Last Few Miles of the Year

We ended up spending longer in Ramsey than we had hoped because the weather decided to give us South or South-West winds for over a week and we didn’t really fancy a long hard slog into the wind and waves all the way back to Wales.  So we had a bit of a rest in Ramsey until the wind backed round to the East and North East to let us make progress towards Holyhead.

We had been parked on the scrubbing grid in Ramsey so we could have a good check on everything below the waterline in readiness for winter.  The anodes on the folding props were almost completely eroded so they were renewed and we also had some signs of water getting into the sail drive leg of the gearbox on the starboard engine, so we fitted new oil seals to the prop shaft to remedy that.  Not knowing what size the seals were we had to buy them from the Volvo parts supplier at a cost of over £13 each – I can get the same thing from an industrial supply company for less than £2!!!!  I think we will be carrying a few spare seals on board from now on.  Both those jobs were expected and my inspections of everything else underwater revealed no more surprises and no more jobs requiring attention – a good result!!!

We had to visit a few pubs during our extended stay and we came across some very interesting characters!!!  We were listening to an old couple and their son in one pub and it was like watching an episode of Till Death us Do Part – first she was complaining about their hotel because she had got locked out of her room the night before while going to the loo down the corridor (it doesn’t bear thinking about) and then they had been kicked out for the day and not allowed back until late afternoon – they were not going to pay them by the end of the ranting!!!  Next an old man came in with two or three newspapers and sat down with his crisps, peanuts and pint – all pretty normal we thought until he took out an old tobacco tin and tipped his peanuts into it before eating them out of the tin, then we noticed he had brought in last Sundays paper (this was a Saturday), and finally he carefully folded up his empty packets, put them in his tin and took them with him!!!  A very entertaining afternoon it has to be said – it really would have made a great sit-com script.

We also had to contend with some really high Spring Tides last weekend, at one point we were almost level with the road alongside the harbour, along the seafront the strong winds also made for some very impressive waves crashing over the wall onto the road and the traffic.  We also met a lovely couple on their boat behind us, Roger and Jean have lived aboard for 25 years and he will be 91 next Feb, they were both still pretty fit and active and still enjoying their life on board.

A Stormy Day in Ramsey	Nearly on the Road – High Spring Tide

Eventually the wind did back round to the NE and ease below F6 to let us escape from Ramsey and head down the SE coast of the Isle of Man to Castletown for one night before heading back across the Irish Sea to Holyhead.  We had hoped for a fairly nice crossing with F4-5 winds from the NE and slight to moderate seas, the wind was OK at F5 nearly F6, but the sea state was pretty horrible because the waves seemed to be coming from the SE and combined with the NE wind to give a very mixed up, uncomfortable sea – typical Irish Sea really.  We were very glad to get tied up in Holyhead, at least the wind made for a pretty quick crossing of just 6hrs dock to dock for the 45nm passage.

We had a nice few days in Holyhead catching up with everything that had happened over the summer and seeing a lot of friends to catch up on the gossip etc.  The weather was nice and sunny with light winds so last Thursday we set off for Caernarfon on our last passage of the year.  Conditions were ideal with a 15knt NE offshore breeze, flat seas and sunny skies so we raised sail in the harbour, motor sailed to the Stacks and then sailed all the way to Caernarfon Bar at 7 – 8 knts, a lovely trip to finish off the summer.  We are now tied up for the winter in Victoria Dock and we probably will not move until next April.

For anyone who is interested in the facts and figures of our summer adventures we covered 2160 nm at an average speed of 6knts. Total time on passage was 362hrs, this is 7.5% of the time we were away, 21% of the time we managed to sail, 17% was motor sailing and 62% was motoring, so you can see that we did an awful lot more motoring than we would have liked seeing as we are supposed to be a sailing boat!!!

We hope you have all enjoyed reading about our travels and are not too jealous of our adventures – you just need to think about what you really want in this life and then make it happen.  This will be the last blog update until next Spring but we will have Internet access all winter in Caernarfon so you can email us, text us or even phone – our mobile numbers are still the same.  We are heading back to Oswestry for a week to catch up with friends and family so we are looking forward to seeing a lot of you next week.

Back to the West Coast via the Caledonian Canal

We have had a busy time over the last few weeks with some really great times as we have been joined by a few visitors as we make our way through the Caledonian Canal and down the West Coast of Scotland.  Internet access has also been very limited so it has been a while since we let you all know what we have been up to.

Last time we told you how bad conditions were in Peterhead as we sat out a 2 day storm, we finally left on Thursday 9th, in the dark as usual to catch the tide north and west into the Murray Firth.  The sea state outside the harbour was still pretty horrible after the storm with 10-12ft waves, fortunately the wind had died to under 10knts so it was not too bad as we were going much the same way as the waves, it was still bad enough for Sue to decide she was better off in bed!!!  It took a couple of hours to get to Rattray Head and start turning west into the Murray Firth and then the sea started to calm down, then it started to get grey and murky with patches of mist cutting visibility to less than 1/2 mile – never very nice when at sea in a small boat.  We got into Buckie about 1330 where the harbour staff were waiting to take our lines in lovely sunny conditions.  Not too much to see in Buckie and the downturn in the UK fishing industry has taken it’s toll here as it has in many smaller fishing ports, we did find the fishmonger selling local catch at very good prices.

Surprisingly the tide decided we needed another early start so we left Buckie at 0600 and headed out into calm seas and light breeze to be treated to an amazing sunrise that really was worth getting up early for.  The breeze picked up enough for us to actually do some sailing for a couple of hours as we set course for Inverness, it didn’t last so it was motor sailing and then motoring as we entered the Inner Firth.  We thought this would, at least, mean an easy entrance into the Sea Lock at Clachnaharry, but the weather had other ideas. The wind started picking up as we headed under the Kessock Bridge and by the time we got to the canal it was 35-40knts directly across the entrance to the lock – not what you want for our first ever canal lock.  Nimrod is nearly 7m wide and the canal lock is a bit less than 11m so there is not much room for error when the wind is blowing us sideways, we had to abort our first attempt as it just seemed to windy.  A quick radio chat with the lock-keeper gained us the valuable advice that “you just have to be brave” and “it’s sheltered when you get to the office building”!!!  Anyway it was time for a deep breath, make sure Sue was ready with two lines, and into the lock at 5 or 6 knts to keep us on course and then lots of astern on the engines to make sure we didn’t open the gates at the end of the lock with Nimrod’s bows.  In the end it was all fine and we were safely tied up to be greeted by the very friendly and helpful canal staff.  We then only had one lock and bridge to negotiate before we tied up in Seaport Marina, Inverness.

Friday Sunrise as we Left Buckie	A Wild Entrance to the Caledonian Canal

Saturday was a nice day and we headed up the flight of three locks out of Inverness with only one other boat joining us in the locks.  Papa Joe was a private motor boat with Kenny & Joyce & family aboard so it was a pretty stress free introduction to canal locks.  The staff were great and made it all very easy really.  After the locks we coasted down a couple of miles of canal before tying up for the night.  The forecast for Monday onwards was for quite strong SW winds, this meant the wind would be directly up Loch Ness on the nose as we headed down the Loch.  Loch Ness has a nasty reputation in such winds so we decided to make an early start on the Sunday to get to Fort Augustus before things got nasty, at least the locks do not operate until 0830 so it was no too bad.  Loch Ness is over 20nm long and although it was fairly overcast it is still a very spectacular place, conditions were pretty good so we had a nice trip of about 5hrs before tying up below Fort Augustus.  Papa Joe arrived a couple of days later to tell us that conditions were not nice on the Mon and Tues so we definitely made the right call.  We stayed in Fort Augustus for a few days while the weather calmed down.

