Our first month in Norway has been
packed full of new experiences and adjustments.
In the August blog entry, I left off at our point of entry into Norway from the
North Sea at the Marstein light, near Bergen . We picked up a
mooring ball in an idyllic, perfect little anchorage. We liked it there so much we stayed an extra day to rest after our somewhat traumatic North
Sea crossing from the Shetlands. We then headed for Bergen , about twenty
miles distant, spent a week there attending to business and then headed north.
The last three weeks have been spent travelling each day. We are now at
latitude 67 degrees which is north of the Arctic Circle
(66 degrees and 33 minutes North). Our winter destination, Tromso, is at 69
degrees North. We are less than 200 miles and five days away from where we plan
to spend the winter months.
It has been a bit of a
‘whistlestop tour’ so far as we felt we had to push on while we had good
weather. We were absolutely blessed with sensational, sun-filled, summer-like
days from the day before we left Bergen
and for about two weeks thereafter. Each day, we couldn’t believe our good
fortune as the day dawned sunny, bright and with blue skies. After the Scottish
weather experience, it was delightful to feel the sun again. The high pressure
system that brought us the sun also brought little wind and calm seas. Lack of
wind is a problem for a sailboat, but, the calm seas were a treat. They enabled
us to continue on right through two of Norway ’s most difficult and
sometimes dangerous, navigational challenges, Statt and Hustadvika, without having
to wait for an appropriate weather window.
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| Our first Norwegian anchorage |
Statt is the
westernmost peninsula in Norway
which juts out into the Norwegian Sea . You are
in open waters directly exposed to the Sea. There is no protected inner lead
available. An escort service is available for small boats that attempt to round
it. We went round on a flat calm day, it was quite ‘swelly’ but no problem at
all. A week or so after we passed through, we noticed that the Statt weather
forecast indicated 9.5 metre waves (that’s around 30 feet!) which wouldn’t have
been fun to deal with on a lee shore that consists of granite cliffs.
Hustadvika is a
rock-strewn passage also exposed to the open. Again, we went through on a flat
calm day and it was no issue at all.
Although we knew that
wind in the inner leads is often directly ahead, or, directly behind the boat
as it funnels down through the mountains, we didn’t realize just how much we’d
be motoring. We have only actually sailed (with the motor off) for 2-1/2 hours
in the last three weeks. The best we can hope for, the rest of the time, is to
motorsail which we do as often as we can as it boosts our speed from around 5
to 6.5 knots. We hadn’t really considered the cost of diesel and the hassle of
obtaining it, but, it’s a necessary evil in this environment. We burn about a
gallon an hour at 2000 rpm. It costs about 8-13 NOK ($1.28-$2.08 CAD) per litre
and with about four litres to the gallon, times 7-10 hours a day and well, you
do the math. It’s expensive.
Another expense we
hadn’t thought much about was buying Norwegian paper charts. We’d bought enough
to get us to Bergen ,
but knew we needed more to get us north. We spoke to a couple of cruisers who
are just using electronic charts, or, borrowed charts. We have the electronic
charts, it was only around $400 for a single C-MAP chip that covers all of Norway , Scandinavia , the Baltic and some of northern Europe . I didn’t feel comfortable going without paper,
not only for backup, but, for planning purposes as well. The coastline of Norway is so
complex, it’s impossible to figure out which way to go without some kind of
‘bigger picture’ to guide you. The Norwegian charts are excellent and we needed
an absolute minimum of 50 charts. It was around $1500 to purchase these in Bergen and this covers us
from Bergen to
Tromso only. At first glance, the charts look overwhelming and a magnifying
glass is needed to see some of the detail, even at the largest scale available,
1:50,000. We hope we may be able to sell the charts to another cruiser when we
leave Norway .
