Routes and stuff
01 June 2011 | Bergen
William
Time for waypoints and routes! The whole trip is from Elløs (Sweden) to Bergen (Norway). There is a chart plotter on board, but I decided to install MacEnc on the laptop. After some plundering (and invaluable help: http://blog.francis-fustier.fr/installer-le-gps-bu-353-avec-gpsnavxmacenc/), a third party GPS agreed both with the Mac and the charts. This arrangement works fine so far, and the route is easily shared with another laptop, on Google Earth, and has been uploaded to Facebook (through Fugawi’s x-Travers (http://www.fugawi.com/web/index-in.htm). This ability to share WPs and routes are valuable in order to communicate with the rest of the crew. I also have Navionics charts on iPhone and iPad. These are handy for real-time plotting, I am told. I must confess that I prefer navigating by paper charts. The gadgets are for planning, control and sharing mostly. And of course: electronic charts + AIS + radar are handy tools when the weather is really rough and when one is tired. The new kid on the block as to electronic maps for iPhone and iPad is iSail (http://www.isailor.us/). Those are very promising (along with iNav-X), but I cannot find the (promised) maps for Norway and Sweden).
Anyway, this first route gives about 400M (Nautical miles) in total. The suggestion is to go directly from Elløs to Risør (Norway). If weather is acceptable, we should be able reach Risør in the middle of the night. From there we go for Kristiansand where we may relax and get some food and sleep. Some crew will probably leave, and others will get on board. Then there is Lindesnes and Lista, both of which have bad reputation for strong winds against coastal currents. We will probably go into Korshavn and Egersund, over Jærens Rev (also bad reputation) and into Haugesund. From there we head directly towards Bergen.
The passage will take us through some of Norway’s most attracting coastline. So it is a pity that we are not able to spend the summer exploring more of its offerings. Hordaland, the archipelago outside Bergen, is however also beautiful and rich in its variation (the lack of sunshine is, on the other hand, not to be underestimated. Hence the photo from Greece above!