Solo Sailing
26. mai, Norge ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C
I was a little nervous leaving the marina all on my own, but was very pleased with how it went! However, I misjudged the current in the Kvaløysundet towards where I had planned to anchor that night and therefore had a longer trip than anticipated. But I had a cute spot, and nice and calm. The next morning however, the wind picked up a bit earlier than supposed to so I picked up anchor pre coffee and headed to the Kvaløyvågen marina.
After two failed attempts at docking between two fishing boats and a wind blowing me away from the dock, a friendly fisherman came out and helped me. I probably would have eventually gotten it, but I was very thankful for the help!
After our engine flooding issues, we purchased a waterlock for our exhaust and so I got to work trying to put this in. Unfortunately nothing can be straightforward on the boat it seems so the exhaust hose was bigger than it should be and therefore the waterlock didn’t fit in perfectly like it should have… but I had already chopped the exhaust to find this out. Thankfully, the hose is flexible and the clamps are pretty good so it still works, just doesn’t look very pretty. And most importantly, it worked!
Two days of admin and fixing things in Kvaløyvågen and I was ready to move to an anchorage somewhere I wasn’t next to a fish factory and relax a little.
The wind however had other plans and decided to be windier than forecast and provide little shelter anywhere. I headed for Hessfjorden, where we have experienced to be extremely sheltered. After a windy night here, I decided to try Grunnfjorden. Beautifully calm getting there, even saw whales! And a beautifully calm first hour at anchor, lovely spot with forest, waterfalls and some reindeer roaming around. I was pretty stoked until the wind decided it would come into here as well and I had another windy night.
The next day I headed back south to the islands by Finnkroken which was thankfully relatively sheltered, and a scenic spot.
With the wind predicted to pick up again, I figured I would head back to the marina at Kvaløyvågen. I had a really nice breeze behind me and decided this was the perfect time to try out actually sailing on my own. Sunny day, nice light breeze, gullwinging directly downwind and I was pretty happy!
Unfortunately the dock at Kvaløyvågen was full. So I dropped anchor nearby to decide what to do and wait for the current to change in Kvaløysundet. The wind picked up in my anchorage and for a while a wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to lift the anchor.. we really have the worst anchor system!
Kvaløyvågen was still full, so I went south and decided to check out an anchorage nearby the three islands. However, the wind was still picking up and funnelling through all the fjords it seemed. The upwind battle towards the anchorage I planned wasn’t going to be much fun and the anchorage was probably not going to be protected! It was already 21:30 at this point and I was pretty tired with nowhere close that would be protected.
So I gave up and called our friend Dag at Skattøra and asked if I could come in a couple of days earlier than planned. A solo sailer himself, he was very understanding and had caught me as I came in to the marina. Not my most graceful entry hahah but it worked!
I had a couple of days now until Russell was back, and I had time to catch up on sleep, restock, fix things and prepare to head out of Tromsø for the last time when Russell returned.
A couple of days in the marina is all it takes to make some friends too. I was invited by a lovely German couple to visit them in Lübeck, invited to a hippy festival on one of the islands nearby and found someone who may be interested in buying our boat at the end of summer… also got to check out a boat three guys had bought for the same amount we had paid for ours so it was a good to see just how good of a deal we got.
Solo sailing was great for the experience, but it’s definitely not my preference!Les mer
Warm Days, a Hippy Island and the Midnight Sun
4.–10. jun., Norge ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C
With Russell back in Tromsø, we could continue exploring the Troms area. Russell was greeted with a shock stepping off the plane in Tromsø; over the past 3 weeks, almost all of the snow had melted, the hills and mountains had turned a vibrant green and it was warm! Angela had met a guy at the marina organising a little festival at one of the islands a little further north, so we had a couple of days to relax while working our way up there. It’s such a change sailing around in warmth and sunshine, and even though the water is still very cold, it’s all a lot less stressful now - much less fear of death if we get something badly wrong with the sailing! The ability to catch fish easily is still a welcome part of our diet, and saves a tonne of money given how expensive good food is in Norway!
Once we were at Karlsøy for the festival, we found out it was not just a hippy festival, but a whole hippy island community! We ended up with 5 yachts moored on and around a small floating dock, which we felt good about until we were told that the dock got blown off its anchor points the year before…
So we explored the island and the festival a bit, but on returning to our yacht the first night we found out that it and all the others had been saved by our German friends staying there (the only ones not there for the festival) as some swell had rolled in and made life rather interesting on the dock with up to 2 meter waves! So we didn’t get much sleep that night, and not because of the festival! We spent the next day returning the favour to the German couple by helping diagnose what was wrong with their engine, and trying out their strange offshore rowing skiff. The festival was a very quaint affair, with only around 100 people in total, but a cute setup and friendly people. Definitely met some characters though!
The next day we headed off to a new floating pontoon that was tucked away in one of the outer islands, with a plan to go see the midnight sun the next day. Cute floating dock and all to ourselves. Perfect for a little yoga session in the sun the next morning.
After getting out to north Grøtøya, we once again found out that what would typically be a sheltered bay, was not in fact sheltered at all, so we turned and ran to a spot on the south of the island. We are now in the land of a million little rocks and islands, so navigating is a much more involved task, and we are eternally grateful at the invention of GPS…it’s hard to imagine trying to navigate by paper chart and compass through here and actually enjoying yourself.
Once again, a bay that was exposed to the south, turned out to be perfectly sheltered in a south westerly - go figure… No midnight sun in this bay, but a beautiful spot and a really beautiful island for a little explore, and our first lake swim! We finally found our midnight sun spot at an island called Sandøy. So with a good scotch we sat and enjoyed watching the sun dip close to the horizon and then start rising again for the first time. A much weirder experience than we had anticipated!
The next day we headed in to Kvaløyvågen to pick up our Dutch friends Merel and Axel that we knew from NZ!Les mer
Sunny reunion
10.–11. jun., Norge ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C
Merel and Axel speaking!! Dutch takeover🇳🇱
We have met Angel and Rusty during our time in New Zealand and luckily they have moved closer to us for the time being - on a sailboat in Norway - so we had to come over for a couple of days.
They were waiting for us close to Tromsø in a cute harbour. On our way there we saw all the Norwegians out on their bikes, as it was unusually sunny. This turned out to be a good omen for our stay.
We were SUPER excited seeing Russel and Angela again! After a last ice cream we set sail to Gasvaer, an island with two inhabitants and a large graveyard. While we cheersed on our reunion, it was Axels first time behind the helm, and his calmness made a promising impression (although it could also be caused by the 2hrs of sleep the night before). But a plunge in the arctic waters woke us up good. Our explore on the island was magical. We threw rocks at other rocks we threw, found chives for next mornings eggs, were confused by the sound the snipe makes while falling from the sky and enjoyed princess treatment in the dinghy. The anchorage was however not sheltered enough for the promised wind later that night, so we had to move and enjoy our south amarican wine and Dutch cheese during the midnight sun while motoring to a new spot. Not bad!