Looking Down the Locks to Kessock Bridge	A Peaceful Mooring at Fort Augustus

Fort Augustus has a staircase of 5 locks to negotiate and also an awful lot of tourists watching our progress up the locks.  This time we had 4 hire cruiser boats as well as Papa Joe with us – the hire cruiser crews only get about 1/2hr instruction before being let out on the canal so they can be a bit of a liability in the locks – fortunately it all went fairly smoothly with only a few loud words from Kenny on Papa Joe as the hire boat behind tried to mount his dinghy on the back of his boat!!!  For or five miles of canal and a couple more locks took us to Laggan for a couple of days. Had to have a look at Papa Joe’s batteries because one engine would not start very easily to discover they were almost dry and the one was totally kapput, so began another of those nights that just seems to go downhill!!!! We were joined here by Jean and John, friends from Oswestry who sold their boat last year after spending 15yrs sailing around the world.  It was lovely to see them and it was also the best excuse possible for a few more little drinkies.  A short trip in nice conditions with only one lock and one bridge took us to Banavie at the top of Neptunes Staircase – a very impressive flight of eight locks to take us back down to near Sea-Level.

Jean and John Helping us Down a Wet Neptune’s Staircase	Looking Back Up the Full Set Of Locks at Neptune’s Staircase

 

Saturday morning was a wet, grey Scottish morning as we headed into the locks with Seven Sisters, a large motorboat.  It was typical Scottish rain, not too heavy but very persistent and very wet, Jean and Sue were handling the lines on shore so had no where to shelter, Chris and John on board could hide under cover occasionally, but we were all pretty bedraggled by the time we got to the bridges at the bottom.  We headed out of the Corpach Sea Lock about 1400 and out to sea under grey skies and choppy conditions down Loch Linnhe to Dunstaffnage Marina where Alan & Yvonne, more friends from Holyhead, were waiting to take our lines.

So now we have four friends on board and Papa Joe moored just behind us so it would have been very rude not too have a little party, trouble is we can never have just a “little” party and it was about 0200 when we got to bed.  Surprisingly most people were a bit slow coming round the next day.

Sue & Joyce in Best Scottish Headwear – No Drink Involved There!!!	Yvonne, Sue, Jean & John – Oh Dear

From Dunstaffnage we headed up to Tobermory for a couple of days to explore some of the scenery around the area.  We had a great meal in the Cafe Fish in Tobermory and sampled a quick beer in the local hostelery.  All too soon we had to go back to Dunstaffnage to say goodbye to Alan & Yvonne and then Jean & John also had to leave us a day later.  We had really enjoyed having everybody on board and it seemed like everybody had a good time – there were an awful lot of empty bottles in the skip anyway!!!

Where Did Those Hats Come From	More Party Antics

Just as one lot of friends leave we are joined the next day by Val & Chris from Oswestry who had been spending a few days in Scotland and joined us for a few days to finish off their holiday.  We went down to Loch Melfort with Val & Chris where we had a couple of bright sunny days in a gorgeous setting, typical Indian Summer conditions.  We had another great meal out at the Shower of Herrings and, surprisingly, a lot more empty bottles appeared from somewhere. All too soon we had to put Val & Chris on the bus and say goodbye to them – the boat now seems empty after having friends on board for so long.

Sue, Val & Chris on Board, Loch Melfort	Idyllic Conditions in Loch Melfort

 

So as September heads towards October and the weather conditions get more variable and autumnal gales rear their heads we are now heading South whenever the wind and sea state let us make progress.  We left Loch Melfort and got to Craighouse on Jura after a pretty calm trip, mainly motoring in light breeze, when we did manage to get some sails up the wind decided to keep rising and we had to roll some away because we had too much wind – sometimes you just can’t win.  20 minutes later we had no wind again and it was back to motoring.  Craighouse was hosting the Jura Music Festival so we headed ashore to watch the local Pipe Band and a few other turns.

Monday morning and we head to Rathlin Island in pretty good conditions, mainsail up before we raised the anchor and we sailed all the way to Bull Point on the corner of Rathlin Island at 8 or 9 knts, before turning towards the harbour and into the wind for the last three miles.  Rathlin was a complete contrast to our visit earlier in the year when the harbour was busy with all sorts of boats and the Island was busy with visitors, this time we are the only boat on the pontoons and the shore is practically deserted – it is definitely getting late in the year and we need to get back to Caernarfon for winter.

From Rathlin we went round the top corner of Northern Ireland and South to Portavoige, mainly a fishing harbour but the Harbourmaster was very welcoming as were the fishermen we met on the harbour.  Only an overnight stop because the weather is being nice so today (Thursday) we left Portavoige at 0830 put the sails up just outside the harbour and had a lovely sail all the way to Point of Ayre at the NE tip of the Isle of Man, wind was ideal at 12 –15 knts on the beam, sea was pretty calm and we sailed all the way at 8 – 9knts barely needing to trim the sails the whole way.

We are now tied up in Ramsey Harbour on their scrubbing grid to give us a chance to check everything below the waterline ready for winter, hopefully no nasty surprises waiting for us!!!  Weather forecast for the next few days is pretty horrible so we will be waiting here until it improves enough for us to get back to North Wales.

Hi all Sue here

Well as you can see by the pictures, despite being away for a long time, some things haven’t  changed on Nimrod. Once a party boat always a party boat!! We have really enjoyed ourselves over the last couple of weeks having friends on board. Mind you it’s funny when we make new friends they always seem to be like minded people!! There was much drinking, dancing and singing done.

When Jean and I were walking down Neptunes staircase holding the ropes a bus load of American tourists arrived at the seventh lock. We were looking very bedraggled by then and one lady commented on what a strong girl I was pulling that big boat!! She hadn’t noticed Chris had the engines on so I just smiled and agreed with her and told her that was the seventh lock I had pulled it through!!

We are used to people taking pictures of Nimrod as there don’t seem to be many big cats around here and we don’t mind but when they climb on board and pose on the back steps this seems to be going a bit far!! Especially when in Fort Augustus it was midnight and I woke Chris as I heard people on board and thought we were being broken into!! He wasn’t very impressed and did shout a few choice words!!

The weather is very changeable now and it’s back to making a dash for it in between gales etc. Hoping to get to Isle of Man by Thursday where we will wait for right conditions to cross to Holyhead. No doubt there will be a bit more partying when we get there!!

Looking forward to catching up with family and friends who we haven’t seen since March, especially my granddaughter Courtney who was two while we were away.

Across The North Sea to Scotland

We left Rekefjord, according to plan, early on Thursday morning at 0600 and this got even earlier as we changed our clocks back to UK time so it was now 0500. Weather was pretty much exactly as the forecast predicted with a light NE breeze and clear skies. As we left the fjord and headed out to sea we watched a beautiful sunrise over the hills of Norway – a great start to the trip.


