19. aug. 2014

Took over a HR 37 after having a look under. Spotless within, but not much extras. On the other hand, all the main attractions like furling main, bow thruster, engine only 160 hours, first three years spend as demo. boat, light and airy interior, etc., convinced us.

We loved Mystery, the HR 342, but me especially wanted a more pronounced cruiser better adapted for blue water sailing.

15. aug. 2014

Towards Oslo along Oslofjorden. Lots of things to look at, and busy. Nice sail even though mostly motoring.

Still a somewhat confused sky although mostly sunny. Little wind.

14. aug. 2014
Fin dag fra Stavern. Sol og grei temperatur. Rotete himmel/skyer viser at det er lavtrykksaktiviteter på gang.
Flott seilas innaskjærs i Tjøme-traktene. Fjærholmen marina var en trivelig og rolig plass.

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.

The trip from Kristiansand turned out to yet another nice cruise, 3/4 of which was inside the archipelago.

We entered the Blindleia which is part of this route. This stretch is known as one of Norway's most beautiful boating grounds. It is narrow (some places you wonder if there is room for your boat) and shallow (keep looking at map at all times). I guess sailing yachts up to 45 feet will make it just fine. The biggest problem is a couple of bridges, all marked at the maps naturally. Anyway, some yachties use to stay in this area the whole summer anchoring in hundreds of spectacular places.

As indicated, this is an attractive area to spend your cruising time. Just remember to plan and draw up your route before starting. It is pretty complicated navigation and there is simply no time for designing the route while underway.

At sea towards Risør we enjoyed a 10 ms. breeze and found a berth at a floating pier on the inside. There were several other Hallberg-Rassys, from France and the USA. Risør is a popular harbour, and the traditional tree-boat festival had fineshed the week before.

We were happy to find a berth as the forecast was for strong wind and lots of rain. We thought ourselves well protected and prepared for a couple of day's rest waiting out the blow.

The next day the forecast became gradually worse, until Bertha let her fury loose! Our pier danced like a mad bull in the waves, so we eventually had to evacuate deep into the harbour. It was really dramatic when the boat pulled at the mooring. We were really afraid for the heavy pull and its effect on the boat. As it worsened, the fenders pulled themselves up by the wild motion so we had to push the boat out from the pier. This was simply not tenable in the long run so we evacuated. A very kind gentleman let us berth outside his own motoryacht.

It was a terrible experience, and we learned that it is extremely important to know your port when bad weather is imminent. There was no port master, which I think was quite irresponsible. If you plan to visit the ports in this area, it follows that you have to do the homework. Very few of them have proper port masters.

We left Ramlandsvågen early in the morning. The weather had turned overcast but otherwise it did not look too bad. No rain and mild air. After some careful navigation (one has to follow charts and instructions meticulously here) we were out of the bay - and into a real sea saw. There had obviously been a southerly blow during the night and large waves met us right in the bow as soon as we were out of the protected area. We were turning east and tried to find a suitable track so we could be protected by a small island or something while turning.

We reached Kristiansand early evening to a sudden downpour of Biblical dimensions. It was like rain I have experienced only in places like Singapore - water from the sky in buckets. Another yacht came in after us, having just been able to steer around one of those whirlwinds full of water (in Norway we call the "skypumpe" - you probably see what I mean). Suddenly it appeared in the very bay of Kristiansand as they prepared for berthing. Pretty dramatic because they could not see a thing and had small control over the boat.

After a not memorable pizza in Kristiansand we turned in for the next leg.