Sadly the new anchorage was next to a cliff and our hosts had to get up early in the rainy morning - after half dreams of us dragging - to sail us to a better spot. We did make it somewhat more bearable bringing out coffee and stroopwafels.
The new spot we found was dead calm and after warming up with a game of Catan - in which we are destined to lose playing with the pro’s - we got out for a grey hike to a mountain lake. The colour of the moss is gorgeous and with us as biologists, Russel being raised by biologists and Angela being raised in the bush, nature big and small caught our attention quickly. Hikes therefor took ages. We discovered the horsetail plant and some failed offshore fishfarms out at sea. Story goes that 42,000 salmon mysteriously dissapeared.
Coming back to the boat we realised we forgot to open our full waste water tank and that if we were to stay the night we had to go out and empty it. That, together with the drizzly, sunny and windy conditions, gave us an awesome rainbow sail where Axel learned the headings and their sail positions and turned into a real captain! Puffins along the way and a classic game of Catan and chai to end the day.Les mer
Gale dodging
14.–16. jun., Norge ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C
We rose for a cup of coffee with a Dutch couple that lived in the harbour for a while in order to climb a wall. Stroopwafels were shared. The downwind sail was gorgeous, the wraps delicious, and the bright green fjords we passed gave a beautiful scenery. On the way A&R taught us fishing and the cod we caught after one minute of lure in the water proved them to be good teachers. While Russel was leading us through a minefield, Axel debuted in gutting the fish, after which Merel took her time on fileting it. We found a stunning spot next to a seaeagle island. That asked for beer and chips. Angela’s butter and lime preperation of the cod was amazing and a classic losing game of Catan ended the day.
Waking up with clouds, a waring on the Norwegian forcast for Gale and our longing for a shower, made us decide to sail into a fjord and stay in a marina for the night. Having scared Merel with stories about fallwinds that could blow down a boats mast to the water surface, she was on edge. The strong grip on the fence and the desperate look at Russel whenever the wind only changed a degree gave it away. Nothing weird happened however. The marina was newly build and accostumed with all our needs: a sauna-boat with an in- sauna plunge and a jump of the roof for an adrenaline boost, a 24/7 unmanned shop with cinnamon buns, a tree giving out free hugs, heated toilets and a mountain to climb. The first activity resulted in a aawesome sleep.
That last activity filled our next day, waiting for the gale to pass. The walk took us through areas with dispearsed dead trees and an occasional keep calling form the top of the tree and also from the top of his lungs, head tilted backwards. A dramatic little bird. Halfway gave us a panoramic view of the mountain ranges around and for the second half Angela and axel speared up, while Merel had more trouble trusting her legs. We got to the top and sat there enjoying the cinnamon bun, the calmness and the downfall of rocks from the straight cliff down. Super straight down. That was what the Segla mountain was known for. A frenchman came up and jokingly acted as is if he fell over the ridge. Weird humor they have. Back down we longer for more cinnamon buns and coffee. And fish. So we tried fishing from the rocks. All we got was seaweed, and lots of it. Russel thought he had a big one once. But no, big bunch of seaweed. About half of the time the lure got stuck to the bottom too. After many laughs and the rod falling down on Merel and thus more laughs, we decided to try our luck at the fish factory dock. Merel was excited for Mackrel, so the fidly fish line was also brought along. No idea what it is called anymore. But it had no rod and you had to jerk it up and down. More seaweed was caught with the rod. Merel actually managed to catch a small cod with the fidly line. Too small though. When axel lost the lure of the rod, we called it a day and had amazing chili sin carne for dinner. And a game of Catan, without wins on the Dutch side.Les mer
Celebrations
15.–16. jun., Norge ⋅ ☀️ 11 °C
Pancakes for breakfast was the fuel for another perfect downwind sail. The swell out of the fjord did not look promising but as soon as we got out and around the corner, we could surf the waves. Mostly sunny, we passed many cool fjords. Axel was owning the steering with the waves and turning in to a real sailor. Beautiful baked toasties caused Angela to feel slightly off but then also cured the sickness a bit. Except for that, the day was really all you could ask for! Closing in on our anchorage spot - subtropical looking islands on Google Maps by the lightblue water that surrounds them - we tried some more fishing. Axel wanted to catch a fish for his birthday. Eventually he did; a coalfish. Merel tried gutting it but damn it was a slippery one. She managed. The spot we found was magical. In between two of the many islands, looking out on a lighthouse. While preparing for a swim we discovered we were surrounded by jellyfish, we could see that because the water was so clear we could see our anchor. As we had a birthday on board, we had to make a cake. In a pot. On the stove. Luckily Angela had some sort of spunge cake in mind and she could whisk with a manual whisker. We all tried. Russel was doing Allright. But the Dutch got cramp and lost power after the first minute or two. Impressive. While baking the 3 layers of the cake, we had to do something, so Catan it was ofcourse. And GUESS WHAT!! MEREL WON. Her highlight of the trip, she still cant stop talking about it. Finishing the game at 23:30 meant we had to hurry packing the picknick and getting up to the lighthouse to celebrate a 25th birthday. Game was on. We managed and 2 minutes before 12 we sat with beer, old Dutch cheese on the lighthouse, watching a sun that would not set for another two months and feeling grateful for our friendship, sailboats, the arctic and all else what live gives. Merel raised an idea to put a selftimer on the ground to make a group picture and the 10 second challenge to make it back up began. Eight or nine failed attempts before the birthday boy managed to get grab the railing and see the camera at second 10. Finally we managed to get ourselves to bed at 2. Wild nights!
The next morning was an early one, as there did not seem to be any sheltered anchorages for a while south of us, so we had to cover some distance. Beautiful weather again and TURKISH EGGS with selfmade naan for breakfast, veeery much worth the long wait. While gull winging. And a 3 layered lemony cake with jam and cream filling and chocolate sprinkles on top. What more can one wish for? Indeed. Candles. But: no fire on the boat. So matches were lit on the cake. More great sailing and cake in the afternoon and A WIN FOR AXEL ON CATAN!! Or did we let him for his birthday? We got another beautiful spot in the middle of many small islands at the only mooring bouy in the area. Some pasta bolognese and more cake for dinner. We finished it in one day. What else can you do if you dont have a fridge?Les mer
Back to civilisation. Sadly
17.–18. jun., Norge ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C
As it was cold the night before we decided to prospone the explore to this morning. Landing at the beach with the dinghy we found some cool things: a walkway for cuttle towards a dock. We walked the way too. Angela found mussles and had the great idea to have them for lunch. We would never have thought of that. And a perfect viewspot from which we could see another boat come in and anchor. The guy turned out to be kiwi! Back in the boat it took 3 persons and half an hour to take out all the mini pearls from the mussles, but it was so worth it! Stomachs filled we set sail to Harstad, where we would be dropped off. We passer a blacklegged gull breeding cliff, hundreds of them on every tiny spot you could see one. This day was more cloudy but with a good breeze in exactly the direction we were heading. Puffins along the way made the trip complete. We treated ourselves on indian food on the shore which was amaaazing. A Guiness in the irish pub watching a football match was the cherry on the pie (as we say it) and because we did not want this last day to end we played two more bird games.
