After a fantastic summer season in the Lofoten Islands, we have just started to make our way south towards the UK. At this time of the year our sailing changes from day sailing and exploring to milebuilding trips. These provide the opportunity to mix coastal cruising with short offshore passage making. These trips are ideal to get a taste of round the clock watchkeeping and night sailing without being too far from land.

We were a bit of an international crew for our sail from Bodo to Bergen. Jackie and Michael from Switzerland who had previously sailed with us day sailing in Spain, Adapia and Mario from Italy who had previously sailed with us day sailing in Iceland, and Jonathan, who keeps his own boat on the west coast of Wales. All were new to long passages and overnight sailing and looking forward to the experience.

In 10 days we clocked up 734 miles in bite sized chunks! 2 passages each lasting 2 nights and 300 miles. The remainder of the miles coastal day sailing, and including a detour to the glistening glacier at Svartissen.

Our route from Bodo to Bergen takes us around Statt headland, Norway’s answer to Portland Bill. The pilot book is full of warnings about not rounding the headland in bad weather, and so when we received a forecast for SW8 and 9 we decided that we had to divert and wait out the gale. As the forecast went up to SW10, we realised that we had a long wait; it was third day lucky before we were off again.

Our delay meant we approached Bergen in the dark, through the very busy traffic lanes and we were all kept on our toes keeping track of the lights of other ships amongst the many sectored lights and oil terminals. Great practice and experience for those new to sailing in the dark.

The tiny harbour in the centre of Bergen was buzzing when we arrived, and continued to get busier. A-ha, Norway’s biggest pop band were playing live in the city centre, and by 5pm on Saturday night, boats were rafted 5 deep all along the harbour wall – we couldn’t have left if we’d wanted to.

The weather has now settled down and we are about to set off on our next sail, the 400nm passage across the Norwegian sea to Scotland, followed by a cruise through the Hebrides and Irish Sea on our way back to Plymouth. After Plymouth, we continue with milebuilding passages and coastal cruising right up until December.

Across the Bay of Biscay early October, along the Atlantic coast of Spain and Portugal late October, Southern Spain to Madeira in November and finally Madeira to Lanzarote the first week of December. If you wonder what passage sailing and watchkeeping are all about, why not come along and give it a try.

6 weeks ago, we had an unavoidable cancellation, leaving us with a potentially empty boat for our last Lofoten Islands trip.  We reduced the price and sent e mails out to all and sundry to see if we could fill it.  Thanks to all who helped pass the message on the grapevine as we did indeed fill the boat and have just had another great week.

We were joined by three couples, including a friend of Richards sister, who had passed the e mail around at work!  Rebecca had not sailed before, but was keen to come and give it a try and afterwards wrote in our guest book

‘Thank you so much for a really lovely holiday and a wonderful introduction to sailing.  You took us to some beautiful spots and let us learn at our own pace which was really appreciated.  Felt very looked after and thoroughly enjoyed your company’

We had another great week, sailing 194 miles in 6 days.  The sun shone a lot, but for the first time this season we had fog.  Sunday morning with thick fog all around us we could do nothing but sit in the anchorage and wait for it to clear.

Perfect opportunity for a bit of fishing and Simon and Joel were up to the task.  2 hours later, and just as the fog cleared we had enough fish for dinner.  The fog was replaced by brilliant sunshine and mirror glassy seas.  We had a good distance to cover, to get us within reach of Bodo so we decided to go for some intricate navigation and take a short cut through the rocks!  Not something you would try under sail.

As Richard navigated us around some very tight bends, I tried to capture the rocks and islands on camera, with no great success.  At one stage we felt that we could reach out and touch both sides.

Our short cut took us to Helnessund, new to us and not very clear in the pilot book what we would find when we got there.  As we approached and passed the harbour, we realised that the pontoons were far too small for us, and the anchorage was going to be right in the way of the passing traffic – not ideal.  We continued on for a further 3 miles around the corner and found another idyllic new anchorage with white sandy beaches and water warm enough to swim in.

