Ålesund, and the Last Leg West

After hiding in Midsund from the 40+ knot winds, the next day was still a headwind, but much more manageable. We waited most of the day for slightly lighter winds and Angela went for a rainy hike up the almost vertical Sherpa steps for a view.
Quite a cold, bumpy motor was had, but late in the evening we pulled into Ålesund, which is supposed to be one of the prettier towns in Norway. The town was centred around a tiny sound running between the islands, and as soon as we entered the harbour we thought we had been transported to Central Europe. All the architecture was gorgeous, and it was very special to be able to mosey on through in our own yacht, and then tie up to a dock in the middle of it all.
The next day was a beautifully sunny, still day for the first time in well, we truly can’t remember, so we enjoyed it by having some of our good coffee we bought in Lovund with fresh cinnamon rolls. Exploring the city and climbing the hill overlooking the city and far mountains was also quite special, and a really good way to decompress after a couple of weeks of long days and strange sleep schedules.
We didn’t have too much time to relax though. Our plan had been to do a detour down to Geiranger and get some hiking/paragliding in, but there were 3 days of northerlies forecast, after which were more SW storms, and after all the slogging upwind we had done over the last few weeks we couldn’t stomach letting this opportunity to get south go past. So, in the afternoon we headed off into the building northerly, and had a stunning sail down to Herøya, setting us up to round Vestkapp and head south the next day. We were rewarded with a lovely calm, free dock with a stunning sunset, and the promise of a couple more days of downwind sailing meant spirits were pretty high!Read more