On our leaving day, the four flat whites in a cafe tasted amazing and we did some second hand shopping. We passed by a plain cake for €100 and lots more of expensive everything. Many signs telling Angela and Russel to go remote again asap after we leave. A last stroll along the waterside awoke the child in us and we spend our time playing on the balance playground. We know the farewells and goodbyes are only temporarily, as our paths will for sure cross again. Hopefully on our sailboat one day.
Thankyou for everything and until we meet again!💙💙Les mer
Rain and Midsummer
18.–23. jun., Norge ⋅ 🌬 9 °C
In Harstad we had a good contrast of just how small our yacht is, tied up at the dock next to 3 other yachts - it almost looked comical! After leaving Merel and Axel in Harstad and doing a big stock up which included our first proper Asian supermarket of the trip, there was only rain in the forecast. So we headed to a small island outside Harstad that had a beautiful pool to anchor in for our last sunny evening for who knows how long. When the weather is beautiful and calm and the sun doesn’t set, it’s easy to get lost in watching the sun, birds and scenery until long into the well…not night, but night time. A cuckoo even made himself visible and we finally got to see one after hearing them for weeks.
Next stop Meløyvær. We had a great downwind sail to another set of islands, as the clouds rolled in and the wind increased steadily. A quick stop to catch a fish, then drop anchor in a very cute bay in amongst a bunch of islands. There was a bit of a storm coming, and we were trying out a new method of only having low lying land to protect us, as every time we’ve had mountains around, we tend to get crazy “Fallvind” or Katabatic wind that makes life on the boat quite unpleasant/scary. Turns out this worked pretty well, so we spent a couple of days here exploring and getting some admin done on the boat. This also coincided with midsummer and the solstice, so from here it was just going to get, ah, I guess less bright rather than darker as it’s still a month until the sun will set - unfortunately, it wasn’t possible to see the midnight sun on midsummer, thanks weather.
We had a plan to head through Risøyhamn, but after meeting some people who recommended going past Andenes to see whales and orca transiting along the continental shelf and the weather not playing ball, we decided a downwind sail to Andenes made sense. It was quite a stunning sail downwind in varying breeze, and extremely moody skies alternating between sun, low cloud and heavy rain the whole way. A very wet walk to the shops outside Andenes followed in order to pick up more essential supplies, one of which was the alcohol for our stove - it’s an amazing stove, and we love that it almost is incapable of breaking, but we almost burn more alcohol cooking than diesel running our engine! Not very efficient…
It kept raining.
We were incredibly grateful to have access to shore power so we could crank the heater up and dry everything out, but the boat still just felt, damp.
The next day we headed off to try see some whales after filling water and diesel, it wasn’t raining, but only just…As we headed out to the edge of the continental shelf however, we did get a bit of sun come through! But no whales…
It was quite crazy thing seeing the charts drop off from around 50 metres deep to well over 1000 metres deep in very little distance, just one absolutely giant cliff under the water! Although we couldn’t see any of it, it still felt quite freaky watching the depth on the chart drop off as we motored along.
We didn’t spend long out at the continental shelf as there was quite a swell and motoring is not all that relaxing, so we set a course for Bleik, with a view to catch a fish and check if an island just off the coast would be sheltered enough to anchor for the night. No fish and the swell was still wrapping around the island a bit, so since it was raining again, we decided to treat ourselves and go into the marina at Bleik. Well, turns out they had removed the two visitor pontoons and when we tied to the outer pontoon of the dock, a little voice came out of a security camera on the boat next door telling us we weren’t allowed to be there, so we headed back out to the rolley island, soaking wet and feeling a little sorry for ourselves. There was one consolation, the island turned out to be a breeding island for puffins. So we were surrounded by hundreds of puffins all night - and the odd tour boat. Seeing so many puffins was a bit of a highlight!Les mer
Orca and More Rain
24.–29. jun., Norge ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C
We started the sail from puffin island to Stø with a lovely sailing breeze and even some sunshine! Unfortunately, the breeze didn’t last (or the sunshine), but we were treated with pilot whales just before coming in to the harbour!
Stø is a picturesque harbour and the cheapest we have stayed at yet! We moored between a couple of fishing boats which made our sailboat look tiny, and opposite a Dutch couple we had met in Harstad.
We had planned to stay only one night there and head further around to beat the wind, but we’ve been feeling a little trapped in the boat with the bad weather and decided to go on a hike and sail through the bad weather the next morning. Turned out to be a great decision - the hike was beautiful (even in the rain) and we saw orca on our sail!
Made the rather rough upwind sail all worth it.
The first anchorage we had planned ended up being a bit small and too windy, so we continued a bit further. We had planned to stay in a lake-like area with a small shallow entrance we could only go through at high tide, but in the end decided that wasn’t the best idea in case it didn’t end up being sheltered we couldn’t leave whenever we wanted.. so we finally dropped anchor in a very scenic spot, but a spot we didn’t entirely trust to stay sheltered for when the wind picked up (supposedly at 2am… yay).
Our anchor had dragged on the first attempt, so not trusting our holding enough, we woke up at 1:30am and took shifts staying awake on anchor watch.
Yet another rainy day, we met a Belgian family who came by on a small boat and said hello, and moved in the evening to a spot by Tinden. Pretty spot, lots of jellyfish and beautifully sheltered for a change! I think we even managed to have coffee in the sun the next morning before taking advantage of the wind and sailing to the other side of the island and checking out a potential paragliding spot for Russell on the way.
The paragliding spot didn’t offer anywhere sheltered to anchor and more wind than there was supposed to be, but made for a delightful sail!
We anchored near Bø for the night. We were headed in the direction of Sortland since we had ordered a couple of pieces for the engine and were getting quite desperate for more methylated spirits for our stove, but we were still a days sail away so we had a rainy sail a step closer to Blokken. Another spot where the most sheltered part of the bay had cables running through it…Les mer
Restock, Repairs and a Good Shakedown Upwind
30. jun.–2. jul., Norge ⋅ 🌧 11 °C
From Blokken where we had another windy night, we headed for Sortland to pick up some engine parts and do a restock of fuel for our stove, food and other bits and pieces. We were feeling pretty miserable by this point as it was still raining and cold, and our heater had stopped working so everything inside the boat felt damp and horrible. Combine that with lack of sleep from gusty anchorages, and we were feeling ready to leave the yacht tied up in Sortland and go somewhere warm…
Sortland was a bit of a hectic stop as we were only allowed 2 hours on the dock. Sounds like plenty but when you have to walk everywhere it eats up the time! So after a scramble we threw all our bits and pieces into the boat and then headed back out into the rain. It was supposed to be very windy again overnight so we agonised over which anchorage might work, and found ourselves in a cute small spot north of Blokken called Innerhamn. With a good hold on the anchor and (just) enough swing room we decided this would do. Time to install our engine parts and fix the damn heater! Mercilessly, and ironically, the sun came out as soon as the heater was fixed…but at least we had sunshine! We decided the next day we would have a bit of fun sailing upwind in 20 knots to a place called Hennes that looked beautiful, had a washing machine, and potential for Russell to do some paragliding. It was also a good staging ground for an early start to catch the 4 knot tide running through Raftsundet the next day as we had decided we were sick of the weather on the north side of Lofoten, so we would try the south!