We started off with a couple of hours motorsailing, the sea had a bit of residual swell left over from the NW winds of the last ten days, but generally pleasant progress at 6.5knts. Soon the wind dropped to less than 6knts so it was sails down and engine only, the sea swell had also got a bit worse and the lack of sails to steady the boat made for a bit of a rocky, rolly ride.

Around midday the breeze had picked up a bit so we could get the sails out again and by 1500hrs we had 15knts from the North so the engine was switched off and we were sailing along at 7.5knts heading straight for Peterhead. The sea swell had also subsided a bit so conditions on Nimrod were pretty much ideal. The North Sea sunset was very impressive as we sailed towards it in almost calm seas – at least Sue could make a meal without too much swaying around in the galley.

Sunrise Over Norway

Sunset Over The North Sea

As usual the wind started to drop off as night fell so it was a couple of hours motorsailing before dropping the sails again at 0200 in the morning. We were also joined by a group of dolphins swimming alongside the boat, we couldn’t really see much of them in the dark but you could hear the splashes as they popped out of the water and they stayed with us for over half an hour. By now we were right in the middle of the Oil and Gas fields with rigs visible all around us, we passed a few miles North of the huge Forties field and we only had to change course once to avoid a restricted area.


Sunrise on Friday saw us motoring in glassy calm seas with no wind at all to help us. This was more than made up for by the arrival of more dolphins to guide us on our way to Scotland. The first group was two mothers with two small calves, as we headed west the groups of dolphins continued to swap and change and at times we had over a dozen swimming around the boat. The display was brilliant, we had a group of six all swimming at the front of the boat with four between the bows and one each side like a police outrider escort. At other times they would barrel roll across the front from one hull to the other or perform like synchronised swimmers as four all arched out of the water together. Occasionally we would get a real show off jumping right out of the water, it was amazing how close they would swim to the hulls and under the boat without actually touching it. In all we had dolphins with us for nearly five hours as we chugged steadily through the oil fields.

Dolphins Saying Good Morning to Sue

Mother and Baby

The calm seas lasted all day with the waves only just starting to build a little for the last two or three hours to Peterhead. We didn’t have enough breeze to sail but we did motor sail from about midday Friday all the way to Peterhead. Just for a change the wind decided to pick up as we arrived at Peterhead to drop the sails and motor into the harbour. Peterhead is a very busy fishing and oil supply port so Port Control on the VHF was very busy with ships entering or leaving port, fortunately we were called into the harbour with no delay. We headed across the harbour to the Marina and tied up at 1830, 37 1/2 hrs after we left Norway.

Peterhead is a good sized town with lots of shops and supermarkets so we got the bikes out and headed off to re-stock the freezer and booze supplies, this took about half a dozen trips over the next few days – we should have enough food and drink to last us to Christmas!!!! This was quite a good plan since the weather has turned pretty nasty here with SE gales / severe gales battering this part of Scotland. Tuesday was the worst with the wind well over 40 knts for long periods and gusts over 50knts. Watching some of the fishing fleet fighting their way into the harbour made us very glad to be safely tied up in the Marina.

We now need to head North past Rattray Head and then West into the Murray Firth and Inverness to get to the entrance to the Caledonian Canal, a distance of just under 100nm. The problem is the SE winds have built up a pretty horrible sea state and although the winds have started to ease the sea is still forecast to be rough for the next couple of days. We think we might be able to make some more progress on Friday, probably to Buckie that is about half way to the Canal entrance.

Hi all Sue here

Well I survived the long crossing back to Peterhead. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be but the dolphins definitely made the trip for me. At one point when I had just retired from my watch for a sleep Chris woke me to say we had dolphins swimming alongside. I was so tired I decided to ignore him but the dolphins had other ideas, all I could hear were loud squeaking noises and splashes alongside the hull so I had to get up to see them. It was amazing watching them perform and we lost count of how many we had around the boat.

We are now fully stocked up with food and drink after many trips on our bikes. I’ve got a gel seat on my bike but It doesn’t make much difference!! Ouch!! Chris says with all my padding he’s surprised I can feel anything!!

Well once again we are waiting for the good old weather to play ball. Tuesday it felt as if we were out at sea despite being safely tied up in the marina. We just want to get to the canal now so it looks as though we might have to go out in some grotty weather to do so. Batten down the hatches time!!

Homeward Bound

Well we finally managed to escape from Farsund and head up the coast a bit further ready to cross the North Sea back to Scotland.  We were pinned in Farsund for 10 days by continuous North Westerly winds, most of last week the winds were up around 20 knts and more, finally easing off towards last weekend.  As usual this meant the wind was coming from exactly the direction we wanted to go, but we also had to go around Lista Point and this has got a very nasty reputation for rough seas in NW winds.  Apparently the south flowing remnants of the Gulf Stream and the north going current out of the Baltic meet at Lista so causing some pretty nasty waves and turbulent eddies in windy conditions.  We decided we didn’t need to see it at close quarters hence our extended stay in Farsund.

Fortunately Farsund is a very nice place to be stuck, with a nice sheltered guest quay, supermarket and laundry a few strides from the boat, main town only 100yds away, electric, mooring and wifi all for free – what more could we destitute sailors need!!!  We had quite a few British visitors off a large cruise ship that docked in Farsund, they had walked along the quay and seen us there with our UK ensign and our name “Nimrod of Malvern” both attracting attention.  The local people were all very friendly as usual with an ex-seaman called Odd delivering the weather forecast almost every day, he also wants us to email him when we get back safe and sound.

From Farsund we went around Lista to Kirkehamn on the Island of Hydra, another picture postcard type of Norwegian village.  The trip was only about 20 nm on calm seas and light winds, it was a bit longer than planned because Sue decided the southern entrance to the harbour looked a bit too narrow for Nimrod to squeeze between the rock walls of the passage, so we had to around to the main entrance.

Looking West Out of Kirkehamn Harbour	Nimrod and Mary Bryant in Kirkehamn

Shortly after tying up in the harbour we were joined by a lovely wooden schooner called the Mary Bryant that was bound for Harwich, the crew told us they had headed out past Lista a couple of days earlier and had to turn back because the conditions were so bad – good job we stayed in Farsund!!!  We had to let them have some “proper” tea-bags for the passage home because they had only got some local Yellow Label tea and were not happy about a 4 or 5 day trip without decent tea!!!

We both left on Monday, us heading NW to Rekefjord and Mary Bryant heading SW to Harwich some 420nm away.  Nice gentle conditions when we left at midday but by the time we got to Rekefjord, only 12nm, the wind had picked up to around 20knts on the nose and the sea was also building so we were happy to turn into the sheltered inlet of Rekefjord where we tied up in a flat calm!!!  We had visited here on our way south so we already knew it was a good stopping point, they even provide a couple of cycles for boaties to borrow to explore the local area.

We are sat here checking all the weather forecasts – more free WiFi – to decide the best time to leave on our 260nm crossing to Peterhead.  At the moment we are hoping to leave early Thursday to get to Scotland late Friday night, we reckon on about 40hrs at sea, maybe a bit less if the winds are favourable. Our course is almost due West and the winds are forecast to be light from the NE so we will probably be motorsailing most of the way – Sue seems to think this is much better than sailing in stronger winds and bigger waves.

Hi all Sue here

As usual the Captain has said it all!! I must say I enjoyed our stay in Farsund perhaps it was the laundrette that was the main attraction!!

