Feels Like a Holiday

Coffee in the sun again to start the day. We still consider that a treat! And the campground who owned the dock we were on sold fresh bread rolls in the morning so we couldn’t resist and had some warm fresh buns with eggs for breakfast whilst on the way out again, past the salmon eye and to a free dock on a little forested island.
We had a light breeze, but head on so it was a day of motoring. But again, we were just happy to not have a storm and the sun shining!
Unfortunately our attempts at fishing before heading in to the bay were unsuccessful. We had been quite excited for mackerel cooked on the campfire we planned to have but since there were no fish here we would have to have something else for dinner.
The bay was relatively busy, with a few motorboats already parked up but plenty of space for us. After beer and chips in the sun we headed off for a little explore of the island and a little foraging session. There were lots of blueberries, which was problematic for getting Russell to move very far, and even a few mushrooms - a couple of edible varieties we hadn’t tried yet. Also got to watch some Norwegian teens showing off in a fairly ridiculous power boat - definitely some parallels between Norwegian and NZ culture…
Back at the boat we decided Lisa should try to catch a fish and, much to everyone’s surprise, she actually caught one! So we got to have campfire fish after all - delicious! The mushrooms didn’t fair quite as well on the campfire and the second batch ended up as char… oops.

We had a later start than intended the next morning, with Russell replacing the gearbox oil (we have been struggling to get forwards lately and it’s getting worse…).
The oil came out very dark, and we assume that we will probably have to replace the clutch cone, but for now hopefully the oil change helps.
After this little ordeal, we headed for Vik on an island not far away. A cute little entrance to the harbour, through forested islands and relatively narrow. Russell did a good job not getting hit by the ferry speeding around the corner in one of the especially tight channels.
We had planned to hike up to the top of the hill on the island once we got there, but after quite a late start/late arrival and the weather clouding in, we ended up going for just a small walk part way around the island. Russell bonded with the sheep on the way, we passed a Viking burial site and Angela found some mushrooms! Not a hike, but an interesting walk. It was quite easy to imagine the little village as a Viking village 1000 years ago.

The evening was spent with another game of catan. Russell and Lisa hadn’t been able to beat Angela all week and tonight was no exception. Lisa will have to try again next time we see her, since the next morning was a relatively early one, getting to Leirvik for the midday ferry back to Bergen for a flight that afternoon. Unfortunately for Lisa, the flight controllers went on strike and all flights ended up being cancelled for the rest of the weekend so she had a forced extra weekend in Bergen…

For us, we had seen the weather for the next two days blowing a pretty strong northerly and then switching to south easterly for the whole week after. We knew this meant we had to take the weather around the southern point (another trickier part of the coast where you need to pick the weather carefully) before the south easterlies came through. If we didn’t go now, our chances of getting to Oslo by the first week of September would be slim.
The problem was, we had two and a half days of northerlies and 150Nm to cover…
So after dropping Lisa in Leirvik and picking up some supplies, we headed off after midday with an ambitious 58Nm goal for the rest of the day (day one of our northerlies).

The last week with beautiful calm weather and sheltered anchorages had meant that we could actually relax quite a lot for once, and really felt like we were having a relaxing holiday! We had the feeling the next couple of days might remind us we are on an adventure.Read more