It was a stunning sail up to Hennes, with sunshine (and some rain) and strong wind with a decent sea running so it was slow, hard progress for the poor Millennium Falcon. Our Genoa is also absolutely on its last legs, so we aren’t sure how many more hard upwind days we should do…but she held together for this one!
Unfortunately, the paragliding spot in Hennes sits within managed airspace so no paragliding here (Russell hadn’t found out the given thing is just to call the airport and tell them your flying by this stage), but it was a beautiful spot, and we went for a scenic run before heading off the next day.Les mer
Sunshine!!! Heading to the South Side of Lofoten
2. juli, Norge ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C
An early start to catch the current flowing through Raftsundet was welcomed with more dreary weather, but we were optimistic that the forecast for the next few days said it was going to be sunny, and even though we have lost all faith in weather forecasting, we needed some hope.
It was quite special motoring through this tiny gap between the islands, The view slowly got more and more dramatic as we passed through, and we enjoyed the calm water by relaxing and drinking coffee while we watched the world go by. As we exited the fjord the sun started to make promising signs, and then burst out in full force - god that felt good! Our first destination for this day was a place called Trollfjord. This is one of those instagram spots that we had heard a lot about and holy hell, did it exceed expectations. Sometimes instagram spots are instagram spots for a reason. A super narrow entrance with huge granite cliffs towering above us led us into a cauldron surrounded by jagged peaks and lush greenery. Quite jaw dropping, but there are only a few places to either tie up or anchor and these were all taken, so we tootled on out to a couple of small islands that also looked gorgeous. Just before we ducked into a shallow gap to get between the islands our engine stuttered and started sounding super funky. Straight into Neutral we were dreading what might be wrong now…First thing to check the prop and we both breathed a sigh of relief finding a big bunch of seaweed wrapped around our propeller. Easy fix with the dinghy and the boat hook, then we could get back to enjoying the scenery!
After checking out one spot that wasn’t going to work, we pulled into an alternative that just might be the most idyllic anchorage we’ve been in so far. We set the anchor out the little channel and solved our swing room problem with a stern line to a bollard set into the rock (these are becoming more and more abundant which is nice), and then proceeded to pull pretty much the entire boat apart to get everything airing in the sun! Over 2 weeks of bad weather meant that basically everything inside the boat was damp.
So after settling down in our nice, sunny little bay, we finally had the weather to enjoy the gin and tonic we had bought back in Harstad. Life felt good again!Les mer
Cruisey Days on the South Side of Lofoten
3.–5. jul., Norge ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C
Waking up to sunshine and not a breath of wind was a true treat, and as we exited our bay the stunning view really made us feel like we had made it to paradise. It was even warm(ish)! Given the beautiful weather, we headed around the corner to check out a spot for Russell to paraglide. Angela had some fun trying to sail with the wind chasing her around, and we found a very cute, shallow little bay that was only just big enough for us, and had a bit of a panic when we looked over the side and noticed a pipe running along the bottom. It wasn’t in any of the charts, but luckily our anchor had missed it by about 10 meters. A nice run through the village showed that unfortunately all of the possible paragliding landings had power lines running through them, but there was one option if the conditions were perfect and Russell had the guts…So the next day (after a night of wind and rain) we hiked up the mountain. It wasn’t quite right for Russell to fly though, so he had to make do with some ground handling at the top of the mountain. Incredibly frustrating given how stunning the day was, but with no easy landings it wasn’t going to work. It was, however, a stunning hike and we settled for watching the views and some eagles soaring around showing Russell how it’s done. Our next bay was another stunning spot within the Svellingsflaket islands. Crystal clear water and sunny weather meant we even went for another swim! We found ripe cloudberries and blueberries for the first time the next morning, which was insanely exciting!!Les mer
Finally flying!
5.–9. jul., Norge ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C
After taking advantage of zero wind and doing some repairs to our Genoa, we headed off to another bay Rune had recommended to us. We were reluctant to leave our beautiful sunny spot, but it was supposed to be a stormy night and, indeed, the clouds did come in and it started blowing very shortly after we dropped anchor.
Rune’s recommendation, as expected, did not disappoint and we were surrounded by islands and small steep mountains. And, for the first time in a little while, other yachts!
We had planned to spend just one night here and spend the truly shitty night in Svolvær where we again needed to restock, but figured this bay is sheltered and beautiful (and free) so decided to spend a second night here and a short stop in Svolvær the next day.
Turned out to be a great decision since we struggled to find a spot in Svolvær, yachts docked in some places with three alongside, and we ended up stopping at the fuel dock with Angela waiting at the boat and Russell running around getting things done.
After the slightly frantic pit stop in Svolvær, we ducked across and anchored near Kabelvåg, with a view to climb up Tjeldbergtinden where Russell could hopefully go for a paraglide the next day. After a lovely evening stroll through Kabelvåg (and an ice cream), we enjoyed some sun on the yacht - something that is still quite a novelty for us!
The next morning we headed up Tjeldbergtinden with not high hopes for flying - the morning was rainy and very cloudy. Nice to go for a hike anyway, and we found lots of blueberries along the way! Spectacular views at the top and luckily the weather seemed to be behaving, so Russell called the local airport to check if he could fly and with the all clear, he set up and took off! Phenomenal to finally get flying after so many tries, and it was a stunning place to fly with a nice breeze for soaring along the mountain ridge. After an hour of flying while Angela enjoyed the view and collected blueberries, we headed back to the yacht in the sun, very happy with the day. The perfect way to finish it was with a gin and tonic in the sun. Of course, the sun wasn’t going to hang around forever so once it disappeared behind some clouds, we picked up anchor and headed into a bay next to Ørsnes, where we made some delicious jam out of the blueberries Angela had collected!Les mer
Some More Storms, and Friends!
9.–14. jul., Norge ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C
With another storm rolling in, we decided to run for cover and see if we could pick another anchorage that was sheltered. We picked a spot near Sydalen, between the chain of islands. Timing it with the 4 knot current was important, and we were lucky to have a decent wind blowing with us as we only just squeezed through before it switched. On arrival to the bay it was beautiful and calm. Half an hour after anchoring the wind was funnelling through at 20 knots or more sometimes. Oh well, at least we had a good hold on the anchor! We had a very rainy explore for some blueberries, and then some friends we worked with in Kirkenes came out for dinner - the trip out in the dinghy was hilarious, but felt a lot safer than the video looks!
Luckily, the bay was sheltered enough that we got some sleep, the next day was still windy, but with some sun out briefly, it was a perfect day for a run and getting some admin done. The next day we headed in to Henningsvær to catch up with our friends again, and watch the Norwegians play the FIFA World Cup quarter final - turned out it was difficult to find a pub with space left even a couple of hours before the game!