I knew my 2400 Typhoo Tea Bags would come in useful, they are about the only thing we’ve still got plenty of, so giving 100 to the people of Mary Bryant was no problem. I’m sure they will have a much better passage home being able to have a decent brew.

Looks like we are going to make a move Thursday so today we have been to local supermarket and spent the last of our kroner on some chocolate for the journey home. Definitely a must for a 40 hour crossing especially as I’m going to have to do a night watch!! Captain Chris has assured me I will be fine. A means to an end, at least I will be in a pub Saturday night, that’s the way to look at it!!

Bonnie Scotland here we come!!

About Turn – Heading West

Friday 13th August – We stopped in Høllen to fill up with water, get some supplies, plug in to electrickery and send our last blog update, a handy little town with everything we needed close to the harbour.  From there we headed to Uvår, this is a small Island about 5 miles west of Høllen with a nice anchorage between two legs of the island.  We dropped the anchor and had a quick scoot around in the dinghy to see if we could get alongside a wooden jetty but that was too shallow and there was no nice place to tie to the shore, luckily a Danish couple on already tied alongside another jetty invited us to raft outside them as the holding in the middle was reputed to be a bit dubious because of all the weed.

Sunset in Uvår	International Parking Spot in Uvår

Later in the day we were joined by a Norwegian family who rafted outside us, a very International affair and all very friendly.  We had a couple of meals with the Danes, Olaf and Katrina, on Kee II so we had to open a couple of bottles just to be sociable!!.  The weather was just about perfect, light breeze, blue skies, lovely sunsets and calm seas.  Ventured out in the dinghy to try my luck with the fishing and managed to catch lots of mackerel and finally a cod that was big enough to keep.  Some of the mackerel got used as bait in the crab pots and we managed to catch about 15 good sized crabs during our stay in Uvår so our self-sufficiency has improved dramatically.

The first night we were saying to the Danes that we had seen very few British boats on our travels, an hour later one comes into the anchorage with a younger couple aboard, the next day in comes yet another British boat – a bit like buses.  Our Norwegian neighbours left on Sunday and the second British boat moved alongside us, Mike and Prunella on Ghida are from South Wales and were really great fun. 

The Danes left on Monday and the weather took a serious downhill turn with NE winds up to 30 knots that lasted for three days, luckily the anchorage was ideal for winds from that direction so we were all tucked in nice and snuggly.  We were also joined by Ole, a Dane who lives in Norway on his little 26ft yacht, he came in looking a bit like a mad professor because his engine didn’t work so he was having to sail in with the wind up at about 25knots.  After some frantic waving and shouting and a few circles of the anchorage we got him tied up alongside Ghida with not too much hassle – he was very grateful to have someone help him out because he had had a pretty rough sail to get here and was relieved to be tied up safe and sound.

Because of the weather we were stuck in Uvår a bit longer than planned but we had a great time with Mike and Prunella with their little dog, Snoopy, as well as Ole who we invited to join us for meals because he had hardly any food on board – he hadn’t planned on the weather being so bad.  Ole is a really interesting man who has led a very varied life with everything from living in a commune to teaching art at university, he gave us a lovely painting to say thanks for our hospitality, we also managed to mend his outboard engine so he was really happy.

Mike and Pru on Ghida	The Mad Snoopy Dog!!

By Wednesday we were all running very low on water and supplies so we decided we needed to make a move seeing as the wind was forecast to start easing off in the afternoon.  We were going west to Farsund so we thought the NE wind would not be too bad for us to make good progress.  We headed off with two reefs in the mainsail and half the headsail out and we were soon doing 9knots and more!!!  As we headed towards Lindesnes Point the wind definitely didn’t ease, in fact it seemed to get stronger with periods when the wind was over 30knts with gusts over 40knts, we had rolled away the headsail but the double reefed main was still a bit much for the conditions as we surfed down some waves at over 13knts – definitely getting a bit hairy!!!  Down came the main and we rolled out about two thirds of the headsail, still between 8 and 9 knts boat speed but a lot more control as we rounded Lindesnes.  With wind and waves all going the same way as us it was pretty comfortable for us on board but you certainly would not have wanted to be going the other way, we saw a ketch rigged yacht heading South by Lindesnes with only a small headsail out and she was rolling all over the place – not fun at all!!!

Once we got round Lindesnes and headed towards Farsund we got some shelter from the Islands so the wind and sea calmed a bit for the last 10 miles and by the time we got to Farsund the wind had dropped off completely and we had to resort to engines for the last mile.  Tied up in Farsund at about 1800 so it had taken us 4 1/2 hrs to cover the 35 miles from Uvår, just under 8knts average speed.  Now settled in with free mooring and electric so we are staying for a few days to see what the weather decides to do – at the moment it is very unseasonal with low pressure, rain and strong winds, hopefully it will change in a couple of days.

Hi all Sue here

As usual Chris has covered it all in great detail!!

I didn’t mind being stranded in Uvar as socialising is my favourite pastime!! It was really nice to meet Mike and Pru who are doing the same as us. They are wintering back in Wales and then heading of down French coast next year so we will definitely keep in touch. I think Pru and me were too alike and drove the men mad with our blonde moments and talk of food. Fortunately they had lots of homemade wine and beer on board so combined with my homemade bread and various puddings and Chris’s fishing we managed to have a really good time. Sorry to leave Uvar really but we all had to make a move with our journeys homewards. They also had a westie dog called Snoopy who I wanted to kidnap!!

Very hairy passage to Farsund and very relieved when we arrived and were safely tied up. Anchor drinks were definitely called for!!

We will stay here for a couple of days now and wait for a change in the weather before setting of for Egersund.

Holiday Coast of Norway

You are all probably wondering where we are since it is a little while since we updated our blog, we thought we should keep you all in suspense once in a while.  Last time we were in Rekefjord heading South and we actually did what we said we would – we left the next day and the weather was pretty much as forecast.  The wind was a bit light to start and there was a fair swell to the sea so we motored for a couple of hours, then we had a bit more wind so we put the spinnaker up for the first time this year (non-sailors – this is a huge, multicoloured sail like a kite that flies off the front of the boat), a fairly easy sail at about 6knts all nice and simple until we got to the place where we needed to turn inland.  The wind picked up and we had about 18-20knts just as we needed to get the spinnaker down, fortunately it all went to plan with no drama and we headed into Farsund.

Farsund is a very busy harbour with space for loads of boats, even so we had to raft alongside another boat and by early evening it was 3 and 4 boats deep all along the pontoons, we also had the Norwegians we met in Rekefjord outside us – this, of course, was a fine reason for a party so our supplies got severely depleted!!  Our inside neighbours left after a couple of days so we managed to get alongside the pontoon to make life a little easier.  Farsund is a great place to stop because there is no charge for mooring there, the electric supply and Internet  WiFi is also free and a lovely lady in National Costume delivers free bread rolls and newspapers every morning – what more could you want!!

