Fifty shades of grey

In Askvoll yesterday, or was it two days ago, we headed to the Bunnpris for some supplies to keep the cholesterol levels up.

Trailing dutifully around three paces behind Anne, basket in hand, I noticed a book display. To my delight, at last, a book that might explain the vagaries of the Norwegian weather, "Fifty Shades of Grey".

I picked up a copy and scanned through the pages but as it was all in Norwegian I couldn't understand any of it. Nor were there any helpful images. I took it the the checkout and asked the woman why there weren't any pictures. With a disgusted look she took the book off me and we were hustled out the shop with much tutt tutting.

Strange folks these Norwegians. Anyway, hustled back out into one of the shades of grey we set off down the grey street, splashing our way to the other end of town (half a mile tops) to find the library and wifi so I could get a forecast. Unfortunately, the library, in a grey building, was closed and so we headed back to the petrol station where, at their Hotspot nestled between the bottles of oil and the confectionery we were able to get online and get a forecast.

With a new update and a lightening of the grey out to sea we pondered our next course of action. Continue on down to Bergen and fly home or make a run for it.

We gave it another hour and the dark greys became light greys, the wind veered and we decided we would grab the chance while we could. At 8pm we untied and cast off from Norway and set off into ......... the grey.

Twenty knots all night saw us crashing across the North Sea at 8-9 knots all night. Used to 24 hour daylight, if not actual sunshine (the grey is a bit unfair!) the slight darkening of the skies seemed a bit odd. It never actuall got dark, just someone dimmed the lights a bit.

The wind ran out of steam about 60 miles out and with the departure of the wind, the fog moved in to fill the void.

A long 10 hours motoring peering into the radar and the murk most of the way brought us to Wick and just for the sheer hell of it we went to the Weatherspoons and had a full meal and two drinks for the price of a pint in Norway. It's even warm here!

5am kick off tomorrow to catch the tide at Inverness then park up for two weeks. The Norway dash completed.

When will we ever learn how to cruise?

Blog will resume in about two weeks!