Snow covered mountains, deep fjords and flying rubber dinghies...
Before we left Bergen (4.07.2014), Stephan bought me a raincoat by a local internationally known Ghanian born designer, T-Michael, combining totally waterproof recycled materials with ‘a stylish Japanese flair’ (Madeleine falls for Japanese design…) What could be a better ‘souvenir’ from Bergen than a raincoat called Norwegian Rain?
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| shellfish feast |
There was a very active and colourful fish market. What was fascinating about the stalls was that almost everyone working there was a foreigner, mostly Spanish, Italian, Japanese and Polish. It seems that most of them come to Bergen for three months during the tourist season and then go home.
With lovely fresh crayfish in the fridge, we left Bergen intending to find secluded and sheltered anchorages on the way North (Madeleine loooves anchoring!).
Most disagreements (not that we ever have one…) on board happen when choosing anchorages or deciding when to leave when the wind is strengthening or when to round a particularly difficult headland… Stephan likes anchorages, which are as well protected as ‘hurricane holes’. I don’t mind if they are a bit exposed provided that they are scenically stunning.
Well, this time we (that is Madeleine) had chosen what seemed to be beautiful as well as sheltered anchorages. That is, until the wind got up during the night and the anchor started dragging over the soft mud and plenty of seaweed and kelp!
With the turn in the weather came also favourable winds. With southerly and south westerly winds we could continue our journey north expecting some good sailing.
The first anchorage was perfect. Vestre Eidsvik (60º 40’.5N 5º 05’.3E) was in a very narrow sound called Straumane, at the very end of an inlet, past a few rocks that left you about a boat length between the land and the rocks. Once you were in the pool, the place was just big enough for one boat at anchor. There we had our feast of crayfish, bread and butter. That was a very good start!
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| so far, so good |
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| beautiful, yet exposed, Vikingevågen |
Our second anchorage (5.07.) was also in a pool, but the pool was very open and big, not like the ‘nook’ on the previous night. Vikingevågen (60º 52’N 4º55’E) How could you (i.e. Madeleine...) not anchor in a place with a name like this? It was a pool surrounded with low lying smooth rocks (a feast for the eye) with the only minor disadvantage that you could smell the oil refinery located some 4M away. The anchor seemed to have dug itself in and we were very pleased. Stephan had bought an app for his iPhone which is an anchor watch. Just before we wanted to retire it started bleeping (very unpleasant sound that you cannot overhear!). We seemed to have got closer to the rocks. The wind had got up and it was pouring with rain. With our yellow waterproofs over our pajamas we re-anchored in the middle of the pool, much further away from the rocks this time. But then, the iPhone kept showing that we were still dragging the anchor and yet according to my observations we were not (or ever so slightly). These gizmos are all too accurate it seemed (i.e. they do not conform to Madeleine’s anchoring expectations.)… I kept anchor watch all night, reporting (waking) to Stephan from time to time. The fact that I don’t protest doing the anchor watch is that I feel somehow responsible and I don’t want Stephan to say: I told you so! In the morning it all seemed perfectly fine. We were still in the middle of the pool.
We left, red eyed and tired, not mentioning the previous night and hoping that our next anchorage at the mouth of the longest fjord in Norway, the Sognefjorden would be better. Storholmen (61º 04’.4N 5º 10’.6E) was situated in a small archipelago on the north of Rutledal on the mainland called Kyrøy. The anchorage was open to the NE, but the wind was expected to strengthen from the S during the night. It seemed that it was perfectly safe to anchor there (according to Madeleine) .
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| remote and fascinating |
The scenery is becoming increasingly majestic. High mountains, some in the distance covered with patches of snow are bare with hardly any vegetation on them. They seem strange and distant.
Storholmen (6.07.) looked like a perfect place to spend the night at anchor (see above). However, as soon as we tried to anchor, even our trusted Rocna would not dig itself in. Every time we lifted it out again big clumps of seaweed came up with it. I was so tired from the previous night and so disappointed that I kept saying: I am not going anywhere else! Let’s try another approach. This meant rigging another anchor which Stephan bought for an emergency, an aluminium fortress anchor, considered to be the safest (if bulky) in the world. It took us about two hours to assemble and drop with the rubber dinghy. It seemed to (possibly) work.
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| a ray of early morning sun |
During the night, the wind that was supposed to pick up from the S came funnelling from the Songnefjord, that is to say from the E-NE! We had forgotten the first principle of Norwegian sailing: the wind might be predicted to come from a general direction, yet it is diverted by the land masses and fjords. The anchors did not hold (I told you so, seaweed and soft mud are not a good holding ground) the anchorage was exposed and Easy Rider was getting very close to the rocks.
Stephan had a brilliant idea at 3:00 in the morning: let’s leave to Florø (61º 36’N 5º 01’.7E), a small town some 30M further north (7.07.) The night is not really dark up here. The wind was great and we witnessed a few rays of early sunshine before the day became really miserably wet all the way to Florø with poor visibility. As a consolation, after a second sleepless night was a great sail (I agree wholeheartedly!) and the last of the southerly winds.
We wanted to stay at least two days in Florø to recover from our anchoring experiences, do some washing in the harbour facilities and some shopping and to write our blog.
We met a couple from Ireland, Denis and Beenie and their beautiful 49’ yacht Narnia. We had a lot in common, not only professionally. The affinity was instant. We spent a lot of time talking, drinking coffee, having lunch and pre-dinner drinks together.
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| Hornelen, the squall breeder |
Our next stage as well as Narnia’s was to go around another very dangerous and exposed headland, Statt, which extends out to sea like a ‘clenched fist’ according to our Norwegian Pilot book. It is in fact so notorious that there is a special weather forecast just for this headland (like for Lindesnes and Lista and other such areas) telling you the wind, wave heights and wave intervals for each hour of the day. The Norwegian lifeboats also escort small boats around the headland if need be.
The wind had veered to the N-NE, but it was still very slight and we decided to round Statt immediately instead of staying another day and risking being stuck like we did in Mandal. On the way to Måløy we rounded Hornelen mountain which rises 889m vertically from the sea and is nicknamed the 'squall ,breeder' in our pilot book.
Måløy (61º56’N 5º 07’.E) (8.07.) was the last stop before rounding Statt. An industrial fishing harbour that exports frozen fish all around the world but mostly to Japan. The smell of fish was very predominant. We left next morning early and saw Narnia in the sound.
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| ...those magnificent men (women) |
Rounding Statt with very little or no wind was not very eventful apart from the swell (it scored about 4/5 on our ‘crockery rattling’ scala, where 5/5 was during a Biscay gale). No wind and swell of 1.5m is a perfect recipe for sea sickness. But we were so interested by the headland that we had no time for that.
Today we are in Sandshamn (9/10.07)(62º 15’N 5º29’.5E), on a small island to the NE of Statt. Narnia has already left. As Denis and Beenie were leaving, we pledged to keep in touch. Beenie gave me a gorgeous small bouquet of wild flowers.
It is foggy and it is a perfect opportunity to finally sit down and write this blog (comments in italic by the proofreader).
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| Easy Rider and Narnia in Sandshamn |