The weather was still crap so it was nice to have a day on a dock and enjoy some good food and socialising. Unfortunately the dock happened to also be very expensive, and with yet another storm on its way, it was leave now or be stuck there for potentially a few days, so one night was enough, and then we were off west again. A rough upwind sail across to some islands dead west of Henningsvær was quite a beautiful experience with dark rain clouds slowly enveloping everything, although we did feel bad for our poor yacht bashing away up wind in the waves. We spent the afternoon doing jobs like rebuilding the fuel system for the diesel heater, and had an early start the next day in order to motor all the way to Ballstad - our plan was to hide from the worst of the storm there, but it was blowing a good 15-20 knots already with quite a sea state, cold and raining on and off so it was a bit of a miserable slog. Very interesting ducking through all the little islands to avoid the worst of the swell - made it quite an interesting adventure and distracted us from how miserable the weather was!
When we got to Ballstad, the wind really started kicking in and we got quite nervous about docking in a tight spot, but luckily the dock was behind a big concrete structure, so it made docking manageable, rather than terrifying. We were stoked to get in when we did, crank the heater and have some hot showers, and to top it all off, we docked next to an old Viking long ship - now that was a pretty ship! The wind kept climbing after we got in, to the point where it would almost blow you over just standing on the dock. We watched another poor yacht come in and have a hell of a job getting set up and into the dock. When Russell went to catch one of their lines he was met with much gratitude, and some shaken looking sailors!
We also managed to source a new starter button (finally waterproof!) so we didn’t have to hot wire our engine anymore after a couple of weeks of looking like we are stealing the boat every time we wanted to leave!
One quick note on the fishing boats we have been seeing all the way down the coast. They are hilariously short and stubby, to the point where some of them really don’t look like they should float. We were thinking “wow, there must be something interesting in ship design that makes these really good in rough Norwegian waters or something”. Well, we googled it and it turns out there is a licensing system for catching fish here that means it’s much cheaper to commercially catch fish with a shorter boat. So in turn, the boats are made as big as possible, while being literally as short as possible. Utterly ridiculous.Les mer
The End of Lofoten
14. juli, Norge ⋅ 🌧 12 °C
After the storm blew through in Ballstad, we were pretty keen to find an anchorage again, but guess what? Another storm was on its way. There was one day respite where the wind wasn’t insane so we headed across the fjord to an unbelievably cute anchorage next to the island of Straumøya. We were a little nervous because it was still forecast for strong winds and it was a tiny bay, but luckily it was dead calm when we got there, and proved to be one of the more sheltered anchorages we’ve found. We had a great foraging day as we caught a fish, found lots of blueberries and harvested a bunch of mussels for the next few meals. Quite an odd experience while out picking berries to see a fully geared up hiker trudging through the swamp land in the rain - it made us very grateful to be going back to a (semi) warm and dry yacht for the evening.
Given how beautifully calm the anchorage was and that to get to our planned storm shelter it was going to be a full day beating up wind, we toyed with the idea of staying put for the coming storm. But, all of the places we could run to if the bay decided to not shelter us (we’ve experienced a bay going from completely sheltered, to crazy katabatic winds with just a small shift in wind direction) would have been fairly suicidal to get past the myriad of rocks in 30-40 knots and big seas, so we upped anchor in the morning, said goodbye to our beautiful anchorage, and made our way along the coast to Sørvågen. Even though it was beating up wind, it turned out to be quite a cool sail, with storm clouds rolling through and creating some crazy spectacles in the mountains. The steady increase in breeze meant we slowly reefed down the sails as we made our way along, and became more and more convinced it was a good thing we were going for a sheltered harbour. Sørvågen turned out to be a very cute spot, and we were glad to have power to run our heater. A few small hikes into the mountains during the storm over the next few days kept us mostly sane, and we met a couple of Norwegians at the top of one of the hills who explained one of them was moving to Lofoten because he came up last year and had a month of 30 degrees and sunshine, so he convinced his friend to come along for a holiday this year. They explained this while we were being pelted with ice cold, sideways rain. His friend didn’t look all that impressed…
This spot marked the end of exploring Lofoten for us. If the weather had of played nice we were planning to spend a couple more weeks exploring the area, but we were completely fed up with storm after storm after storm, so our plan was to sail straight across to the mainland once this storm cleared and start making our way south to hopefully warmer weather.
The sun also set for the first time in months on our last day in Sørvågen. It was a good reminder that there was indeed a sun, somewhere behind the thick blanket of cloud.Les mer
Across to the Mainland
18.–20. jul., Norge ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C
A relatively early start was made a lot easier with the promise of sunshine and a downwind sail, and a friend joining for a couple of days! Julie had promised to bring blue skies, but when we picked her up in Moskenes it was raining… accompanied by pretty rainbows though.
After trying not to get run over by the ferry, we set a course for Landegode 41 Nautical Miles away. A relative hop in sailing, but considering all of the upwind that we have been doing recently, this was our longest sail in a little while. We eventually sailed out from the rain enveloping Lofoten and we were rewarded with a beautiful breeze that built to 15-18 knots from the NW and finally the blue skies! It was still unreasonably cold so we had all of our wet weather gear on, but at least our faces got to feel the sun! It was a stunning, but uneventful sail for the rest of the day with lots of fun surfing down waves and soaking up an enjoyable sail - something we haven’t had for a while.
Landegode turned out to be a very beautiful spot, but rather small and shallow, so we had to be a bit frugal with how much anchor warp we put out. Russell said he was happy with how we were holding as long as the wind didn’t pick up too much, and it was forecast to be light overnight anyway…
The rest of the evening was lovely with some gin and tonics in the sun, fish curry, and of course Catan. Cold still, so as soon as the sun went behind some clouds it was inside with the heater on.
Guess what? The wind got up over night. Surprise surprise. So Russell spent most of the night awake listening to the wind and playing a little more warp out. Harder to judge the depth of the water close to rocks at night now that it’s getting darker!
Luckily our anchor held and we had a reasonably cruisey morning before heading off to Bodø for Julie’s ferry back to Moskenes. Bodø ended up being quite a nice place and there seemed to be an outdoor screen setup for the Football World Cup so we decided to stay for the evening and enjoy the shore power and supermarket the next day as well. It was going to be an upwind sail to our next stop anyway as the wind had gone back SW. Unfortunately, it started raining in the evening again, so we ended up watching the football on the yacht anyway…still, nice to be warm and dry!Les mer
The Glacier
20.–23. jul., Norge ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C
It was time to go south, fast. But, we had one detour to do on the way - Svartisen Glacier. It was a few days sail from Bodø, so after stocking up, we slipped off the dock and started an upwind sail to a wooden dock in a tiny bay near Sør Arnøy. It was pretty slow progress upwind, but we were happy not to be slamming away in waves and lots of wind for once, so we trundled along until we reached the island. Our charts told us there was no water where the dock was, but some comments online assured us there was, in fact, water. So we gingerly motored in watching for the bottom, but turns out the internet was right and there was plenty of water. It also turned out to be a lovely little spot with an old restaurant attached. There was even a little outdoor shower - with warm water!! And a patch of wild strawberries! This was going to be our shelter from another storm, so we spent two nights wandering the island and relaxing as the storm rolled through. Did we mention we were sick of rain yet?
