kaemara's travels

Summer 2011, W Coast Sweden, Varberg towards Oslo

2011-08-01T21:42:00.002Z

Mona and ice cream

Summer 2011, W Coast Sweden, Varberg towards Oslo

2011-07-31T22:33:00.003Z

There was a music festival. We attended a piano recital in a garden, drank a bottle of rose, enjoyed the evening sun.

Summer 2011, W Coast Sweden, Varberg towards Oslo

2011-07-31T22:31:00.003Z

Syd Koster, anchorage in the background.

Summer 2011, W Coast Sweden, Varberg towards Oslo

2011-07-31T22:29:00.004Z

and the lifeboat to pick them up.

Summer 2011, W Coast Sweden, Varberg towards Oslo

2011-07-31T22:27:00.005Z

Very few cars on Koster. But efficient emergency services - someone fell ill so they sent in the air ambulance...

Summer 2011, W Coast Sweden, Varberg towards Oslo

2011-07-31T22:24:00.003Z

The guest harbours get over-crowded.

Summer 2011, W Coast Sweden, Varberg towards Oslo

2011-07-31T22:22:00.005Z

We rented bikes and I made a prat of myself by charging off down hill and forgetting all about the continental system of back pedalling to brake the back wheel. It was very crowded, I was trying to catch up, overtaking a load of people, some kids ahead, touch the front brakes, stopped pedalling and bang! The back wheel locked up, skidded, I ended up in the ditch at the side of the road with lots of concerned people gathered around telling me how lucky I was and handing me bits of the bike.

Summer 2011, W Coast Sweden, Varberg towards Oslo

2011-07-31T22:20:00.003Z

Customs wouldn't allow us to leave the boat in Norway (at least they might have done, it depended on who one spoke to, I had an email saying 'no problem just tell us where it is' followed by a chat with the man in charge whose short answer was 'no'). So we went back down to Sweden, to the lovely Koster islands, where the anchorage was busy, but the holding good, and the weather calm.

Summer 2011, W Coast Sweden, Varberg towards Oslo

2011-07-31T22:18:00.003Z

Its nice to walk amongst the trees after time at sea.

Summer 2011, W Coast Sweden, Varberg towards Oslo

2011-07-31T22:16:00.001Z

Summer 2011, W Coast Sweden, Varberg towards Oslo

2011-07-31T22:14:00.002Z

Summer 2011, W Coast Sweden, Varberg towards Oslo

2011-07-31T22:12:00.003Z

Looking out over the Oslo fjord

Summer 2011, W Coast Sweden, Varberg towards Oslo

2011-07-31T22:10:00.004Z

Went into Fredrikstad. Very pleased to meet up with Karel and Hannie who we first met on the W Coast a few years ago. Mona joined the boat and we stayed a night with friends who live locally. All very social after the time on my own. It rained a lot so no pictures, this is a few days later, the day after the massacre, sunset at a quiet anchorage.

Summer 2011, W Coast Sweden, Varberg towards Oslo

2011-07-31T22:08:00.003Z

Pressed on northwards, crossed the border into Norway.

Summer 2011, W Coast Sweden, Varberg towards Oslo

2011-07-31T22:06:00.003Z

The exhaust elbow broke in half after 7 years/700 hours. The big pipe is the exhaust from the engine, the small pipe is for the cooling water. We had both exhaust and cooling water filling the boat for a couple of minutes before anyone noticed, by which time the bilges were overflowing. Strapped it up with some leather and a jubilee clip, which held for long enough to manoever alongside at the end of the day. A fishing boat was in for a refit and the welder at the boatyard put it back together again first thing in the morning, so we weren't delayed.