Boat Fire in Farsund	Party Time with Inge and Sverrill

The weather was not very nice and the wind was always the wrong way for us heading South around Lindesnes Point so we ended up staying almost a week in Farsund.  We came out of the Supermarket one day to see huge plumes of black smoke billowing up from the main harbour area, a motor cruiser boat of about 35ft had caught fire.  It was frightening to see how quickly and how intensely the fire took hold, anyone caught on board would have had no chance.  Fortunately the wife and small baby were off the boat when it happened and the husband suffered some burns to his face, but - we think – not too serious, it could have been very much worse.  It was also fortunate that the people were on board the boat in front at the time and managed to move it before the fire spread, the hotel on the dockside was also at risk until the Fire Brigade and the Lifeboat appeared to get things under control – even then the fire was very difficult to stop.

We did escape from Farsund in the end and headed around Lindesnes, the most Southerly point of Norway, in more lumpy seas with winds almost on the nose again!!  Headed into a deserted anchorage between two islands at Vare together with Inge and Sverill on Pretora.  Inge assured us there was plenty of fish to be had so we headed off in the dinghy with high hopes – it turns out he was telling lies as we only found one mackerel and a little cod between the three of us.

Next day we headed towards Mandal with the wind actually blowing the right way so we sailed almost all the way to our next anchorage in a large lagoon amidst the islands with lots of holiday chalets scattered around.  The Norwegians seem to love building holiday homes in the most inaccessible spots and in most cases the boat house seems to bigger than the main cottage.  The South Coast area we are in now is the main holiday centre for the Norwegians and there are holiday homes and boats everywhere, it is getting busier the further east we go, especially seeing as July is when a lot of people have the month off for summer holiday and head to their boats and chalets.  Apparently things calm down again mid August and by September most places are almost deserted again.

Nimrod and Pretora in Vare Anchorage	Tied to the Rocks in Ørpeholmen

We called into Kleven near Mandal to top up the water tanks – again Norway is great in this respect with almost everywhere quite happy for you to tie up at the dockside, top up the water, go shopping and head off again without charging you unless you stop overnight.  Next stop was another lovely sheltered anchorage at Ørpeholmen, first night we were anchored but then a couple of boats left so we managed to get tied up to the rocks on the side of the Island, a bit of a tentative job because this was our first go at this very common Norwegian mooring method, but we managed OK and were nice and secure for a good few days.  We are getting pretty lazy at the moment and any minor excuse is enough for us to stay put for another day!!!  We have only covered about 40 miles in the last fortnight but is is a nice relaxing pace so why rush.

The first morning in Ørpeholmen a small wooden dinghy came alongside with two teenagers offering us free crabs because they had caught too many – they left us with 5 good sized brown crabs that got turned into crab cakes for tea, also managed to catch half a dozen crabs with our own pots so we have had enough of crab for a while, we need Inge to come good with his promise of Sea Trout, but quite a few fishing expeditions in the dinghy have failed to deliver!!

We stayed here longer than planned firstly because the weather was very nice and then because it was forecast to be really bad – the bad bit didn’t happen so everybody was much relieved.  Our extended stay meant a trip in the dinghy to the shop on the Marina nearby at Tegde, even the Norwegians refer to it as “The Pirates of the Caribbean” so we only bought the essentials, there were very few prices on things which is always a bad sign!!!

Monday 26th we managed to drag ourselves out of Ørpeholmen and headed to Hollen for water and Supermarket to stock up the boat again, we only stayed a few hours but that was enough – very choppy berth and dinghies and powerboats screaming round everywhere.  We are now tied up to the rocks in a place called Olavssundet, this is a nice sheltered anchorage between two islands but it is very popular with well over 50 boats in here last night all anchored, tied to rocks or stern anchored with lines to shore.

Looking Over the Huge Hollen Marina	Sue Relaxing in Olavssundet

The Island itself here was a German defence point in WW2 and there are gun emplacements, bunkers, trenches and all sorts of underground passages and storerooms all over the island, so an interesting place to wander around. 

From Olavssundet we have made our way to Bragdoya, a small anchorage about 2m South of Kristiansand, well sheltered and fairly quite seeing how close it is to Kristiansand.  Took the dinghy in to Kristiansand to have a look around the Tall Ships – some very impressive old ships to be seen – there were about 60 ships scattered around the harbour area with the biggest being two Russian boats at 110m long.  We forgot to take the camera so no pictures to share with you!!!  As you can imagine it was very busy all around the harbour with all berths full, even the anchorage area by the harbour was pretty full so we decided not to take Nimrod up there but to stay in our cosy little spot in Bragdoya.  The dinghy trip there and back was pretty bouncy, even though the weather was calm the water was fairly choppy due to all the powerboats hurtling around the harbour area, we were glad to get back on board!!!

Because of the Tall Ships Weekend we decided to head a bit further East from Kristiansand to an area called Blindleia (Dead-End Passage).  This is a picturesque archipelago that is covered with holiday homes belonging to lots of rich Norwegians, but there are still lots of peaceful deserted areas.  The passage between the mainland and the islands is very narrow in a few places and we only had a couple of metres each side of Nimrod at the tightest places – breath in and hope for the best!!!  I really would not want to take anything bigger through there.  Although it is called Dead-End Passage you can get all the way through to Lillesand if you are less than 19m high, we are 20m to the top of our antennas so we had to stop at Mortensholmen.

The main holiday month here is July so Blindleia was fairly quite in the first week of August, apparently it is really hectic in July.  Some areas were still busy but it was easy to see that a lot of the holiday homes were all shut up as people headed back to work.

We headed back to Kristiansand for the weekend and we are now heading slowly west again aiming to be back in Scotland and the Caledonian Canal for early September.  The weather here has been much better than you are having in the UK, very little rain in the past three weeks with at least some sunshine practically every day and lots of days being sunny all day – we will try and bring some sunshine back with us!!!

Hi all Sue here

I think Chris has covered it all!! To be honest my mind has been on other things for the last couple of weeks as one of my best friends has been seriously ill in hospital. After a few really worrying days and a major heart operation she is finally on the road to recovery but it makes you feel pretty useless when you are so far away. This was why we slowed down and just chilled for a while.

The tying up to rocks was very tentative as Chris points out as it was me who had to jump of the boat onto the rocks!! Chris is on the boat giving his advice on which rock I should climb up or down to!! In amongst these rocks are some very prickly bushes to contend with as well but his answer to this was I wasn’t wearing the right clothing!!

The cod are still being elusive and the nearest we have got so far was some Birds Eye Cod Fish Fingers out of the freezer.!! Supplies are getting low now as the fishing side of things has let us down. I think we need to find another remote fish farm.

When we were in Caernarfon last winter we had two swans who used to visit us every day and we could hand feed them, we had even given them names Phoebe and Perry. Since then wherever we seem to go, even some of the remotest anchorages in Norway, within a couple of hours of anchoring we always seem to get two swans visiting us. We were woken up on on Friday morning (6th August) to some tapping noises on the boat, at first we thought it was seagulls but it was soon accompanied by lots of splashing. We got up to investigate only to find Nimrod was under attack!! A male swan who also had a female swan and two cygnets with him was swimming frantically up and down the side of the boat pecking furiously at his reflection. It was very entertaining to watch and every time we frightened him of, we have got our new paintwork to consider, within ten minutes he was back attacking Nimrod the swan!!

Our Peaceful Anchorage in Lusekilen	Peace Shattered by a Mad Swan

Friday (6th August) we arrived in Kristiansand and contacted our Norwegian friend Inge who had promised to take us to his local Irish bar called Patricks. We arranged to meet up with him for a couple of drinks Saturday afternoon. It was £14 for half a cider and a pint of beer but that didn’t seem to deter us as the afternoon drinks led into late evening!! We had a very good time and ended up back on Inge’s boat for a nightcap. Think Inge came of worse though as the power of speech had deserted him by the time we left his boat!!