When the storm cleared, the wind switched as well, and we realised we could actually carry the breeze all the way to the glacier in one hit! So it was an early start and a fantastic 42.5NM sail through all the little islands and fjords to the guest dock next to the glacier. Navigating through all the little passages and figuring out what the wind was going to do next was a fun challenge, as well as dodging big ships coming through the passages. The rain even managed to mostly hold off, though we had leaden skies the whole day. As we sailed further up Holandsfjorden towards the glacier, the water became more and more turquoise from the glacial runoff, which made the dark green and black mountains rising out of it almost look fake. Miraculously, the wind followed us down each bend so we had a downwind sail the whole way! Usually it does the opposite for us…
Eventually we sailed into sight of the Glacier, and wowee, it was worth the detour, even whilst partly shrouded in cloud. Pretty surreal being able to sail almost all the way up to a glacier.
Luckily there was enough space left for us on the dock. Most of these docks in Norway are first come first serve, so if there’s no space you’re shit out of luck and have to figure out somewhere else to go.
An evening hike turned out to be the go as it seemed the whole place would be swarming with tourists during the day. Unfortunately the weather came in a bit so we didn’t get to see the whole glacier when we got closer to it, but it was still a magnificent sight, and the whole trail was stunning!
The next morning we enjoyed our coffee on the dock (in sunshine!!!) while watching both the glacier, and the ferry loads of tourists being dropped off…turns out doing the hike the night before was a good idea. We also got chatting with the French skipper of the expedition yacht tied up next to us, so we compared boats and he gave us some leftover beef stew (big highlight for Russell who had caught and lost a prize fish on the way in to the fjord).Les mer
Leaving the Arctic
24.–27. jul., Norge ⋅ 🌧 12 °C
While it would have been easy to spend another day at the glacier, there was another storm coming (what a surprise!) and we wanted to at least get out of the fjord so we could continue making progress down the coast.
Since the wind had already picked up by the time we got to the entrance of the fjord we ducked into a little marina around the corner. Unfortunately not as sheltered as we had hoped, but a strong dock with a hot shower.
Still stormy the next day, but we sailed out anyway aiming to make some ground west and make the most of the slight east in the forecast the next day. After (yet another) rather miserable, wet, upwind sail we arrived at our planned anchorage between a few islands. These were super low lying islands with no other land protection, so we were very thankful when we found the bay nicely sheltered and a pretty spot!
Our easterly the next day ended up being a very light wind so mostly motoring. But we had some blue skies in between rain and celebrated a pretty big milestone for our trip: crossing the arctic circle, with a whiskey and a coffee.
We were headed south for the island of Lovund purely because they had a cafe with what looked like great coffee and cinnamon buns - they did not disappoint! Although they wanted a small mortgage for a bag of coffee, so we just got a little one.
We chose the dock next to a fish processing factory - not very glamorous, but it was free…Les mer
3 Days of Upwind
26.–29. jul., Norge ⋅ 🌬 14 °C
From Lovund, the navigating got pretty interesting as the route for the next few days would take us through thousands of islands. We could have sailed on the outside of these, but with strong SW winds forecast for the next 3 days, it was going to be much more realistic to sail upwind through the islands where the sea state was better. As we left Lovund, the plan was to sail upwind through the slightly wider channels as the breeze built until it was too strong, then duck into the tiny passages between islands where we could motor with no waves. This worked surprisingly well as we made good ground beating in the sunshine, but after 5 hours of beating, the wind was over 25 knots and we weren’t making much ground with the waves, so we dropped sails and found our tiny passages. Considering the size and complexity of Norways coast, it’s surprisingly well charted, but they have a habit of not keeping power lines and floating objects in the water up to date. So we were a bit stumped when we came to what was supposed to be quite a low power line (we would just squeeze under with our mast), but found the power pole lying in the water and the lines strewn over the island. We could track two of the lines that had been half coiled up on the shore, but the 3rd still led into the water and out the other side. We figured that it should have sunk enough in the middle of the channel so we very slowly motored on over, and luckily didn’t pick up the line! The rest of the day motoring to the islands of Brasøy was uneventful, but very involved with the navigating!
The following day was still very windy, and the only realistic route south was through more tiny channels, so it was a full day of motoring that eventually led us to the island of Ylvingen. Luckily there were spells of sunshine to make us feel better about motoring an entire day…unfortunately that didn’t last as the rain rolled in with even more wind, luckily the harbour was relatively sheltered as there was a warning on the dock that it was forbidden to use in over 30 knots of wind!
Getting to Ylvingen was great, but it set us up for one hell of a slog the next day. The aim was to get to Skei, on an island called Leka. This was a 35NM leg, which isn’t too long normally. However, it was going to be the windiest of the last few days and we still had lots of islands and rocks along the way to navigate. Oh, it was also going to rain all day. This was a slog. It was quite interesting planning the navigation through all the rocks. Thankfully, the wind did as it was supposed to and clocked a little further west through the day so we weren’t sailing directly into the wind, but it was still 10 hours of hard slamming up wind. Our poor boat…
We were pretty exhausted and cold when we got to Skei, and it was a busy dock! But luckily the harbour master was there to show us a spot, and another Norwegian moved his yacht a little for us. He said this is the worst summer they’ve had for 40 years…
God we were happy we invested in good offshore sailing gear. Apart from some water running up our arms, we were almost completely dry after 10 hours of rain and waves breaking over us - impressive! Unfortunately, our yacht turned out to be less waterproof than our clothes - we may have pushed her a little too hard. So we had to tear the interior up and dry out all the bedding etc as best we could before going to bed. We were very thankful for shore power for our little heater.
Morale has certainly been higher!Les mer
Sunsets and rainbows
29.–31. jul., Norge ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C
Luckily, we got a mostly sunny day to help us dry out from our wet sail the day before.
After a relatively late start, we started another almost full day of motoring. We almost welcomed a day of motoring at this point, and at least it was a picturesque one!
It’s been a while since we have seen a sunset (or much sun really) so we thoroughly appreciated these ones!
Somehow, with all the rain clouds around, we even managed to avoid getting rained on.
The going was pretty easy, and the wind came through quite late, so we decided to make extra distance. We got in to our new target harbour at Seter at about midnight. Now the nights are starting to get darker we actually had to start using the sector lighthouses for navigation - though we were still very glad to have gps.
There was finally some northerly wind in the forecast but only overnight… we weren’t about to waste this opportunity though so we had a long sleep in and started with a motor in the afternoon which turned into a lovely sail for the rest of the night, getting in to our planned anchorage about at the planned time of 5am. We were treated yet again to a stunning sunset and, of course, some rain.