During the week we noticed that the nights are drawing in and for the first time this season we saw that the lighthouses were flashing.  At 11 at night we had to  put the cabin lights on to read, and one night we even needed the ‘anchor light’ on.

Guess it is time to check out our navigation lights, put batteries in the torches, and get used to watches in the dark.  The Norwegians are very fond of their sectored lights and we are looking forward to using these to guide the way through the rocks!  These are shown in colour on the chart making them exceptionally easy to use.

Our destination this next trip is Bergen, 400 miles south – Perhaps we will see the northern lights!

After a really busy summer with short 3 day turnarounds between our first 3 long trips, Richard and I were thrilled to have a slightly longer break before the start of this trip.

We are often asked if we spend the time between trips getting out and about, but the simple answer to that is no.  By the time we have done the laundry, the shopping, made up the cabins and cleaned the boat, kept up with the maintenance, and checked out the weather for the next trip, our 3 days have passed.  We manage to get a bit of a rest in that period, but we are also always adding to our ‘to do’ list.

Whenever we have a longer gap, we try and tick off as much as we can from the to do list, but also have a bit of time to ‘treat’ourselves.  So what do we do for a treat in a foreign country.  Well last week we ‘treated’ ourselves to dinner and a movie.  Dinner was a pizza and beer, followed by Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz in ‘Knight and Day’. All the films in Norway are still in English with Norwegian sub titles, so that helps a lot.  Only problem was, we had not thought the cinema would be so full, and we never thought about ‘allocated’ seats, so although we were in the back row – Richard was at one end of the row and I was at the other.  I enjoyed the film (and I think Richard did, although he was sitting next to a 10 year old munching popcorn).  Full of ‘action;’ it reminded me of Tom Cruise in his Mission Impossible days, so much so that I am now looking for MI3 on DVD as I never managed to see that one first time round.

So relaxed after a day of rest and our treat, we were all set and ready to go for the first of our shorter 7 night Lofoten Islands trip.  Our guests arrived and amongst the 6 of them 2 were sailors and the other 4 were relatively new to sailing.  All had come to see the Lofoten Islands, do some sailing, but also climb a hill.  We knew just which hill to take them to.  Here in Bodo, the sun now sets although it still does not go dark.  To catch the last of the midnight sun we had to go further north, and climb a hill which gave us a clear view of the northern horizon.

The wind was light as we motored across to the Lofoten islands and made our way up to Digermulen, a very small town on the island of Hinnoya.  The town lies at the foot
of Keiservarden, a 384m hill, to be climbed after dinner. The aim to be on the top at midnight and catch a glimpse of the sun still above the horizon.

With light wind again the next day we motored north to look for trolls in Trollfjord, before heading south again to anchor in Haversand for a BBQ.  Although we have been into Trollfjord on most of our trips, we have never before noticed so much bird life.  There were hundreds of black eyed guillemots nesting on the sheer rock. What stops them falling off I wonder.

At the beginning of the week, Marina had expressed a wish to see a sea eagle flying.  We were not disappointed, we saw sea eagles on every day this last week and some of them from really close up.  On our last day there were 5 soaring above us as we left our lunch time anchorage and headed back to Bodo.

Despite this trip being 3 days shorter than our previous ones we still sailed 192 miles and visited 7 stunning places, including a new anchorage with many birds.  Jo, Marina and Chris went walking ashore amongst wonderful flowers and butterflies, whilst Mike and Mary fished for our supper.  Our newcomers to sailing were broken in gently at the beginning of the week, with sunshine and flat seas and learnt about tacking at the end of the week on an exciting beat home!  The sun shone for our last afternoon in Bodo, and with a couple of 6 packs of beer from the supermarket we sat in the cockpit and learnt to play ‘Liar Dice’.

Getting ready now for our final Lofoten Islands trip before we start on our coastal sailing, milebuilding and ocean passage trips.  We again have a slightly longer break – and this time our planned treat – a visit to the hairdressers!

