Veronica Skotnes

I Read It In The Waves. Sailing in the Arctic Sea

Det jeg leste i bølgene

Only by travelling the sea way can you truly understand the coast. For three years, Veronica Skotnes has sailed along the coast of Northern Norway, searching for people stories and nature experiences from the country’s most remote and windswept region.

I Read It In The Waves depicts a journey by boat, as well as an inner journey. Veronica Skotnes travels through polar nights and under the midnight sun, on the calm sea and through storms. She’s all by herself on the deck of an old sailing boat.

The book emphasises a beautiful and dwindling part of Norway’s coastal culture, alongside the author’s own reflections, experiences and challenges from sailing in the Arctic.

‘A fantastic travel report that strongly touches on the challenges of life and the present.’

Dagbladet BOK, 5/6 stars

‘The travel depiction I Read It In The Waves is a tribute to the sea, and a declaration of love to all who live along our northernmost coast.’

Friluftsliv

‘This is a book completely out of the ordinary. Poetic texts about the sea and the people on the islands in the farthest north. Warm human encounters, written with honesty. Anyone who is interested in the coast and coastal culture should get this book.’

Norsk Fyrforening

Veronica Skotnes (b. 1998) took to the sea at the age of seventeen, as crew on a schooner in the North Sea. Since then, the wind and ocean currents have taken her north of the Arctic Circle, where she now steers her own ship. For the past three years, she has been sailing and living in a boat along the coast of Finnmark, in the very north of Norway. Skotnes has a bachelor’s degree in Arctic Outdoor Activities.