This leg was NE to Stavern, over open sea with a slightly bad reputation. Again, this has to with the current along the Norwegian coast in combination with the seabed. As always along this coast it pays to go far out to the sea where things calm a bit down.

Still, because of the bad weather (and more on the way as it turned out) there were quite large waves the whole leg and wind around 12 ms., fortunately not against us. We are lucky not to be seasick easily, but we were still pleased seven hours later to get into Stavern.

As we glided into the port we noted a lady waving at us and calling our attention. It turned out to be the port master taking care to give us a very well protected berth behind the concrete wave braker. We were to be extremely happy about this as Bertha was followed by another lady storm whose name I forgot.

We pulled into Stavern Aug. 10th, and were unable to get away until the 14th. Horrendous rain and wind made it impossible to leave harbour, but the lightning was even worse. We held out for three nights of lightning and thunder around us, but evacuated into a hotel the fourth. I have never felt insecure in a sailboat, but now we both did. A house close to our boat was hit and caught fire. We had a lot of time on our hands to reflect what would happen if the boat was hit, and how well it was protected in the first place. Reading up on this stuff was not reassuring, and I will get back to that in a later post.

Stavern is a small and beautiful place made for boating. It is also very well situated for cruisers arriving from Denmark southwards, seeking harbour. The old fort is well worth a visit, otherwise it is mostly about relaxing in a nice environment with restaurants and pubs.