Monthly Archives: Friday July 22nd, 2022

The next day really does get hot and after breakfast we immediately head to the beach again. After all these weeks with cold wind and rain we enjoy every minute of sun – and especially going swimming ! As we row back to our boat in the afternoon we count no less than 45 boats. After lunch, we decide to leave today as tomorrow we’ll have the wind against us.

First we sail a bit, then we run under engine. We head south towards Göteborg again and on the we we’ll look if we find a nice spot to maybe drop the anchor. We nearly decided to go into the marina as we finally spot a little beach on the little island Rivö just a few miles from G. – The sun is already gone and we drop the anchor in the last light in 6m water.

Kilian is extremely happy in the water, although it is just about 20°. And for Moana the best is when I row her around in our little blue dinghy and she can tell me where to go.  To spend another night at anchor definatly was a good choice. But later that day when the first clouds appear, we move to the marina because we’ll meet friends from a time long ago. The too were sailing through the Pacific. Back then just the two of them in a small 26″ boat. Now they have two golden haired children and are searching for a larger boat to move aboard in about a year’s time. We spend some wonderful hours together, laugh about the past and dream about the future.

The future … Yeah. Gui will fly back to Berlin with the two small ones… The destination is Rügen and that’s another 200 miles. I will sail these with Viola together. That isn’t exactly as it was planned but it will be better for everyone. We’ll meet again in Rügen and spend some more days at the beach together. Kilian is still too small for these longer distances as he just started crawling and walking a few days ago and that is not a good time to be ona a moving boat.

Right after dropping Bruno off at the airport, we head out and sail past the north tip of the little peninsula that is home to Stavanger on the inside and Tananger on the outer, westside. Today we have wind from south so we sail a few very sporty tacks and enter the little, very sympatic harbour.

Again we find ourselves a bit in a hurry as the next stretch of coast is the one with the ‘dangerous waves’ marking and there is this gigantic low between Iceland and Scotland and it’s coming closer fast. So next morning we head out again as soon as we see the wind change more towards the west.

The ride is bumpy and for a while Moana gets a little sea sick. But in the evening we are glad that we are a bit further south and again in the beautiful Egersund. This time in the marina – laundry needs to be done and we’ll wait until friday for the wind to ease a little bit. Then we’ll try to round the next little peninsula and hope to make it to Farsund. We’ll see how our plan works out. Uh. Let’s check the weather again….

It seems that the closer one is to Bergen and the deeper in a fjord, the more it rains. – After two days with only very short breaks of sunshine we decide to leave and sail southward again.

The rainclouds are soon left behind and as we get closer to the open sea, the wind picks up. Soon we’re sailing with more than six knots again and the kids stay below to play, sleep and eat. The whole day we sail out of the Hardanger fjord and in the evening we arrive in Haugsund. Moana and me take a little walk while little Kilian is about to go to bed.

Everywhere in Norway we see the trails of the oil industry: oil rigs, gigantic working vessels and cranes… but also the clean future: in some cities a third of the cars is electric and even the fjord-ferries and small cruise ships are electric and can be found at the charging station when night comes. Even the large cargo vessels and cruise ships have proper cleaning systems and run without leaving a dirty yellow-brown trail in the sky. When the dirty money from the short oil boom is invested wisely, this is possible…

Another short stop we make in Vikevåg, where we are lucky with the weather and also find a small beach not far from the fishing harbour where we tied up. From here it’s only a few miles to Stavanger where Viola will come on board and we’ll be all six on the boat for a few days.

In the ‘city harbour’ it is a bit noisy as it’s the party location of Stavanger, it seems. Also this harbour is completely unprotected to the west wind (that blows 90% of the time ;-) So next day we move the boat a tiny bit to Børeviga. Viola arrives at midnight from Berlin and next day we celebrate Gui’s birthday.

Gui, Moana and Kilian arrive at Sunset (~23:10h) in Bergen and after a Night at the Brygge and a little stroll through the neighbourhood, we move the Dragon (that sounds very nice ;-) … to a little Marina a bit south. There we have easier access to the boat as here in the city center we’re tied up to the harbour wall and at low tide have to climb up truck tires. The marina is also way more quiet and … there is a little artificial beach close by.

In Bergen (the city oif rain) we had really hot days with up to 27°C and so we actually spent an afternooon at the beach (beside Marineholmen Gjestehavn). But next day at noon we already wait for the pedestrian bridge to open, we want to see the fjords….

The sail south is nice in the beginning but soon we have a good amount of wind against us and with gusts up to 7 Bft, we are somewhat shaken and stirred when we drop the anchor in the little bay of Os. Twice Bruno has to pull up the iron again before it bites but then we finally fall asleep … with the raindrops drumming on the roof again.

Unfortunately the rain stays and so we miss some good views of the absolutely stunning landscapes we sail past. The wind is slightly more favourable and we have decent sailing conditions everywhere but in the Lokksund where the wind is straight at us and the sound is too narriow to tack. – Also there is really strong currents and swirls in the more narrow part.

After the Lokksund we don’t have to beat against the wind anymore and can relax a bit. We sail past two corners and behind a lengthy island appears Rosendal: mountains with still some snow, three waterfalls dropping onto lush, green hills… Straight out of a Bob Ross’ painting.

We take a little stroll through the lovely, little village and get some salmon for dinner. The walk to the waterfall we move to tomorrow in hope of better weather.

But today it rained nearly constantly and although I hurried up to the little waterfall with Kilian in the stroller, nobody really was into a longer walk in this weather. So we spend the time waiting for a hole in the clouds with books, paper and bingo. At the end of the day we did get a fat, double rainbow – which really made Moana’s day.

Tomorrow we will have to exit the fjord as Viola arrives on the 8th – in Stavanger – and we have to get there with difficult wind to sail, it seems.