We are now heading back along the Norwegian coastline, which should take us two to three weeks, to Egersund from where we will cross back to Peterhead in Scotland.

More From Norway – Heading South

Norway – What Do We Think So Far?

Well we have been here nearly a month so we thought we would give you a bit of an overview of our time here so far.

Most of you have probably heard that Norway is very expensive – we can tell you that it is pretty frightening if you want to go to the pub or go out for a nice meal, just expensive for general supermarket shopping and amazingly cheap for mooring the boat – all in all quite a contrast in prices.

Beer (lager or cider only) in supermarkets is about £7 per litre or £3.50 for a standard can, even if you buy it by the case.  Anything stronger than lager, such as wine and spirits, can only be bought in government off-licences and we have not ventured into one yet (we have only seen one).  We have been told that an average wine is about £12-15 per bottle, so generally about 3 times what we would pay in the UK.

Restaurant prices are eye-wateringly expensive – a main course will be around £40.00, an average wine about £40 per bottle, 1/2 pint glass of lager about £7 and we did see one place with bottles of real ale such as Spitfire, Hobgoblin, Pedigree etc at around £20 per bottle!!!!  These prices do not seem to guarantee 5 star quality and service, this is your average High Street Chain.

Supermarket prices are not quite as daft with basics such as potatoes, bread and eggs costing about the same as corner shop prices in the UK or 1.5 times brand prices in supermarkets.  There is nothing like Aldi or Lidl here, the discount supermarkets all seem to be the same prices as any other shops.  Most supermarkets have a very good range available so getting hold of anything you might want is quite easy.  All supermarkets seem to sell ready cooked frozen prawns in shell by the kilo, you just shovel what you want into a bag from the big box in the freezer, these seem to be a bargain at £1.50 per kilo but we have not tried any yet.

It is a good job we stocked the boat with food and drink before we left Scotland as we have not really needed to buy anything other than basic provisions so far.

Mooring fees for the boat are in complete contrast to everything else, varying from free to £15 per night in the city centre of Stavanger, mostly it is £8-10 per night including electric.  Lots of places have honesty boxes where you put your money in an envelope and then into a post box (we seem to have a lot of trouble finding these boxes).  We are currently in a lovely little harbour called Rekefjord that has a nice wooden quayside with picnic tables, electric points, water and brand new toilet/shower block – here there is no charge at all for visiting boats, yes that is correct, all for free.  Can you imagine that happening in the UK?  For you non-boaties UK prices for overnight mooring for Nimrod are about £20 in smaller more remote harbours around the Irish Sea and West Scotland Areas, bigger marinas would be around £30-40, Dun Lauogharie near Dublin around £80 per night!!!  The South Coast of the UK would all be in the £40-80 range for us, so you can see how cheap Norway is.  Apparently as we go further South the charges get a bit higher with £20 per night being about average.

Rekefjord Harbour	Remote Anchorage – Anchored with Bridle on Bows, Stern Lines Ashore

Obviously with such a spectacular coastline as Norway there are also innumerable places where we can anchor for free in almost total peace and shelter, so we will be using the anchor a bit more as we go South.  Very common over here is using a stern anchor and then running lines from the bows to the shore, lots of places even have rings screwed into the rocks for these lines.  We tend to use our main anchor and then have lines from the Stern.  A large percentage of Norwegian boats have a proper stern anchor set-up complete with roller arm, windlass and chain locker so this method of mooring is then easy-peasy.

Finally the scenery is every bit as stunning and jaw dropping as the travel brochures and programmes would have you believe.  The areas we have explore so far are all very green if there is any soil for the vegetation to grow in or it is steep and rocky cliffs to the sides of the fjords, lots of the country is forested with pine trees or scrub.  The Norwegians seem to put sheep or goats on practically any island and you can hear the bells around their necks whenever you are anchored.

Waterfalls and Misty Mountains, Sauda	Tanager Harbour – A Peaceful Morning

We have said before that the photos cannot really show the scale of the scenery, everything seems to be huge when you are sailing up the Fjords, especially when the Fjord is quite narrow with waterfalls seeming to fall out of the sky alongside the boat and roads appear to hang on the side of the cliffs like ribbons.

Sailing in the Fjords tends to be all or nothing, the wind either blows up or down the fjord normally from the direction you want to go!!! It is also quite gusty with the valleys and islands tending to funnel and accelerate the wind so it is quite entertaining at times.  We seem to go everywhere using one or other of our headsails because they are very easy to pull out or roll away depending on what the wind is doing, I don’t think we have even raised the mainsail since we got to Norway.  Depending on the wind speed we can sail at anything between 4 and 9 knots with just one of our headsails and this is fine when we are generally not going very far between stops.

The weather here has been a bit mixed so far – and yes we know you have been having a heat wave at home – some beautiful sunny days and others grey and wet.  When the sun does shine the scenery looks even more amazing with the air being crystal clear and the light seemingly brighter than we are used to.  On grey days it looks more like Scotland in the winter.  The other good thing is that we get about 20hrs of daylight at the moment so the sun does not set until well after 10pm so it is easy to make the best of the sunshine when we get it.

We have decided to start heading South down the coast away from the recognised Fjord areas towards the busier South Coast of Norway, here there are still lots of offshore islands protecting the coast and plenty of little harbours to explore.  Also the weather is a bit warmer and a bit more settled in the Skaggerak region between Norway, Sweden and Denmark so sunshine should be in greater supply than it has been so far!!! 

We are now heading down the exposed North Sea Coast between Tananger in the North and Lindesnes Point in the South, this section has very few safe harbours so we are keeping a close eye on the weather to make sure we get good conditions.  We are just over half-way down now, waiting in Rekefjord for better winds, the forecast says NW 10-12 knots for tomorrow so that should be good for making more progress.  A smaller monohull left this morning to go south with the forecast saying SE 14 incr 20knts, he was back about 40 mins later having got as far as the fjord entrance and deciding it was not a good idea – especially as he had his son on board who hates sailing in anything rougher than a bathtub.  Once we get past Lindesnes there are many more offshore islands to give us shelter and the coast starts to head more NE towards Oslo meaning we can sail happily in the normal SW winds.

Not sure where we are heading for yet, we may cross to Denmark (supplies, especially drinks, are much cheaper) or we could go to Sweden and down towards the Baltic area.  Not good making too many plans on a boat because the weather always decides to do something different.

Hi all Sue here

Well Captain Chris seems to have covered everything in his version so I will just add some drivel!!

Sorry to have to report ladies but those yellow buckets are still in use, not many laundry facilities available in the quieter places we have been staying in. Chris has managed to repair the one I split bless him so I have three in use now!!

Alcohol supplies are starting to run low and the cheap wine we brought with us to trade for fish with local fishermen doesn’t taste too bad with soda. To hell with the fish I’ve got lots of chicken in the freezer and my needs are greater!! Having said that Chris has caught lots of mackerel but I would prefer cod, he is still working on it and in the meantime the freezer is slowly filling up with mackerel!! I think we might have to lose a few overboard when he’s not looking. He did catch a big salmon the other day but I think casting your line into a fish farm might be cheating a bit!! I can always turn a blind eye though!!