Navigationally,
everything is very well-marked. There are a few different types of navigation
markers, but, when present, they are very helpful. There are ‘vardes’, which
are ancient round, brick towers with a pointer on top telling you which side is
the correct side to pass on.Norway . Apparently, they’ve been
there since Viking times and are still in use today. Sometimes a modern light
has been put on top, or beside them. There are also ‘perches’ and bakes’ which
have the same function, with a different form.
Every day, we try and leave early so we can cover 35-45 miles and stop around three in the afternoon. This gives us time to pick up more diesel, or, groceries etc. The evening is usually spent working out a route for the next day. This is non-trivial as it takes around 1-2 hours every evening. I use CMAP’s PC-Planner to prepare the route on the computer, then, I upload it to the chartplotter. The next day, it’s just a simple matter of following the plotter line.
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| A typical Varde navigation marker |
Every day, we try and leave early so we can cover 35-45 miles and stop around three in the afternoon. This gives us time to pick up more diesel, or, groceries etc. The evening is usually spent working out a route for the next day. This is non-trivial as it takes around 1-2 hours every evening. I use CMAP’s PC-Planner to prepare the route on the computer, then, I upload it to the chartplotter. The next day, it’s just a simple matter of following the plotter line.
We have anchored out a
few times, but, have run into some problems getting the anchor to set, so, to
avoid frustration and time delays we’ve been staying on pontoons most of the
time. This time of year, everything is deserted, which gives us (me) time to
practice docking the boat and the prices are reasonable. Prices each night are
usually 50-150 NOK ($8-$24) and you pay via an honesty box. Showers, laundry
and electricity, when available, are extra. There is a large selection of
places to stop and it’s been no problem to find somewhere each day.
Although we have
suffered from a high degree of ‘sticker shock’, Norway , in general, has so far been
everything we expected. The scenery is absolutely spectacular, it is uncrowded,
the waters are protected and the weather is good. As a cruising ground, it
probably doesn’t get much better than this. Ok, maybe a bit more wind, water
you can actually swim in and a warmer winter would be nice. There is also quite
a bit of shipping to dodge, there are a lot of fast ferries travelling at 30+
knots and some large freighters and fishing boats. Norway seems to have its own
version of the ColRegs as well i.e. all leisure boats need to keep out of the
way of the commercial ones. Only foreign boats seem to alter course for us, it
gets tricky with the Norwegian ones who stand on, no matter what. It’s resulted
in a few anxious moments while we try and get out of the way.
Each day we would see
the Hurtigruten pass. The Hurtigruten is Norway ’s famous ‘coastal express’
service. A boat leaves Bergen
each day and travels north to the Russian border and back. The one-way trip
takes eleven days and the ship stops at a lot of small communities on the way.
Some of the newer boats look like cruise liners and are very luxurious, with
food included in the ticket. When we factor in the cost and effort involved in
our cruise, we sometimes think we should have just bought a ticket on the
Hurtigruten as it would be a lot easier and we’d see all the same sights!
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| A little too close for comfort |
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| One of the Hurtigruten coastal ferry cruise fleet |
We have been struck by
how much the landscape resembles Muskoka and Georgian Bay .
When out walking,
sometimes it’s like being back walking on the Torrance Barrens and we forget
how far away we are (and so much further north). The difference is they have a
lot more height to the mountains and the fjords are distinct. It is more of a
wilderness in Canada
as well. Here there are quite large towns, fishing villages and historic
trading posts around every corner. We have seen hardly any wildlife: one seal,
a couple of sea eagles and a bunch of seagulls. In places, though, the water is
just teeming with fish and we’ve seen a few large ones jumping. There are also
interesting and colourful jellyfish.
Here are a few
highlights from this month:
Whenever you see a
tourist photo of Bergen ,
it usually shows Bryggen, the row of sixteenth century merchant shops on the
quayside. We docked Black Sheep II against the quay right in front of Bryggen
which was just across the street. We were also a few steps away from the front
door to a rather swanky Radisson. We couldn’t help but contrast what guests
there were paying, probably $300 a night, to our $16 a night across the street on
the quay. We spent a week there. At first, it was interesting being on the busy
quay with all the tourists strolling by. After a while, we realized that we
(the boat mainly) had become a tourist attraction and sometimes our privacy suffered.