Summer 2011, W Coast Sweden, Varberg towards Oslo

2011-07-31T22:04:00.002Z

This is Strömstad

Summer 2011, W Coast Sweden, Varberg towards Oslo

2011-07-31T22:02:00.003Z

Smögen

Summer 2011, W Coast Sweden, Varberg towards Oslo

2011-07-31T22:00:00.003Z

Smögen

Summer 2011, W Coast Sweden, Varberg towards Oslo

2011-07-31T21:56:00.006Z

Smögen was crowded. I stayed on the other side, a 10 minute walk away from the action

Summer 2011, W Coast Sweden, Varberg towards Oslo

2011-07-31T21:54:00.004Z

Smögen

Summer 2011, W Coast Sweden, Varberg towards Oslo

2011-07-31T21:53:00.003Z

Summer 2011, W Coast Sweden, Varberg towards Oslo

2011-07-31T21:51:00.003Z

Smögen

Summer 2011, W Coast Sweden, Varberg towards Oslo

2011-07-31T21:48:00.005Z

Southern entrance to Marstrand - I was going to sail up here but noticed that the boats coming in and going out were all motoring, so took the sails down. Just as well as it was single file in places with motor boats chugging along at 4 knots behind yachts.

Summer 2011, W Coast Sweden, Varberg towards Oslo

2011-07-31T21:45:00.006Z

The previous night was tough. Had a long day, found a perfect anchorage, lots of other boats there, a couple of moorings. Some of the other boats seemed a bit casual about the way they anchored. I did my usual 5 minute routine of gently backing the anchor in, increasing the revs in reverse to ensure it was set. Then I relaxed, had a meal, a drink, turned up the music to drown out the sound of the rising wind. Next think I knew I could see a mast fast approaching - I was dragging! Shot out of the cockpit, dressed in shorts and t-shirt, into a squall of horizontal rain and huge wind, engine started first time, to cries of acclaim from the boat behind me where the couple aboard were standing at the bow, ready to fend me off. Missed them by a couple of feet. Had something of a quandry: needed to steer the boat into the wind, needed to get the anchor up, needed to avoid falling back on to the rocks. Procedure - rush forward, wind up the anchor, rush back, steer a bit, rush forward etc. Eventually got the anchor up with what looked like a hedge attached to it. Meanwhile I was soaked through and cold. The autopilot couldn't cope with the conditions. Had to get some sail up to be able to engage the wind vane to steer the boat for long enough to be able to get to the chart table to work out where we could go, get some clothes on etc. The sail cover was on the main. No longer wished to be in this particular anchorage, and couldn't face the neighbours. I thought it would blow over quickly, but it lasted an hour. Eventually made it to another anchorage. Took 3 attempts before I was happy that the anchor was set, even then not completely happy - some poor holding (like silt) in some of these places. But by then the wind had gone, and it had cleared up, and in the morning it was nice again. The non-slip on the decks rubbed the skin off my knees when I was trying to get the anchor in, had a couple of nice scabs for the next couple of weeks, to remind me.

Summer 2011, W Coast Sweden, Varberg towards Oslo

2011-07-31T21:43:00.003Z

On the way to Marstrand

Summer 2011, W Coast Sweden, Varberg towards Oslo

2011-07-31T21:40:00.003Z

I cycled to the Volvo museum, a few kilometers from the centre of town where we were moored, and much less touristy. This wharf was on the way.

Summer 2011, W Coast Sweden, Varberg towards Oslo

2011-07-31T21:38:00.004Z

Jim flew back from Gothenburg, a friendly place. Start of a few days single handed sailing.

Summer 2011, W Coast Sweden, Varberg towards Oslo

2011-07-31T21:35:00.003Z

A beer for Jim, one for me, and one for Matthew, who wasn't there.

Summer 2011, W Coast Sweden, Varberg towards Oslo

2011-07-31T21:33:00.003Z

Jim

Summer 2011, W Coast Sweden, Varberg towards Oslo

2011-07-31T21:30:00.003Z

It stays light until after 11 at night.

Summer 2011, W Coast Sweden, Varberg towards Oslo

2011-07-31T21:22:00.003Z

This part of the coast of Sweden has many islands and many fine natural anchorages.

