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.