There were a lot of Canadians in Bergen
and we ended up meeting every one of them, I think. We did enjoy speaking with them
though and many compliments on the boat were received and appreciated. However,
one Chinese tourist went a little far. He asked G if he could take a photo
of the boat (at least he asked). G said ok, he then proceeded to climb down
onto the boat, out onto the bowsprit, did a Leonardo DiCaprio Titanic pose over
the water while his girlfriend took the shot!
Bergen was a delightful city, surrounded by mountains
and full of quaint neighbourhoods with all wooden houses, clean, green, great
walks and museums. I’d like to say great restaurants, but, I think eating out
in Norway
is maybe an annual treat, it’s so expensive. We didn’t eat out at all. Some
idea of prices? A hamburger in an American-style restaurant, $27, pizza $32 (plus
25% VAT on top), take-out coffee $3.20+ minimum, small bottle of coke $6.50,
Big Mac, $13, loaf of bread $6-8, small bag of chips/crisps $5. We treated ourselves
to a soft ice-cream cone before leaving town, $8 and a shower, $10.
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| Bergen's Bryggen |
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| Bergen |
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| Bergen tall ship |
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| Bergen tall ship |
We’ve tried a few
Norwegian delicacies, like Torrfisk (dried cod sliced really thin like a
cracker) without much success, it must be an acquired taste. However, the bread
is excellent. Even the crummiest convenience store will have fresh-baked,
grainy loaves for sale and we’ve been eating way too much of it.
The houses in Bergen and all over Norway are so
well-kept: small, spotless and charming. Board and batten is my favourite house
exterior treatment and just about all the houses here have it along with lace
at the windows and window trim flourishes reminiscent of American ‘Carpenter
Gothic’ architecture. I don’t know how
they keep their paint so nice, every house looks freshly done.
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| Kristiansund carved wooden doorway |
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| View on the 'Nutshell' tour |
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| Narrow fjord on 'Nutshell' tour |
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| Waterfall on the 'Nutshell' tour |
A very nice, unique
town.
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| Alesund, Black Sheep II is moored in the inlet right in the centre of town. We hiked up a lot of steps to get this shot! |
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| Alesund street view |
This was a definite
highlight and also a learning experience. We made a detour from the main route
to visit the Svartisen glacier. We’ve seen glaciers before, but, this one is
easy to access on foot and quite spectacular. We arrived in early afternoon,
hoping to get docked and away to do the two-hour hike to the glacier’s snout
before dark. So, we were in a bit of a rush, our first mistake.
We arrived to find the
floating pontoon mentioned in all the guide books was no longer there (we found
out later it had been removed the day before we arrived for winter storage).
There was an old, rickety pier and after a careful approach we thought we’d be
able to tie up to it, which we did. We were the only boat there. We tied up,
left a fair bit of slack in the lines for the tide, which we thought we were
probably on the bottom of (although we didn’t double-check) as it was
noticeably ebbing for the last few hours on the way in. We had to climb up to
the pier to get off the boat, but, thought no more about it and went off to do
the hike which we really enjoyed, another beautiful day and we had the entire
glacier to ourselves!
On our return to the
boat, the tide had dropped about another six feet and the boat was now sitting
about 10-12 feet below the pier. We hadn’t noticed the absence of any ladder,
or, tires, on the pier that we may have used to climb back down to the boat and
we had no way down! Anyway, we felt like two fools and stood there for two
hours trying to think of a way out of our dilemma. Finally, we found a piece of
2x6 laying around that we ended up using as a slide to get down to the boat. It
was just getting dark by this time. Were we glad to get out of there in the
morning! G is still complaining about the slivers.