Summer 2011, W Coast Sweden, Varberg towards Oslo

2011-07-04T21:13:00.000Z

Moved the boat to Varberg on the W Coast of Sweden and instantly felt better. Lovely scenery and people to match.

Left the boat in the marina in Varberg for a month and then came back at the start of July. Had a couple of days sorting things out before Jim arrived. The boat was in surprisingly good shape, with a bit of fouling on the stern gear, but otherwise clean.

Jim and I sailed, over 3 days , in lovely sunny warm weather, with a nice breeze, north to Gothenburg.

the photos are here

2010-08-09T21:16:00.002Z

I left in a hurry and didn't pack the right camera/charger combo so these all taken with (crap) camera on phone:

From Harwich to Middlefart

In Copenhagen

In Holbaek

2010-07-25T20:50:00.002Z

Had fair winds, or no wind (motored for 8 hours or so), and made good time: 30 hours from Harwich to Den Helder. We didn't stop, felt as if we had to catch up, so pressed on, got boarded by the Dutch coastguard, apparently they ought to give lessons in how to do this to the UKBA, who seem to have a knack for getting up people's noses, whilst our experience was really nothing to complain about, they were polite and friendly throughout. Felt a bit sorry to go past the Friesland islands without stopping, it was lovely weather and the beaches are great. We almost got a favourable tide up the Elbe, but not quite, the ebb is fierce and even though it was neaps it seemed to contradict the excellent progress that had been made to bash against the current so we anchored near the river mouth, first anchorage on the right as you go in, which we shared with a German coast guard tug, for six hours before pressing on up river to the Kiel Canal. We got though the canal with 10 minutes to spare (at this time of the year 'sport' boats have to stop navigating at 2030 local time), and were tied up alongside at the Sports Haven at 1950 UTC, 3 days and 13 hours pontoon to pontoon.

off

2010-07-17T05:24:00.002Z

gale has blown over, nothing found on prop so replaced fuel filter, bought new genoa sheet, fittted hydrostatic release on liferaft, got foghorn working we are finally ready to go

whither the weather

2010-07-14T20:57:00.003Z

after a month of sweltering in an office found myself driving through a rainstorm to get to the boat and iffy weather since. Had hoped to get to the Kiel Canal in one hit direct from the Swale, around 4 days sailing, but the grib files showed gales on thursday, so we came to Harwich instead with gale warnings filing the airwaves.

Had good sail, occasional sunshine, ever increasing winds, set off at 0630, tied up alongside at 2010. On a long empty pontoon having declined a starboard-side-to with-a-strong-tail-wind-at -the -end-of-a-long-aisle-of-boats invitation to an insurance claim.
Ttoday was a proper shakedown with various challenges along the way, including engine dying (rubbish in propellor? continued to idle in neutral, has seemed ok since); finding that I'd forgotten to put both sheets on the genoa (this as the engine died 50m to windward of sand banks with 2m under the keel, had also omitted to remove sailcover before leaving, breaking own rule), then finding the genoa sheet and putting on the cockpit coamings from where it slithered into the deep.
Later the topping lift detached itself from the boom as we took down the sail when it crashed to the deck, causing me to give it a mighty pull which sent it above the cross trees to get into a fine tangle. (leading to another trip up the mast using ascenders on a halyard, which are fine for going up...) Finally Simon hurt hand
when we were locking in, abraison blister after following my advice on how to hold the ropes, not a serious injury but.

so tomorrow is a chance to prepare more properly and do things right and set off with washing liquid and without fish juice in the bin.