Summer 2009 we had such a great season in the Lofoten Islands, that we just had to return for more. As always when you ‘revisit’ a favourite place, there is a danger that you will be disappointed.  After our first 10 day trip here in the Lofoten Islands, we are pleased with our decision to return and were not disappointed.

Norway’s coastline is as staggeringly beautiful as we remembered it, and the locals just as friendly.  The Lofoten Islands are 150nm north of the Arctic Circle, and as to be expected the weather is often mixed. Last week we had some warm sunny days, some cold windy days with bright blue skies, a couple of days of flat calm, and one day with a huge amount of rain.  We sailed 282 miles in the 10 days, walked to lakes, climbed hills, tried our hand at fishing and two hardy guests even took a dip in the sea off the white sandy beaches on Skrova.

We visited small fishing ports and had a close look at the cod drying on the racks.  We anchored in secluded bays and enjoyed the peace.  One night we drank gluwein and barbequed reindeer burgers, but ate them down below out of the wind!

We added 4 new places to our itinerary this week, the fishing villages of Aa and Sorvagen, and new anchorages in Ankersvagan and Breidvika.  Each week this season we will continue to revisit favourite places and search out new treasures.

Our favourite place this week was Ankersvagan, a new anchorage on the island of Engoloya.  As we arrived in this wonderful peaceful anchorage, the water was so still we could see reflections all around us, and up ahead on a rock sat two glorious white tailed eagles (sea eagles).  We silently crept up to them, cameras clicking away, and managed to get some great photos of them.

As we were dropping our anchor we could see fish jumping and knew that here would be a good place to get out the fishing line. We weren’t wrong, within minutes of casting the line, Miles had caught a large cod. The stillness was amazing and in the silence we could hear the tinkling of the bells around the necks of the local sheep, and the calls of two cuckoos talking to each other.

As we left the following morning, we again spotted our pair of eagles, and spent another comfortable hour, just watching nature in action, and before we left we also spotted three harbour porpoises!  No whales this week, will they come out to play next week I wonder.

Back in Bodo, midsummer celebrations were in full swing.  We arrived to hear a band playing over the tannoy and just as we tied alongside it seemed that the canon was fired in welcome!

We’re here.  We’ve arrived in Bodo in Norway and are getting ready for our summer season.  The sun is shining and the sky is blue, even if it is a bit chilly. We feel very at home here, no more so than when both the customs man and the owner of the garage where we get our gas both say ‘its you again, welcome back!’

Everyone who came on our passage from Oban to Bodo was looking for something slightly different.  So, when asked to describe their particular highlights, there was a huge variety.

For Keith, it was helming around Cape Wrath and past the Orkney Islands in strong winds, racing along at 8 knots – he did say he was both surprised and chuffed that we let him! (Of course we do, that’s all part of adventure sailing)

John’s highlights were the ‘Runs Ashore’, particularly Lovund, our first stop in Norwegian waters – and the best part, a fantastic Sauna.

For Malcolm it was ‘to be given hot crumpets while helming at 8.5 knots across the Arctic Ocean’

Clive’s highlight was the whole trip and the fact that it could be sub divided into so many different sections and types of experience

• A day sail in the Sound of Mull
• Beating against a near gale out of the Minch followed by 2 nights at sea on passage to Lerwick in the Shetland Islands (320nm)
• A day stopover in Lerwick to recover, and prepare for the longer passage
• The watch system on the 5 nights at sea as we sailed across the Norwegian Sea and past many oil rigs to Norway (570nm)
• The intricate navigation as we took the inshore route to Bodo, sailing amongst the many islands and skerries, including a stop at the Svartissen glacier (200nm)

Relaxing at the Glacier with a hard earned Arctic beer, after a good sail and a climb right up to the ice

For Richard it was the seals and the Puffin Walk in Lovund even though the Puffins were not easily seen as they were flying in circles above our heads.

Other memorable moments not mentioned are Whales, dolphins, seals, eagles, crossing the Arctic Circle and logging 1000nm.

For me, my highlight is always when we exceed people’s expectations and they want to come back for more.