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| Svartisen Glacier |
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| G on Svartisen Glacier hike |
Of all the places
we’ve stayed so far, we’re finding we like the old trading posts the best. They
have often been there since the 1600’s and have a variety of interesting old
buildings, exhibits and goods available. They are also usually privately-owned
and have friendly owners offering excellent value for money. Although, we’re in
the off-season now and most of the associated restaurants/shops etc. were
closed up, we still enjoyed our visits. Especially to Haholmen , a resort
island in the middle of rocky Hustadvika, Mageroy, on an island/nature reserve
and Selsoyvika where the owners opened the store just for us to allow us to
purchase some of their home-smoked salmon and they also baked two fresh loaves
of bread for us! They also had the best docks we’ve seen in Norway so far,
they actually had cleats (most of the other docks have just rings, or, rough
boards to tie onto). We also got a mini-tour of the main building, which the
King and Queen had visited the year before.
Crossing the Arctic Circle
Crossing the Arctic Circle didn’t feel much like an event as it would
in Canada ,
where it seems so far north, remote and inaccessible that it is an achievement
to get there. In Norway ,
we just motored by VikingVagen, an island with an Arctic
Circle monument on it and kept on past the towns/villages that
exist all around it.
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| Arctic Circle monument |
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| Torghatten, mountain with a hole through it |
BOAT PROBLEMS
Another cruiser once
said that ‘…the cruising lifestyle is a way to get to fix your boat in a lot of
exotic places’. Unfortunately, this is proving true for us as well.
Our new electronic
battery monitor, installed in Savannah ,
has died and will need to be replaced.
We turned on our
watermaker which we hadn’t used since the Atlantic crossing only to find that
all the water ended up in the bilge. Another repair job to add to the
ever-increasing to-do list.
We noticed our main
engine water pump was leaking quite severely. Closer examination revealed that
it probably had been doing this for quite a long time. We spent an extra day in
Kristiansund, which had excellent service shops, and Glenn was able to remove
the pump, get it machined, new bearings/gasket/impeller installed and he reinstalled
the pump all in one day, must be a record. Good news is the engine is now
running about five degrees cooler.
Glenn noticed some
diesel in the bilge the other day. Today, we confirmed that one of our tanks is
leaking. The tanks have already been replaced once on this boat, so, we thought
we’d dodged this bullet. Guess not. It’s a major undertaking to remove and
repair/replace a tank. For now, we’re going to pump it dry and rely on the
other tank for a while. The leaking tank is the only one the generator is
capable of using, so, it is now out of action for a while as well.
I mentioned previously
that we noticed that our shaft seal was leaking a lot more than it should be.
With all the motoring we’ve been doing, it has been exacerbated and when
underway it is now a constant stream. We’ve been able to keep it under control
by pumping the bilge twice a day, but, began to realize that if we want to be
able to leave the boat at all this winter we’re going to have to get it fixed
now, not in the spring as planned.
Unfortunately, this means taking the boat out of the water as the shaft
has to be taken apart. We knew there was a travelift available at a boat
manufacturer near Tromso and had hoped to make it there to have the work done.
However, we took on a lot of water one day, could hear the water running into
the bilge and thought we’d better not delay any longer, or, we may lose the
boat and ourselves as well. The next large town with a travelift was Bodo and
we made a beeline there. They can accommodate us, but, we’ve had to order the
new shaft seal from West Marine in the U.S. as there wasn’t one suitable
in Norway .
So, we are now here in
Bodo, waiting for our new shaft seal to arrive. We expect to be here 1-2 weeks
to get the job done. The weather is closing in now, we saw a dusting of snow on
the mountains outside town this morning and the boat is very cold. We have heat
from our new hydronic heater when the motor is running. When the motor is off,
we thought we had a good diesel stove. Unfortunately, it has proved to be next
to useless, dirty, finicky, smelly and without much heat, so, it is going to be
retired. We’re hoping to sort out some Norwegian extension cords and plugs so
we can run a couple of electric heaters. Hopefully, this will be enough to get
us through. We are now anxious to get to Tromso and get settled in for the
winter which is fast approaching here.
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