Here we go again

2010-06-25T22:27:00.002Z

New standing rigging, new furling gear, some new halyards, sails serviced, engine serviced, sea cocks serviced, new switch panel next to the chart table, lots of new wiring, antifouling, new anodes, even some varnish. Brand new Baltic Pilot, gifted a couple of charts for north holland/germany, north sea charts returned from loan. CEVNI online test passed. a few more odds and sods to clear up, due a trip up the mast to align the windicator and fit the secondary forestay that I forgot to attach and the spinnaker halyard got routed the wrong side of the forestay. various odds and ends. 4 weeks off, not so long as recent years, Denmark? Sweden? Round trip? Crew? nothing certain.

circulated

2009-08-20T22:08:00.002Z

We wound up in Falmouth for the winter, Mylor Yacht Harbour, then, in July this year, 2009, went to L'Aberwrac'h, North Brittany, then along the coast to St Malo, then up through the Channel Islands, then to Cherbourg, from there to Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight then day trips back to the east coast of england. We had fair winds all the way, didn't lose a single day to the weather. The photos are here. Scariest bit was not being able to see the transits when going eastbound through the channel south of the Isle de Bas, described by Tom Cunliffe as a rock strewn chamber of horrors. We had big spring tides in the Channel Islands, and found ourselves in uncharted overfalls en-route to Alderney, to the east of the Swinge. The next day the GPS had us going at between 11 and 13 knots on the way to Cherbourg.

2008-07-31T21:00:00.001Z

Gola Island

2008-07-31T20:41:00.003Z

We stayed in Portrush overnight where we met Andrew who had just single handed northwards up the west coast and told me that he had had 2 or 3 good days and incessant strong winds such that beafort 5 - 7 was normal. From Portrush we stayed in Sheep Haven for a night on one of the visitors moorings, it poured with rain. Then onwards to Gola which is when I was pleased that I'd installed the chart plotter - I got horribly confused trying to match up what I could see with what was on the chart, complete nightmare, the chart plotter sorted things out nicely. Here we are anchored on the south side hiding from the wind and about to get spooked by what we found on the island.

Atlantic

2008-07-31T20:32:00.002Z

Finally got the bag back and headed off. We were aiming for Loch Swilly but the forecast started talking about gales so we diverted to Portrush. And ended up motoring for much of the way in a flat calm. This is a parting shot of Islay, demonstrating the 'clouds over land' effect. If I was a better person I'd straighten out the horizon. We were in the Atlantic Ocean now, with strong winds forecast, which is where we were to stay for the next 3 weeks or so.

the American Monument, Islay

2008-07-31T20:25:00.001Z

west coast of Islay

2008-07-31T20:16:00.002Z

An british transport policeman was reading through a bulletin of crime reports and when he read about my bag he realised it was in the lost property office, so he phoned me up and the next day we arranged for parcel force to deliver it, one of their 48 hour premium services which ended up taking four days. We killed time pleasantly with walks on the beach.

Bowmore, Islay

2008-07-31T20:07:00.002Z

This is the view from the round church at the top of the steet. The church is round so that there aren't any corners for the devil to hide in. We went for the distillery tour and learned a lot about the process of whisky making. Also did the tour at Laphroaig where the guide talked more about the social history, no two tours alike.

Port Ellen, Islay

2008-07-31T19:57:00.002Z

Islay is prounounced 'eyela'. Spent a few days here, crew, Mona, arrived and Neil came along for a tour of the distilleries. I arrived in time for the pub and went to the hotel bar where they had 40 single malts on display and Ian, the barman and whisky expert, on hand to offer guidance. Had an enjoyable evening following his recommendations and it was only when I tried to stand up at the end of the night that I noticed how strong some of this stuff is.

Craighouse, Jura

2008-07-31T19:45:00.002Z

This turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip. The people were so nice and friendly, went for a walk and nobody drove by without waving. Spent a happy evening in the pub chatting with the people who lived on the island. Stayed on a mooring buoy, currently around 10 of these with another 16 or so in the process of being put in place whilst I was there.