We’re ready now for our next set of new guests who are due tomorrow, and looking forward to more sailing in the Lofoten Islands.  Although we are now almost full for this summer in Norway, (one space on 14th August),we do have spaces later in the year, and are already selling spaces for 2011.  Check our our Schedule for full details

We write our sailing programmes often over a year in advance, so it is all a guess really what the weather will be like.  Wanting to avoid ‘notorious September gales’ we decided to head back from Norway to Scotland in August in the hope of good weather. 

Bodo to Oban is over 1000nm and  instead of ‘dashing across the North Atlantic Ocean’, we decided to programme in a longer trip and break the passage down by cruising along the coast of Norway, visiting the Shetland Islands and then sailing amongst the Scottish Islands to Oban. 

Even with the breaks, this trip proved to be ‘harder than expected’!  Any passage across open water is entirely weather dependant and as we found the weather can change dramatically over the course of a few hours. 

It only took us 48 hours from Alesund to Lerwick, but in those 48 hours we had wind, rain, lightening, fog, flat calm and finally big waves.  In the midst of our crossing we went through an oil and gas rig field, with the rigs looming up out of the fog like alien beings!  It was an amazing sight when the fog cleared, the rain stopped and we could see rigs all around us!

The Shetland Islands welcomed us with much better weather, and we ended our passage by tacking all the way up to the harbour in flat water and sunshine.

On all our long passages, the main objective is to get to our destination in time.  Our guests  have trains to catch and jobs to get back to, we have Velvet Lady to look after and prepare for her next group. With an ear on the forecast and an eye to the distance we had left to travel we realised that we would have to push on south and try and round Cape Wrath before the arrival of a pending south westerly gale.  For 3 days the wind came and went, the log book reads, wind dying – bigger sails; wind increasing – reefed sails; wind easing – bigger sails; wind increasing – reefed sails; wind increasing more – very tiny sails and so on!

We changed our plan of heading to Stornaway and headed for the shelter of the Isle of Skye, here in a much flatter sea we sailed in the sunshine admiring the views.  With everyone tired from the watch system it was a great relief to anchor in Plockton.  With yet another gale warning in force, we spent a day here playing scrabble, reading and catching up on sleeping and eating. 

The weather and tide were in our favour for the last trip south, Plockton to Oban, under the Skye bridge, south through Kyle Rhea, and along the sound of Mull.  We finally arrived in Dunstaffnage marina, only to find blow of all blows that the pub was shut for a wedding!

After a quick dash to the local shop to stock up, we had our very own Welcome to Scotland party aboard Velvet Lady.  1091 miles for the log book and lots of experiences to think about in the future.

 
Velvet Lady approaching the harbour in Reine

We’ve just finished our final Lofoten islands trip for 2010, which was yet again amazing.  We had some great sunny weather, and a mix of good wind and calms giving us plenty of time to sail and explore our wonderful surroundings.  We swam, kayaked, walked, visited museums and galleries, and a few even ‘climbed up mountains.’ My idea of a walk is a half hour stroll to the pub,  three hardy guests had other ideas as they set off on what looked like quite reasonable routes on the map to discover they were strenuous 5 hour steep walks up mountains with detours around lakes!

After all these activities during the day the evenings were spent quietly either in small fishing villages or at anchor, which gave us time to fish and even have a bbq in the evening sunlight.  Not to be outdone by last weeks guests Andy set his hand to fishing many evenings and caught more cod than we could eat. 

Its hard to believe its all over and time to head south.  I am already looking at the charts and the weather and planning where to go on our passage.  The route takes us to more new and exciting places, further south down the Norwegian coastline, the Shetlands and the Orkneys before heading towards the Outer Hebrides and Scotland.  Lots to pack into 2 weeks and 1000 miles! 

So much to do, must dash!

Our Autumn programme is now filling up rapidly with only 1 space left on our Ocean Passage across Biscay and one space from the Med to Madeira, so book soon to avoid disappointment

Do you carry any fishing kit?