It’s still a bit of a novelty for us to have it actually get dark. Russell had to spend the first part of the day wiring in our steaming light (we hadn’t needed one until now), and again, the light houses and markers became very useful in the dark with heavy rain clouds all around! This, and the sheer length of our route in waters with lots of obstacles where we had never sailed made the navigating extra interesting. Throw in things like a squall making us need another reef at 2am close to rocks made the night disappear quite quickly. In our 12 hour over night sail, we covered about 70NM, double what we did upwind in 10 hours, and with a whole lot less stress and water everywhere…amazing what a difference sailing downwind makes!Les mer
Aunøya to Midsund - Back to Headwinds
31. jul.–2. aug., Norge ⋅ 🌬 14 °C
After our overnight sail, we had a bit of a sleep in until the wind eventually got us up, but because it was a strong headwind in a narrow channel with the next days forecast for light winds, we had decided to stop in at the town next to us for groceries (a very shallow, narrow entrance to the harbour made things interesting), then have quite a small hop to a cute looking free pontoon in amongst some islands. The sun was out, and once we got to the islands it was beautifully calm (by this I mean the gusts coming through were less than 15 knots), so we enjoyed a wander through the forest and then the last of our Norwegian gin on the dock soaking up some sun. It was a popular dock so we got to talk to a Norwegian who absolutely loved NZ, he also confirmed this was a terrible summer, to the point where he was planning on calling his boss to ask if he could please come back to work early from his holiday!
The following day was an early start to make the most of the calm day. It would be a full day of motoring, and we had to stop in at Kristiansund to fill up diesel as the next stretch of coast didn’t seem to have too many fuel options. It wasn’t a particularly nice day as we just motored in the rain for hours on end, but it was still quite beautiful and the boat kept things interesting when the alternator charge light came on and then the tachometer died, but nothing else seemed too out of place so we figured water must have gotten into the wiring. After our fuel stop in Kristiansund, the wind had got up so we were motoring into quite a nasty sea as we were now open to the Norwegian Sea heading west. Luckily there was a tiny channel through some islands we could duck into in order to continue to our anchorage. This turned out to be really cool, going under a bridge and then down through a very narrow passage with a village built around it. Again, we were very thankful to have a small yacht, as our mast only just cleared the bridge and power lines. As we came out of the passage, into the sheltered islands, we watched another bigger yacht that had been ahead of us coming through the main entrance, rolling their guts out. We tried catching a fish, to no avail but found a cute floating dock that was free so tied up to that for the night.
Another early start in order to motor past the exposed coast before the wind got too wild because, you guessed it, there was another storm coming. So Russell was up at 5am and enjoyed a lovely calm start to the morning tucked inside the islands. This didn’t last long, and once we cleared a lovely little village we were back out in the wind and swell. We were treated to some epic colours though, and potentially the coolest (kind of) rainbow as the sun filtered through some gaps in the cloud. The wind steadily built as forecast, so we were doing some true rock hopping as we ducked between all the tiny islands we could. Thankfully we cleared the exposed stretch we needed to get past before the wind really kicked in, and we had a relatively cruisey motor until we hit the last stretch before Midsund that was a fjord funnelling the wind. So a couple of hours of bashing into waves and rain were had before finally spotting the crack in the mountains and ducking in to Midsund. Well, we were happy to have made as much progress as we did - but we are pretty sick of windy, rainy days now!
As horrible as all these days beating into the wind have been, one upside is that we have explored so many tiny little channels and passages, and come across so many tiny little villages in just the most absurd places. The number of these little villages is really amazing given the size of Norways coast and their small population. Rural is an absurdist understatement.Les mer
Ålesund, and the Last Leg West
3.–5. aug., Norge ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C
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!Les mer
Slingshot South
5.–6. aug., Norge ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C
Another early start, but a beautiful sunny day made it very easy to get up and enjoying coffee in the sun was a great treat. Eventually, after unsuccessfully trying to catch a fish the breeze filled in, and we started heading around one of the infamous parts of the coast - Statt, or Vestkapp. Luckily we had stunning conditions for it…15 knots downwind with a decent swell to surf. We took an inside route between some rocks and the mainland to avoid the big ships coming through. Good idea except one of the big ships also chose that route…made for an interesting 15 minutes trying to figure out their route while they zig zagged along. We were making great ground, and excited to get to a harbour that supposedly had a free sauna and cheap beer. The wind had other ideas though, and slowly died to nothing. So, we ended up settling for a nice anchorage next to Vågsvåg so we were nicely setup for the next day. The aim was to get all the way down to Sognefjord 60NM away. With a NW gale warning for the coast, getting there fast enough wasn’t going to be the issue, it would be whether we could do it and not break the boat or ourselves in the process! Russell woke up at 3am with a start as a boat cruised past and realised that we hadn’t put our anchor light on! Now usually it would be fair to say that was a stupid mistake, but in our defence, it hadn’t gotten dark for the last 3 months so we were a little bit out of the habit of using anchor lights…Luckily there were some lights around so there wasn’t much chance of other boats not seeing us, but still a good wake up call.
We set off in the misty morning with very little wind that built very quickly to a good breeze. This with some waves made for an exciting morning surfing waves. The wind kept building and we agonised over whether it would make more sense to go around the next cape, or head in between the islands already. We decided discretion was the better part of valour and between the islands we would be much less likely to break the boat. This proved a good call as while we were part way through putting a second reef in, already sheltered by the land a little, the wind really kicked in so we got rid of our Genoa entirely and sailed off just the reefed main until we reached the sound entrance. Here the wind died so we had to motor for a bit. We weren’t too upset by this as it was extremely narrow and we weren’t all that thrilled with the idea of coming in with 30 knots and a following sea!
As we exited the channel the wind slowly built again. For a while we had a fantastic run with dead flat water and 15-20 knots, but as we come a little closer to the edge of the coast the wind built again and made our zig zagging passage through all the rocks and islands a pretty exciting experience. It stayed a reasonable wind strength until we were out of the worst of the rock dodging which was nice, but then the wind really kicked in with 30-40 knots, letting us do 11 knots surfing down waves just off the fully reefed main and a tiny sliver of Genoa to help with the balance. The sun was out and we were flying, so although a little stressful, we were still have a fantastic sail! As we approached Sognefjord, the landscape went from hundreds of little bare islands to vast cliffs with fjords leading through them, and as we made our way through these little fjords, marvelling at the scale of the granite walls around us, the wind was kind enough to back off a little and follow us down our zig zagging path. So finally, after a long day, but a great sailing day, we pulled in to a little anchorage that was beautifully sheltered by forest on all sides, and had a fantastic, calm night.Les mer
Up the Sognefjord
6.–8. aug., Norge ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C
After our epic sail, it was lovely to have a bit of a sleep in and enjoy coffee in the sun in our lovely little bay. After that it was time for Russell to have a closer look at why our alternator was being funky. Turns out it was quite easy to find out - the mounting bolt had shorn clean off. So after a call to the engine dealer to check a few reasons this might have happened, we modified one of our spare bolts and hoped that it would get us to the next place we could buy a proper one. This meant that instead of cruising up the fjord, we needed to head up relatively quickly since there was no industry until most of the way down. Being the second longest fjord in the world, this meant a couple of days sailing until finding a proper town…
So we set off late in the afternoon as the wind came through and had a very nice, albeit slow sail to an anchorage at Nordrevik, having the world’s slowest race with a French yacht part way.
