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| Up North, further up North |
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| -- August - September 2016 -- |
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Sweden is very beautiful, but Oslo is
a maritime city and we would love to have the boat right by our home
place. So after having enjoyed the pink rocks, let's head to the North
and a new country.
A few pictures from the sunny summer in our page "Pictures".
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124 miles sailed
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Back
to Sweden for a week-end on Saltimbanque. This time we are heading to
the North and the village of Smögen, famous for its little white wooden
houses. Navigation against the rather strong wind and a chaotic sea,
and we arrive in the harbour, hosting that day a competition of -big-
engine boats !
Not a big deal as we are willing to see the rocky
shore more than the wooden houses. We leave then for a walk, not
without grabbing an ice cream when walking the rocky crack that the
harbour consists of. And we start trudging on the pink rocks.
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The end of the harbour |
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Wooden promenade on the vertical cliff | A hole in the rocks has been converted to a sort of a beach, quite popular, and we decide to go and see further.
A
few rocks further we are alone. It's summy and warm, and the mineral
landscape is just extraordinary. A crack at the very end has a swimming
ladder attached to, which invites for a swim. The water is crystal
clear as rarely seen and Laure doesn't resist for long!
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We
enjoy this granitic paradise until the sun set, and then finally have a
short walk through the village. Ok it's cute but after the amazing show
of the sea and the rocks we are not so impressed!
Sailing back
to Lysekil goes all right, running in a strong wind. We experience a
few violent gusts, quasi-katabatic, on the lee of the largest rocks.
But
the most of the storm is still to come: 50 knots in the harbour during
the next 3 days! We get all the sails down to preserve the equipment.
Not many navigations in August as both our jobs keep us away from our
friend with sails :o(
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Rocky desert....
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9-10 September: Lysekil - Killingen (108M) |
A
last glance at the weather forecast confirms the window: if we leave on
Friday evening we have about 30 hours of moderate Southwesterly wind
that should allow us to sail efficiently until Oslo. Up North, further
up North !
And off we go for a trip in public transportations to
Saltimbanque. As soon as we arrive, so we depart. We leave Lysekil at
22:00 by a magnificent night.
The wind is still blowing from
the West and is veering quickly to the South. We sail slowly in betwen
these islands, so familar by now. A quick check on the heading confirms
that we can take the shortcut: a very narrow channel in between rocks
and 2 - unlit - buoys, only guided by the narrow white ray of light of
a sector lighthouse. Well it was piece of cake ! We even saw the dark
buoys :o)
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Tradewind-like sail configuration to cross the Norwegian border... |
Once
offshore we bear away and so can the gliding run to Norway start ! The
wind is a bit weak at first and we stay on a broad reach under main
sail and genoa... on a pole ! Like in the good old times ! Running
under the stars is pretty cool actually... But the loud noise of a
blowhole pulls us out of our contemplation: it's a pilot whale 3-4m
long who has decided to play with the boat like a dolphin. It lasts for
15 amazing minutes...
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Running with the wind is
stable and fast ! The wind picks up a bit and we continue with only the
genoa on a pole. The current is helping and we maintain an
average speed of 6,5 knots through the night.
Early in the
morning we cross the Norwegian border! The wind picks up in the
entrance of the Oslo fjord and we take the pole down. The clouds
arrive. It starts raining.
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And one more country ! |
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Arriving at our new home port ! Nice weather over Oslo...
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Oslo fjord is long, very long. We need about 10 hours at full speed
with the genoa in a rather strong wind to reach its end. Running with
only the front sail on a flat sea is rather cool actually ! At around
3pm we sail by Drøbak, the nice city with the fortress we had visited
during the spring.
And at 18:30 we
arrive in the harbour that we picked for the winter, just west of
Bygdøy. 108 NM in 20h, that's a good speed for us !
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Saltimbanque is now by 59°54'N and 15 minutes bike from home !
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