I’m looking forward to getting further south to hopefully warmer climates as the weather has definitely been mixed here so far. We might even be able to afford to go to the pub!!

Finally, for anyone who might be reading this who hasn't got our email address, we have added a Contact Details page (click on link on left).  Feel free to pass on any comments or ask questions etc.

Visitors on Board !!!

As we said in our last post Sue’s sister Caroline and hubby Rich came to see us for a week.  It was great to have some company and we had a really busy week, did a lot of miles and a lot of walking, Rich did about 3 times as much as anybody else because he is trekking up Mt Kilimanjaro later this month so he was getting some serious training done

The weather was a bit mixed but fortunately the worst of the weather happened on the days we had to sail quite a distance, the days when we wanted to go exploring or chilling out were generally very nice.

We started in Hjellstad marina, just south of Bergen, and we set off almost as soon as Caroline and Rich got on board.  We motored through calm seas in patchy sunshine to a little village called Uskedalen, the scenery on the way was beautiful with hardly any other boats on the water.  Uskedalen is in the huge Hardangerfjord that is over 80 miles long from the open sea, we were only about 25 miles up the fjord in a smaller sub-fjord, it was almost impossible to imagine the main fjord going on for another 60 miles!!!

Uskedalen, Hardangerfjord	A Calm Evening in the Fjords

Next day was an early start but only about 20 miles to get to Sundaal, a bit further up the Fjord in another sub-branch – this place was recommended to us by Paddy & Jill off Blackjack so we expecting great things.  It was another flat calm day so more motoring, but the fjords looked wonderful in the crystal clear light – the photos really do not do it justice.  We walked from the boat up into the mountains to a lake with a glacier heading down into it, the glacier used to come all the way down into the lake but now it melts before it gets anywhere near, it was well worth the walk though.  We met a very interesting local man at the lake who told us about a man who lived in a cave by the lake to avoid working – sounds a bit extreme.  Rich decided he needed to walk a bit further as part of his training so the rest of us headed back to the boat, Rich returned about 4hrs later having hiked all the way up to the snowline and back.

Sundaal Lake with Glacier Behind	Richard Finds Snow in the Mountains

The next couple of days were a bit grey and miserable but we needed to make some progress South towards Stavanger.  Thurs 24th was a long day from Sundaal to Haugesund covering about 55miles in 8 hours, down the Hardangerfjord and out into the North Sea before getting back into the shelter of the offshore islands at Haugesund.  Although it was grey and miserable there was not much wind so the seas were pretty calm, when we got to the end of the Fjord it was really misty and drizzly with visibility down to about a mile.  I thought the best option was to take the route close inshore down to Haugesund to avoid the bigger shipping in the grotty visibility, unfortunately they all seemed to want to use the same route so we had five different large ships passing less than half a mile from us, the AIS system we have on board is brilliant in these conditions.  The AIS picks up data transmissions from most big ships and our on-board navigation system calculates how close they are going to get and how long till they get there so it is much easier to make sure we all avoid each other.  Unfortunately a lot of boats do not have AIS such as most pleasure boats, smaller fishing boats and some others, so we still have to keep a sharp lookout for all these boats as well.

Next day we had about 30 miles to cover to get to Jorpeland, but first we had to go under the bridge in Haugesund, we are 20m high and the bridge was 22m and it always looks like we are never going to make it when you look up from the deck but we got through OK.  We did manage a couple of hours sailing on this bit instead of the usual chug chug from one engine or the other.  Jorpeland is a small town with a nice harbour and a large shopping centre to stock up with supplies.

Saturday we were heading up one of Norway’s most well know attractions, Pulpit Rock or Priekestolen (look it up on the Internet) so we were hoping for nice weather but it was grey and cloudy with the forecast saying it should clear up later.  We caught the 0900 bus and set off with backpacks for the hike up to Pulpit Rock at 605m above Sea Level, the start at the car park is 300m above SL so it is a long way up.  The guide books tell you it is a 2hr hike with some steep climbs and some more level sections – they are a bit economical with the truth!!!  It is a hard hike with some very steep scrambles over very rocky ground up stream beds and around cliff edges, definitely needing boots yet a few people we saw were wearing little more than ballet shoes!!!  The grey skies and low cloud were a bit of a blessing because it kept the temperature down and it also meant you couldn’t really see how high and steep the path in front was – it would have been very hard work on a hot summers day.

Intrepid Adventurers on the Edge of Pulpit Rock	The View over Lysefjord from Near the Top

The low cloud meant we did not have the best of views from the top but it was still worth the strenuous walk to get there, the cloud started clearing as we headed down and the views were amazing over the fjord and surrounding mountains.  Going down was almost as hard as the climb up, the steep rocky sections were slippery and dangerous if you didn’t take your time.  Even worse was the people coming the other way because it is a very narrow track so passing on some sections is not easy, especially when some people are not going to stop for anyone or anything.  It was not too busy while we were there, it really would be chaos in the peak summer season with hundreds of people on the track.

We all made it safe and sound apart from some sharp words from the girls because we headed off to the top without waiting for them, we didn’t make the same mistake on the way down!!  We got back on the bus and headed back to the boat just as the skies cleared properly and the sun came out – typical.

We set off as soon as we got back on board heading up the Lysefjord to Lysebotn right at the top end of the fjord.  Lysefjord is about 20 miles long and very narrow with sheer cliffs reaching up to 1000m high in some places.  We passed underneath Pulpit Rock on our way up the fjord and it is an awful long way up when you are sailing under it.  Towards the top of the fjord are the Kjerag cliffs at over 1000m high with a rock called Kjeragbolten wedged in a gap between two cliffs right at the top, we could just about see it from the bottom.  As we headed past the cliffs we saw some parachutists and realised that a group of base jumpers were actually jumping off the top of the cliffs – it was enough to make you feel faint just watching them.

We got to Lysebotn and found out that it was a 4 day festival for base jumpers from all over the world, we spoke to an American and a Kiwi, they had organised a helicopter to ferry them up to the top instead of having to hike there.  The next day Richard did hike (more training) all the way up to where they were jumping from and he said it was quite amazing up there, especially the people wanting to stand on top of the wedged rock Kjeragbolten (Google it!), it took him about 7hrs round trip but the rest of us decided we needed to stay and look after the boat, after all we are not climbing Kilimanjaro.

Pulpit Rock From Below	Looking up Lysefjord to Lysebotn

All too soon, it seemed, we needed to head to Stavanger for Caroline and Richard to catch their flights home.  We headed back down the Lysefjord and it was just as impressive as going up, the sun shone again so the light was perfect.  Managed a bit more sailing towards Stavanger, but the last hour the wind really picked up to well over 20knts gusting towards 30knts as Stavanger Harbour came into sight.  It is a very busy harbour, we had over 70 ships showing on our AIS tracker, with ferries, cargo boats, oil rig support and huge cruise liners all using the harbour.  We looked into the first Guest Harbour area and decided it was not really made for catamarans so we headed round to the Guest area in the main Harbour area (Vagen) and tied up behind Grand Mistral, a 800ft cruise liner.  We were right in the middle of the main bar and restaurant area and there was also an international beach volleyball tournament taking place alongside the harbour, Rich and I did check out the skills of a couple of the ladies teams.