The anchorage was pretty, but exposed to the SE. Light SW was forecast so it seemed like a good spot, but of course that would have been too easy as we were woken up by E wind and waves…so at 5am we got sick of bouncing around, picked up anchor and started motoring up the fjord in the rain.
We were only making a soul sucking 2.5 knots against wind and current (and rain), so after a few hours we ducked into a dock in Ortnevik to wait for the wind to die. Eventually it did, but it meant we had missed our window to get to the town we wanted, to be able to then bus to the real town and back that day. And the next day being a Sunday meant we didn’t need to bother trying the day after.
Luckily, Russell managed to find a mechanic in Balestrand (where we were headed to meet a colleague from the dog-yard in Kirkenes) who didn’t have the exact size bolt we needed, but the size bigger and smaller, and would meet us on a Sunday. That will have to do!
Our afternoon trip across to Leikanger was still a rather miserable motor, but at least we were moving a normal speed again and weren’t getting quite as soaked. Another cool thing about the amount of rain we were having (there was a flood warning for the area) was that the already spectacular waterfalls were now insane, and even ones that were usually small trickles of water were now full blown water falls. We were also well and truly in cruise ship territory now, and they truly look like monsters coming through the fjords.
Leikanger was going to be our laundry stop, however, the guy who was meant to call us and give us access never did…
So a rather frustrating day, but some small wins still.Les mer
A Royal Welcome
8.–10. aug., Norge ⋅ 🌧 13 °C
After fuelling up in Leikanger (we had to call a man to come and operate the pump which was a new experience), we set off for Balestrand to catch up with a friend we had worked with in Kirkenes. She was working at the hotel there so had organised for us to stay at the hotels personal dock. It was still pouring with rain, but as we got within sight of the dock we were greeted with the sight of the beautiful old hotel, and our friend standing on the dock waiting for us!
It was a very shallow dock so we inched our way in and it all looked ok, so we tied up, threw our wet weather gear off and went up into the hotel for lunch and an explore. It was great to catch up with Klara again, who apparently had been following our trip the whole way! We felt this is how rich people must feel, arriving at a beautiful hotel in Norway in their own yacht, to a personal welcome at the hotels private dock…anyway, we spent the afternoon catching up and having hot chocolate in the warm hotel overlooking the fjord with our yacht in the foreground. Turns out this was another spot that Kaiser Wilhelm II liked to come for his holidays, so we got to sit in his personal chair, supposedly also where he was sitting when he received the news of world war 1 kicking off!
Since it was such terrible weather and we hadn’t been in civilisation much recently, we did something different and went to the movies in the evening! Quite nice for a change, and a cute local cinema, some sort of converted community centre.
The next day we went on a road trip with Klara and some of her friends to a local cider brewery, and when we got back we all crammed into the yacht for coffee. 9 people inside still wasn’t quite the most we’ve had! Unfortunately, just as we got comfortable, the boat had a itty bitty kiss with a rock on the bottom…funny how even the tiniest bump vibrates through the whole boat and makes your stomach drop.
So, everyone off to get the waterline up a little, but we touched again, and then again. So we scrambled to untie and move the boat back before any boat went past and caused wake. We found the culprit - a single rock sticking up right where our keel had been. With the low tide and wind change, we must have drifted forward enough to be over it. Thanking our lucky stars that hadn’t happened when a ferry went past, we decided it’d be best to leave the dock and anchor round the corner, especially since the tide was supposed to be dropping another 20cm. On the bright side, the sun came out and it was a beautiful place to anchor at the end of a small arm of the fjord, surrounded by enormous cliffs on all sides. A quick hike and blueberry pick, then our friend came out to join us on the yacht for a drink, before taking us to the local sauna. Pretty lovely having a sauna on the edge of the fjord, being able to look out at the mountains and swim in the fjord to cool down!
The next morning, we brought the yacht back for a buffet breakfast sponsored by the hotel! All of Klaras friends/colleagues were awesome, and thought it was insane what we are doing…Tide was in again so we could use the dock for a few hours.
It was time for us to carry on though, and luckily Klara could join us for a couple of hours. Luckily the wind came through and we had a beautiful downwind sail back to Leikanger, with Klara learning to sail on the way. Quite a shift from working together with huskies in the arctic winter, to sailing together down the Sognefjord!Les mer
Nærøyfjorden, and Leaving Sognefjorden
11. august, Norge ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C
We couldn’t quite believe our luck sailing into Nærøyfjord with the wind behind us and funnelling through the fjord - a perfect downwind sail the whole way in, a sunny day and spectacular scenery with mountains rising straight up from the sides of the fjord. After days of torrential rain, this felt pretty damn good!
We dropped anchor in the most scenic part of the fjord, and the only part it was shallow enough. Even the many tour boats coming past didn’t ruin this spot.
We had planned to go for a hike once we got here and potentially a paraglide for Russell, but Russell decided the wind was too temperamental to paraglide and we were tired after late night/early morning. So we settled on a scenic evening paddle and got to watch some wingsuit base jumpers fly off the cliffs.
Good thing Russell didn’t paraglide from there, he would have looked lame.
The next morning we got to watch porpoise jumping while having coffee in the sun. The porpoise were more active here than we have experienced them so far, normally they are quite elusive and you are lucky to see just a fin.
We weren’t as lucky with the wind coming out of the fjord so it was a day of motoring. Our next stop was Fresvik because they had a washing machine and by now we were becoming quite desperate to do laundry.
Fresvik was a pretty little town with not much going on, but we bought some homemade raspberry jam and eggs from an honesty box and enjoyed wandering round the town. The dock was also pretty shallow, so we went around meticulously measuring and checking there were no sneaky rocks - who says we are slow learners…
Leaving Fresvik, the first challenge was to pass under the new power lines being installed across the fjord. In New Zealand there would be signs and boats everywhere and probably a million road cones if they could figure out how to make them float. Here there was a little sign on the chart with a number to call, and a cute little fishing boat either side keeping watch. So we had to pass within 200 metres of the western shore as they had a low cable running across the entire fjord, never a dull moment with power lines in Norway!
Not long after we cleared the new power lines, the wind filled in and we blasted our way out of the fjord in 10-20 knots of downwind breeze, flat water and current with us, meaning we were constantly sailing at 7-8 knots. We had planned on just going half way out of the fjord, but we made such good time we made it all the way to the entrance. Unfortunately, the anchorage we had picked wasn’t very sheltered, and with high winds forecast we weren’t that keen on a sleepless night, so we upped anchor and headed across the fjord to the bay we stayed in when we first got to the fjord. We liked this bay - beautifully sheltered, tucked away amongst little islands and pine forest.Les mer