Sound of Jura

2008-07-31T19:16:00.004Z

went from Loch Aline to Creobh (pronounced croove) which involved a trip through the Sound of Luing which is just nearby the dreaded Corryvreckan, famous for its whirlpools. I was half an hour off the top of the tide going the the Sound of Luing and already seemed to have more than 2 knots of tide and the water starting to boil. Spent a night in Creobh, which is picturesque sort of place (but it rained all the time, so the new camera stayed in its case) and one which I'd happily return to. I stayed in the marina. Going in to strange marinas on your own in a boat can be a bit of a buttock clencher, went in fine but had a pretty little wooden motor boat park up next to me and the wind kicked up and was blowing me on to her so I wasn't so sure about how it would all work out when I left, fortunately the people on board must have been wondering the same thing so they came out and gave me a hand to get away. Picture is taken on a long day's beat down the sound of Jura into a lot of wind. I don't have an anenometer so don't really know how much, but had a reef in and probably would have gone just as fast with two.

ardnamurchan point

2008-07-31T19:07:00.001Z

Er, this was before the previous post, on the way to Loch Aline.

loch aline

2008-07-28T19:42:00.004Z

After waiting around for replacement parts, clothes etc to arrive in Arisaig (all 'guaranteed 24 h our delivery' claims are,, small-print off all for places like this) finally pushed off southwards. Arisaig Marine provided a very good service and all of the work which they did on the boat was to a high standard and at a fair price.

This was the start of northerly winds which stayed with us for the duration of the cruise. We had some tough times but not nearly so bad as for the poor sods who were trying to go the other way - we always had the wind behind us.

Headed south from Arisaig and anchored for the night in Loch Aline. This is one of those superb natural harbours which are so sheltered that you can get a big surprise when you leave them - it was quite blowy outside.

off rhum

2008-07-28T19:17:00.005Z

Had a shakedown cruise around the Small Isles, Andrew and Gill came along. We had a mix of weather, this was the best day, Andrew at the helm.

west coast of ireland

2008-07-28T19:01:00.002Z

Ok, sorry to those who've looked here before for news on this trip and found nothing - had all the best intentions but... the laptop which I bought for the trip didn't last very long - battery life turned out to be less than 2 hours, I took the sleeper up to Fort William from London and left the bag with the charger in the luggage compartment.. . same bag also had all the charts for Ireland and the nautical almanac and a pilot book and all my clothes and my iPod: bag wasn't there when I got to Fort William. And ScotRail couldn't find it.

Which left me in a bit of a dilemma.

After a few days I decided that the bag wasn't coming back, so I bought a minimal set of charts for Ireland (the imray c charts) and got a generic laptop charger.

Out of curiosity I measured the voltage coming off the laptop charger. It was set for 12v but the output fluctuated wildly and I saw more than 60v coming out of it for a short while. So I decided that wasn't such a quality piece of kit as it claimed to be. There was 12.6v in the boat battery so I plugged the laptop in to that. Didn't quite work - it couldn't make its mind up whether or not it was charging so kept on cycling between 'battery' and 'mains' mode, i.e. the screen went bright then dark every second or so. No good trying to work with that.... Found a charger for a portable radio that claimed a 12v output, put the multi meter on that - 16v... So a nominal 12v outputs 16v. Plugged the computer in to that and it was very happy for about two hours before it suddenly rebooted itself and died. As in went completely dead. So that was the end of my good resolutions for doing some work whilst away and blogging progress.

Met Andrew in Portrush and he was using something called usgrib on his laptop - this gets grib charts for just about anywhere, these are apparently the things used by the met office when they put together the weather forecast for a sea area. Sea areas are vast and they have to give a summary of what is happening there in a few lines. The are conservative, so if a gale is happening anywhere in the area it is likely to get a mention in the forecast. However, there may not be a gale coming to the bit of sea which you intend sailing on, which you can see if you check the grib file. Andrew said this had saved him a lot of time on his trip (he was circumnavigating the British Isles, but going clockwise, opposite direction to us) - he had been able to set off when others had been obliged to wait because of a bad forecast.

