View from the top of the mast
The Pet Shop Boys, Freshly caught fish, rain, sun, a hike up Pulpit Rock and a Norwegian Folk Rock Band.
Bergfest
Day 2
An early start for us this morning having some 40nm to cover. A few of us could have done with some more sleep having been kept awake by the Pet Shop Boys, among other bands blasting out from across the harbour who were performing at Norway’s ‘Bergfest’.
Yesterday was spent doing crew introductions, safety briefing and a look around town mostly hiding in the pub sheltering from the rain.
Once underway we soon had the sails up and were tacking down sound. Lots of short tacking practice due to the narrow passages but you can almost sail up to the edge due to the 200m + depths! After a MOB practice we ran out of wind and ended up motoring the rest of the way. We hoisted Rohit up the mast to get a good view of the low bridge and capture it on his go pro. Whilst up there he also updated his facebook profile and called his wife!!!
We ended up in a pretty anchorage close to Hardangerfjord!
Day 3
Very little wind today and another 50 shades of grey!! We did manage a short sail. But gave up quite quickly and motored to Haugesund arriving mid-afternoon. Some crew went exploring but the highlight was the hot showers at the hotel. In the evening we found the Captains Cabin Pub which turned out to be a real nautical curiosity shop with Nick spending hours trying to figure out how the cylindrical slide rule works!!
Day 4
A lovely sail from Haugesund down to Rossoy, a Norwegian national trust island. This was our first day when we had sufficient wind to sail for the entire day, and the weather had mostly cleared, so we had a little sun for a welcome change after the rain of Bergen and beyond.
We tied up on a pontoon at Rossoy, a small island with a few sheep, a loo and some fire pits for bbq’ing. Most of us walked around the island on a path, getting a great view of some of the neighbouring islands from a small hill at the top. Meanwhile Rohit caught a couple of Pollock – later fried up ! – and then went for a swim around the boat (challenge successful!) with some entertaining halyard swinging, although with the unfortunate casualty of Rohit’s go pro – which ended up on the bottom.
Wispy cloud in the fjords
Up Pulpit Rock
Day 5
Finally some real sun and blue sky in Norway!
We motored the short distance from our anchorage at Rossoy to Tau, where we were going to repeat the hike to Pulpit rock. Paul and Gary were keen for the experience after the rave reviews from the previous trip. After some phone wrangling we tied up next to the Harbour Pub and had the welcome surprise of a group discount on the bus (140 NOK instead of 200 NOK – woot!).
The trip up to the rock was much quieter than our previous trip – that had been on a holiday and was a slow procession. This was a much quicker climb, taking less than an hour for the leaders to get to the rock where we had amazing views of Lysefjord in the sun. While waiting for the stragglers we went higher up the cliff for some improved photos looking down on the rock.
Our boat from Pulpit Rock
After the hike back down, and a vital ice-cream stop, we motored over to Stavanger for the evening, where we parked in the Vågen harbour – a change from our previous stop – the only inconvenience being the lack of immediate shower facilities, we had to venture back to our previous area near the oil museum for these. This promised to be a bit more lively as there was a stage prepared for some summer solstice entertainment.
We dined ashore in Egon, the Norwegian equivalent of Wetherspoons, right next to the boat and pretty reasonable in price and quality. There followed entertainment on the quay from Vestlandsfanden, a folk-rock band, which was popular with the locals, who sang along to everything. Ash and Ben made friends with a local Viking (you are WEAK!).
All in, the most memorable day of the trip since Portsmouth.
Day 6
A late start after our solstice fun with some creaking knees after the Pulpit rock exertions. This was a day off for all, planning to leave early evening. It started rainy however, so most of us elected to visit the local museums, enjoying freshly smoked sprats in the canning museum in the old town, which also gave free admission to the maritime museum next to the boat, and half price at the oil museum, where we had fun in the ‘catastrophe room’ being shut in the dark with alarms sounding being timed to escape.
Next Stop Portsmouth
We reprovisioned the boat, and then slipped our lines early so that we could get ahead of some heavy weather predicted for Sunday, and eased into our watch rotation.
Day 7
7-8knts undersail after motoring the 1st 8 hours!
Sailing overnight has given little excitement but this morning shortly before the 7am watch change the breeze settle at 10 knots on the beam. STBD watch were over the moon to set the Yankee 1 and staysail. This gave us a comfortable 6 knots of boat speed, a great heading and most importantly 6 hours of rest without the engine running.
We have just been raised from our off watch to find food on the table and now a Yankee 2 flying. Our course is now as expected, slightly more southerly but 7 knots of boat speed and for the most part all on board are loving it!
Skipper Paul
If you would like to sail in the Norwegian Fjords then have a look here for more details.
