enroute to the Preikestolen

Sailed over to Tau to get the bus to the Preikestolen Hytte. From there you have a fairly strenuous, easy if you are Norweigan, walk to the Preke Stolen, the 'pulpit stone', which just out 600m above the Lysefjord.

kvitsoy

Norweigans mostly go on holiday in July. No crowds in June.

kvitsoy

the guest harbour.

Kvitsoy. There isn't a lot of tidal range in this part of Norway, so buildings can be close to the water.

Tananger -> Kvitsoy

"The official name on the lighthouse is Oksafoten (oxfootrock) and it is a so called lighthouse on a column." - thanks, Leif, for the information.

Tananger

a replica longboat

traditional wooden boats are still being built in Norway. One sees many Colin Archer types, these are often quite recent, we found it interesting to see how closely, or not, these replicated the originals: it isn't unusual to see stainless steel rigging and other modern features mixed in with heavy wooden spars and a gaff rig.

tied up alongside in tananger guest harbour, the Swedish wooden yacht was the star of the show. the guest harbour is run by the nearby hotel and is inexpensive and the facilites are, as all over Norway with the rarest exceptions, immaculate

Feistein Light

Simon takes the helm for a great sail up to Tananger

the Norweigan charts warn you to look out for bridges and electrical cables that might have been erected since the chart was published. you must know exactly how high your mast is.

sailing north from Egersund

we arrived in Egersund around 10 oclock at night, too 4 and a half days to cross the north sea

sunshine as we approached norway

the crossing

finally, wind

the crossing

no wind, low visibility

the crossing

then there was no wind at all, we motored for a day and night

the crossing

it was cold

crossing the north sea

there was a cold northerly wind for the first 2 days, it was grey and miserable. progress was slow.

norway - getting ready

Waiting at Shotley for Simon, crew, to turn up. There is a westerley owners association meet and we are the only non-westerley on the pontoon. Finishing off a thousand jobs, every time you do one you find another. Mostly no wind at all, met office have gales forecast for South Utsire, they don't show up on wetterzentrale. It'll be a few days before we get there anyway.