readier

2008-06-09T20:48:00.002Z

John Copper phoned to say that the charts have arrived and, after a struggle, I got an asus eee pc, which is being used for this entry. The asus in an expensive toy, the keyboard is v clunky and hard to use, probably not a good sign when the shop offers to bundle a keyboard, but it is a tiny, full featured pc with usb ports and so on for about the same price as a good pda. Might get one of those waterproof keyboards to go with it. I see that the input voltage is 12v, hmmm. Mona has booked a flight to Islay, Andrew and Jo have arranged travel to arisaig, colleagues are starting to realise this is my last week of work, weather has picked up - starting to feel like its actually going to happen.

getting ready to go again

2008-06-04T18:44:00.004Z

should be back on the boat in a couple of weeks. The yard in Arisaig launched her a few days ago. Planning to go to the west coast of Ireland. Have the charts on order. Going to take a couple of friends for a short trip around the Small Isles as a shakedown. At the moment I'm trying to sort out a computer. I thought I might have a go with a pay-as-you-go wireless modem and an asus EEE pc . The asus looks like it should be boat compatible with no moving parts but I had hoped that they would have improved on the two hour battery life by now. This list is partly to see if my iPod touch works for blogging. Seems ok but photos from the camera gto the blog would not be supported. Having said that, I'll probably be spending most of the trip beyond reach of fast internet via a phone, often don't even get a phone signal, and uploading photos could be expensive. So might see if one of those wireless modems will work with an old wireless router that is lying around here somewhere and maybe use that plugged in to the invertor when I can use the iPod.

eesh, uploading photos takes ages

2007-07-26T21:18:00.000Z

just tried using picasa to upload other photos - its a bit quicker than uploading them to the blog, and you can get slide shows and so on. Here are the pictures from Lewis, Skye and Scalpay:

Lewis, Stornaway

2007-07-23T20:24:00.000Z

Had a fairly foul crossing from Shetland to Lewis. But the weather was nice when we got there - we mostly had grim weather at sea, good weather ashore. Stornaway is another natural harbour. We rafted up outside an ex British Steel racing yacht, it had been round the southern ocean. Stornaway was the only place which still had a fishing fleet, though far smaller than before.

Shetland, Central Mainland

2007-07-23T20:13:00.000Z

Shetland, Lerwick

2007-07-23T20:02:00.000Z

We enjoyed the hospitality of the Scalloway Boat Club - they took part in the annual Viking p
Parade in Lerwick.

Shetland, Scalloway

2007-07-23T20:00:00.001Z

The weather is changeable..

Shetland

2007-07-23T19:46:00.000Z

We stayed in Scalloway. It put us in a better position for the west coast of Scotland and gave us a lee for the first time. The winds were still blowing from the NE.

This is a memorial to the people who ran and used the Shetland Bus. It had recently been visited by the Queen of Norway, who also opened the new National Museum. Many years ago the vikings exterminated the local population and settled in Shetland, it transferred to Scottish ownership somewhat recently, the affection for Norway lives on.

Shetland

2007-07-23T19:36:00.000Z

Da Noost - everyone was at the 'Flavour of Shetland' by the harbour, except for us and a a couple of Belgians. Da Noost was playing golden oldies, the Flavour of Shetland featured some dynamic young fiddle players. Children are taught to play the fiddle in school, some talented players have resulted.

Fair Isle

2007-07-23T19:28:00.000Z

These plants are so rare that they get protected from the sheep.

Fair Isle

2007-07-23T19:24:00.001Z

The phone box at the main junction.

Fair Isle

2007-07-23T19:19:00.000Z

Fair Isle has a population of 68, 2 churches and O2 supply mobile coverage.

Fair Isle

2007-07-23T19:14:00.000Z

Simon explains about lichen.

Fair Isle

2007-07-23T19:12:00.001Z

Fair Isle

2007-07-23T19:09:00.001Z

Fair Isle

2007-07-17T21:24:00.000Z

disposing of rubbish can be difficult when you are living on a small island.

Fair Isle

2007-06-19T21:17:00.000Z

Fair Isle

2007-06-18T21:05:00.000Z

We stayed a couple of nights, walked around, had a meal at the hostel - the island is owned by the National Trust and more or less run as a nature reserve. They have wind generators but a lot of power is shipped in in diesel tanks.

