, navigating under the nordic lights, using the wind to propel our sailboat and anchored for the night in wild and remote area.
On top of this, the opportunity to photography stunning landscapes dimmed in surreal lights.
The team dynamic needs also a bit of luck to function at its best. To take 10 persons from all over the world (Europe, USA, Australia) that never met before (except me and Marine) and put them at sea for a week is quite a gamble.
Take into consideration the tight living space with very little privacy, the cold, the seasickness, different set of goals, motivation and cultural background… well, it is easy to imagine how things can turn sour with too much incompatibility but I have to say how impress I'm with everyone's ability to keep up with a good mood even during the rough time and push themselves to go beyond their comfort zone, especially the one not familiar with Arctic condition.
Such a trip is not for everyone, most people would need time off to recover from it.
That being said the reward is out of the ordinary: to explore beyond your comfort zone, to get deeply in touch with the natural world, and to share the experience with other people willing to learn, create and share an outstanding experience is not possible to find within the “comfort” of the modern world’s lifestyle.
Such experience is in my eye one of the best way to fully appreciate how Lucky we are to be given the greatest gift of all; to be alive.
Wanna join such an adventure?
Stay in touch with Satori Factory upcoming adventure by subscribing to our newsletter and feel free to contact us directly to share with us your dream trip, perhaps we'll make it come true.
Meet the crew:
Sally Porter, Australia
Instagram: @sallyporterphotgraphy1
Facebook: Sally Porter Photography1
"The pure magic of mother nature you can experience on a trip like this is so unique, it is hard to capture it in just one image or a few words. Beauty beyond comparison, friendships beyond boundaries and experiences beyond your imagination. You couldn't replicate this if you tried, but you would not want to. It needs to be lived and we lived it to the maximum."
Sally's favorite shots:
Albert Bjørnerem: Norway
Instagram: @albertbjornerem
It's not easy to sail in arctic Norway in the middle of January with - 10°c, ropes that freeze into sticks, icy waters and almost no sunlight. But when you are served humpbacks, orcas and northern lights in the most dramatic landscapes you can imagine you quickly forget about the cold.
Albert's favorite shots:
Our itinerary:
Tromsø // Skjervøy // Tromsø // Hamn // Trollfjorden // Skrova // Vetoøya // Bødø
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