Rich and Caroline Just Leaving	Captain Chris and Admiral Sue, Stavanger

Our last night together was a trip to a local Thai Restaurant courtesy of Rich and Caroline followed by a few drinks on the back of the boat people watching Stavanger at night.  Lots of people about even for a Monday night.  Up early next day for Rich and Caroline to catch the 0630 bus to the airport, the week had gone so quickly it seemed like they had only just arrived. 

After the hectic week with Rich and Caroline we have now slowed down and are just pottering around in the Islands and Fjords to the North East of Stavanger, collectively known as Ryfylke.  We are going to spend a few days here because the weather forecast at the moment is predicting mainly Southerly quadrant winds and we want to head South – what a surprise.  Anyway there is plenty to see and do in this area so we are not too worried.  It seems that the south of Norway is the main holiday area for the Norwegians and prices go up even higher than normal – yikes, it is bad enough at “normal” prices, so we might just visit a few places down the coast before heading across to Sweden.

Hi all Sue here

As Chris has said our week with my sister and hubby passed all too quick, it was lovely having them on board and we all had a great time. Much eating and drinking was done as you can imagine!!

Our hike up pulpit rock was very challenging more so as the men had gone on ahead complete with rucksacks containing all the food and drink!! I don’t know what we must have looked like to other well equipped hikers, Caroline with her little handbag containing her camera and me with a small bottle of water!! As the hike got steeper and more difficult there was much muttering done about caring husbands!! The worst thing was we kept imagining them sitting on the top eating all our lovingly prepared ham rolls!! Fortunately for them they did wait for us to get there before starting on the food, although Chris did admit later they had given it some thought as they were starving when they got to the top. The descent down was just as hard and in a few places it was easier to slide down the bigger bolders on your bum. When you have short legs you have to resort to other means at times!! I must admit it was well worth the climb but don’t feel the need to do it again!!

Lyseffiord was amazing and we sailed past Pulpit rock, I couldn’t believe how high it was and to think I had sat up there with my legs dangling over the edge, foolish woman!! Then further down the ffiordd we saw the base jumpers, they have got to be quite mad. We got talking to a few of them later, Americans, who told us base jumping is banned in America and so they have to come to Norway to do it.

Stavanger was very busy and buzzing with life, it made a change from the peace and quiet of the ffiords. It’s just a shame it is so expensive here, £6 for half a lager which isn’t even decent lager and if you go for a meal in a restaurant a main meal is around £25 and a bottle of wine £30. I must admit that is one thing I miss here not being able to just go to the pub and socialise. Look out everyone, when I get back it will be party time!!

So far we seem to be the only English boat here and definitely the only catamaran. There’s a lot of Polish sailing boats here but the Norwegians seem to favour power boats. We have been told as we head to Sweden and Denmark we will come across more English boats. We can only pick up Norwegian radio and I’m finding myself singing along to some of their adverts, very worrying especially as I have no idea what they are about!! One is to the tune of “old macdonald had a farm”.

We are on our way to Sauda now which is meant to be quite a busy place and has a couple of large waterfalls which Chris wants to walk up, can’t wait!! At least he might walk with me this time, perhaps I should carry the food.

Norway at Last!!

Tues 15th and Wed 16th June 2010

Lerwick was going to be getting very busy in the next couple of days so we thought it was time to head towards Norway.  The Round Britain and Ireland Race boats were due to start arriving late Wed / early Thurs and there was also the Bergen to Shetland Race due in towards the end of the week, over 100 boats expected so it would have been chaos in the harbour as well as a marquee and parties on the dockside – time to be somewhere else!!!  This was all in addition to any cruise ships due into Lerwick to make even more madness.

We headed off on Tuesday to the Out Skerries, a small group of islands about 20 miles NE of Lerwick with a tricky little entrance.  About 80 people live there and the few we met were typically friendly and interesting.  It was an early night ready for an early start to Bergen.

Up at 0330 and leave the Out Skerries at 0400 with 170 miles to cover to get to Norway.  Forecast was for about 15knts SW or W winds that would have been ideal to push us across the North Sea – surprisingly the forecast was not quite right, the wind direction was OK but we had less than 10knts for most of the crossing only occasionally did it get anywhere near 15knts.  So we motored or motor sailed all the way across on near calm seas, a long 27 hrs later we dropped the anchor in a little cove just through the offshore Islands about 10miles North of Bergen.  A quick shower and crawl into bed for some much needed sleep, so we didn’t see much of Thursday!!!

The Entrance to the Out Skerries	A Delightful Norwegian Anchorage

Friday 18th and Saturday 19th June 2010

Friday we awoke to a choppy anchorage with 20knts plus from the NW and rising, up with the anchor and headed for an almost land locked bay marked as an anchorage on the chart.  It was only an hour away and when we got there it seemed ideal after the wind had picked up to over 30knts by the time we got there.  It was well sheltered and almost completely enclosed with only a couple of weekend chalets in sight, the only downside was the depth meant we needed all our anchor chain out to get the anchor set.  After a recce ashore we decided to use some shore lines and our stern anchor to get us nice and securely tucked in with the best shelter from the wind.  Once we had got everything properly set up it was ideal – a good job because the wind didn’t let up for 2 days with the Coastguard giving Gale Warnings of F8 and F9 for our area.  If anyone wants to have a look on Google Earth the position is 060Deg 29.40min N, 005Deg 03.9min E.

Sunday 20th and Monday 21st June 2010

The wind had finally started to ease off a bit so we thought we should head to Hjellstad were we are due to meet Sue’s sister Caroline and hubby Rich on Tuesday.  Our little anchorage was very deceptive because the wind was still in the high 20’s once we got out into more exposed waters – good job it was behind us!!  At least we managed to sail all the way to our destination, the wind meant we only needed the jib to keep us moving at 6knts.  The wind did drop off a bit as we headed South and it was a nice sail down the Fjordd close to Bergen, lots of very nice houses overlooking the water and lots of traffic to keep us on our toes as well.  All tied up nice and safe in Hjellstad Marina after a four hour trip.

Monday was like being back at work with so many jobs to be done to make sure everything is shipshape ready for visitors tomorrow.  Sue’s turn to let you know what’s been happening now!!

Hi everyone

After cutting Chris’s hair I decided to have another go at touching my roots up, so I bought some bleach mix from boots and toothbrush at the ready got going. Looks easy at the hairdressers but believe me it’s not!! I am now definitely blonde but it’s ok as I fit in quite well in Norway!!

It was our longest journey yet to Norway and we managed ok but very tiring. It made the journey though when we saw approx eight Orca Whales going past the boat.

We had a nice couple of days chilling in a little bay and are now in Hjellstad Marina. Very busy day baking, cleaning and general sort out, I haven’t worked so hard in a long time!! My one bah humbug is the marina is full of small power boats and jet skis which all seem to have to get as close to your boat as possible whilst at great speed!! There must be a reason for this but I haven’t decided what it is yet.

Chris caught some mackerel and a crab which he insisted we had for tea so I turned them into fishcakes which turned out to be very nice. It’s amazing what a bit of chilli sauce and mustard can do!!

Really looking  forward to tomorrow, Tuesday, as Caroline and Rich are due to arrive for a weeks holiday. I’m sure there will be much drinking and of course sightseeing done.