Fair Isle

2007-06-18T20:38:00.000Z

There is only 1 harbour on Fair Isle - it is difficult to see the entrance when approaching from the South, it was dark and windy when we arrived, this is the morning after, fortunately the directional light which shows the way in is left on all the time. The locals were friendly and a gentleman called Barry took our lines and got a couple of large fenders to keep us off the wall.

view from Stronsay harbour

2007-06-17T20:33:00.000Z

Papa Stronsay

2007-06-17T20:11:00.000Z

It was still blowing NE after a few days so we moved round to Whitehouse in Stronsay, where we anchored between Stronsay and Papa Stronsay. This is Papa Stronsay, supposed to be one of the holiest islands, occupied by Transalpine Redemptorist monks (who, it seems used to be based on the Isle of Sheppey, near by Kaemara's home port) .

Scapa Flow, Orkney

2007-06-16T11:41:00.001Z

Mainland, Orkney

2007-06-16T11:39:00.001Z

Kirkwall, Mainland, Orkney

2007-06-16T11:35:00.001Z

nice weather as we arrive in Orkney

2007-06-16T11:32:00.000Z

north sea common dolphin

2007-06-16T11:29:00.000Z

A pod of around 30 dolphins joined us for a couple of hours.

orkney

2007-06-16T11:22:00.000Z

Tough passage up the North Sea - 740 miles logged between Harwich and Kirkwall - beating the whole way up the North Sea, always overcast, occasional rain and fog, cold. We stopped for a couple of days on the Humber to take a rest, before pushing on.

The Orkney Isles are beautiful with many good walks and lots of ancient sites. There is plenty to do here to while away the hours whilst waiting for a change in the weather. We decided that the hard work was over when we got here and that from now on we'd be cruising, i.e. not beating into a Northerly force 5 or 6, which is what's on offer today, our next stop should be Fair Isle, en-route to Shetland.

new season

2007-03-12T19:25:00.000Z

Refit is well under way, have a brand new rudder to install, chainplates out for re-bedding, windlass off for same, fuel tank back in after a modification to the inspection hatch, engine has a new alternator, have wired the navtex to the solar cell regulator so its 'always on'. Time to start thinking about this year's trip. Bought the charts for the Shetland Islands last year in case we came back that way - current plan for this summer is to go to the Shetlands then round to the west coast of Scotland, to leave the boat there over the winter.

rudder pix

2006-12-21T16:31:00.000Z

these pictures were for the shipwright who is making me a new rudder - had stripped the rudder down to clear out old, waterlogged, foam and then rebuilt it with new foam, but water got in again, and this time there was rust coming out, so went for a new one.

Norway trip

2006-08-07T22:14:00.000Z

I had a look around for photo publishing sites but didn't like the terms, so here we are. Thanks, blogspot, for providing this service. This website is probably best viewed from the bottom up.

My employers agreed to let me take all my leave in one chunk and to tag on a few weeks unpaid. This gave me enough time to sail to Norway and cruise around a bit without rushing. Had a wonderful time.

Norway is a perfect place to cruise in a sailing boat. I spent about 6 weeks on the southern end of the west coast, between Egersund and Bulandet. This area features many off-lying islands which offer protection from the open sea, often it's as if one is sailing on a lake. The scenery is spectacular and the people are really nice and friendly.

----- some notes about the sailing ----

When I was planning this trip and first started looking at the charts I was astonished and somewhat concerned by the coastline. There are so many islands and fjords, it looks like a smashed plate that has gone into a million pieces. I thought I'd be in danger of losing track of where I was (I expected to be on my own for much of the time). In fact navigation, when the weather is clear, couldn't be easier as one is surrounded by land marks. There is a system of ancient and superbly situated navigational marks, varde, rather like one gets in the mountains, that remove all ambiguity about one's position, so navigation is by eye-ball and the gps can have a holiday. Of course, if the visibility closes down and the wind kicks up then it is a different story when knowing that one is surrounded by rocks and other hazards can be stressful.

The water is mostly too deep for the depth sounder to find the bottom. I took an extra hundred metres of anchor warp in case we had to anchor in deep water. In fact one hardly ever has to anchor in these waters unless one wants to. Every settlement has quayside and the tides are often negligible, so tying up alongside is easy. We only anchored a few times, and then in not more than 11 metres. Having said that, I'm used to anchoring in 5 metres or less and found that my 'foot on the chain' braking technique didn't slow the chain down as it went out, but gave me a good bruise. We use a 'delta' type anchor which held well except when the bottom was awful with kelp, when I doubt anything would have held properly.

We left in June. This is early in the season for Norweigans, when one has most of the harbours to oneself. The popular places can get busy in July. But there are countless fine places to go and it is easy to be alone. We only went to places that had been recommended by local people (we found that if we looked at the chart in the cockpit when in harbour then often someone would come and give us some advice).

The north sea can be nasty. We checked the weather before departure on http://www.wetterzentrale.de - this website hasn't let me down yet and we had a good crossing each way. Or perhaps we've got a lucky boat: one of the first things people seem to ask is whether anything broke down. Apart from a battery dying on the return trip (not a problem we have 2) everything worked.
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There are probably too many pictures here and there may be some spelling and other innaccuracies - I'll come back and edit it down another time.

its a blog and is in reverse chronological order - start from the beginning!

east coast

2006-08-07T22:00:00.000Z

had a thunderstorm on the last night, but it cleared up in the daytime, here we are off the Deben, if you look very closely you might see the east coast of england (it is low lying!) above the opaque water. big tides, strong currents, mud banks, shallow water, expensive marinas: home again.

journey home

2006-08-07T21:56:00.000Z

slack pressure over the north sea, another no or low wind crossing, had to motor a lot, we were lucky that when there was some wind we could make the course close-hauled, ended up doing 37 hours of motoring over 4 1/2 days.

journey home

2006-08-07T21:46:00.000Z

end of day

stavanger

2006-08-07T21:43:00.000Z

biggest cranes i've ever seen. Norweigan ship builders have now mostly switched to supporting the oil industry. Stavanger has a good museum devoted to the history of oil exploration in Norway. One gets an insight into the tough life lived on board the rigs in the north sea. Having sailed past the rigs and their associated support ships it was interesting to find out more about them.

Lysefjord

2006-08-07T21:39:00.000Z

Lysefjord

2006-08-07T21:36:00.000Z

to get an idea of the scale of this, those are 20 foot high trees, a small cruise ship is probably about [--] long

Lysefjord

2006-08-07T21:33:00.000Z

Lysefjord

2006-08-07T21:28:00.000Z

Prekestolen seen from below (square bit in the middle). It is 600m high, there are people standing on the edge, my camera doesn't stretch that far.

Lysefjord

2006-08-07T21:24:00.000Z

the anchorage

Lysefjord

2006-08-07T21:21:00.000Z

Lysefjord

2006-08-07T21:15:00.000Z

The Lysefjord was universally recommended. We stayed in the anchorage with a couple of dutch yachts. best holding seems to be at the furthest end.

what's that?

2006-08-07T21:11:00.000Z

from head on, at a distance, it looked like a rock with a light on top, with a bow wave..

Lysoya

2006-08-07T20:59:00.000Z

Lysoya

2006-08-07T20:56:00.000Z

Ole Bulls island, with a popular anchorage

2006-08-07T20:53:00.000Z

Fedje

2006-08-07T20:49:00.000Z

Fedje

2006-08-07T20:47:00.000Z

Fedje

2006-08-07T20:41:00.000Z

Fedje is one of the outlying islands. They encourage visitors and provide well marked walks and signposts to the attractions.

Bergen

2006-08-07T20:38:00.000Z

Looking over the harbour area from the mountain behind the city.