We are asked this question on a regular basis. The truth is although we do carry a rod and some hand lines together with a box of assorted fishing tackle neither Richard nor I have much of a clue of how to use it! We simply point people in the direction of the gear and suggest they have a go. We are quite happy to take advice from would be fishermen and over the past two years the contents of the box have grown. Many people have tried fishing here in the Lofoten Islands, but in all honesty without much expectation of catching anything large – what would we do with it if we did?

Luckily this week we had Lynn with us to help out when with shouts of delight David pulled in a large cod big enough to eat. Not quite big enough for 8 so we needed another. The next two were deemed by Lynn to be too small to catch and were returned to the sea, but the fourth fish out of the water was simply massive. So much so that we had to get a bucket underneath it to pull it out of the sea.

From the sea to the table in 2 hours – you cant have fresher cod than that and it was delicious.

Yet again the Lofoten Islands did not disappoint. We sailed 335 miles during this 10 days and made it to the northern side of the islands. Wild and isolated but surprisingly more green. We spent three nights alone in anchorages before heading south again to the pretty and busy town of Henningsvaer. It felt strange to see other people!

Yet again we managed to visit many new places, each with their own particular feel. We were lucky enough to see pilot whales on three occasions, and added to that we also saw a fantastic basking shark who swam under the boat, an otter and many birds and eagles.

The weather was kind, and encouraged swimming on many occasions – we even managed a BBQ on the deck one evening.

We are now preparing for our last 11 night sail around the Lofoten Islands, which is again fully booked and looking forward to returning here next year.  Our 2010 programme will be on line shortly

I worried a bit at the start of this trip, that after raving about last week in my blog I might have set the expectation level too high.  As the guests arrived it was clear they had all read and been enthused by last weeks events, and were looking forward to more of the same.

Luckily the Lofoten Islands didn’t disappoint.  We sailed 213 miles, and apart from the first day visited completely different harbours and anchorages to last week.  We drifted amongst a pod of long finned pilot whales – counting at least 40, watched birds catch fish that had been chased to the surface by the circling harbour porpoise, climbed a 384m hill to see the sun at midnight, anchored in a lush green cove amongst the skerries with a view of the sun at midnight from the boat, and spent hours with the bird book trying to identify the various types of birds around us.  Eagles, Oyster Catchers, Puffins, Guillemots and one as yet unidentified bird with a curved beak.

This was definitely an active week as we invented the ‘Arctic Triathalon’ , swimming from the stern in arctic waters, rowing to the white sandy beach in our anchorage and bog running around the edge of an inland lake!  The reward for finishing, enjoying a large Gin and Tonic on deck in the sunshine.  Dan swam all the way around the boat, and then caught 2 cod!

Not compulsory, although everyone took part in at least one of the activities. This group had come prepared with a good amount of duty free Gin, and our major concern was not running out of tonic.

The weather was brilliantly warm, and the sun shone most days.  Although the temperature was said to be 12 degrees on the forecasts, it felt more like 20 out in the sun. We spent most of the week in a high pressure so the wind was mainly light, but we still managed a top speed of 9 knots with Pauline at the helm on her first days sailing!

Cameras were clicking all week at the scenery and the nature, and I expect hours will be spent sorting through them.  I’ve just been looking at ours – too many to choose from for this weeks blog and so I have learnt how to make a collage!  Looking at the photos reminded me that this week I even went ashore in the dinghy to take a walk barefoot in the sand. Lovely!

I am running out of words really to describe the Lofoten Islands so have chosen some from our guests

Welcoming, safe, secure, helpful, superb, spectacular.  This week has given me memories that I shall cherish forever – the trip of a lifetime – WOW

A week of Wows

There aren’t enough adjectives to describe such wonders of nature

Thank you for introducing us to some of the most wondrous places on earth

How are you going to beat that!

The only way is by having more time, which is just what we have next week on our 11 night trip giving us the opportunity to sail to the northern and more rugged side of the Lofoten islands.We now only have 2 places left here in Norway before heading home, and these last 2 places are now discounted from £1200 to £950 see our website for details.

Dinner in the cockpit at 9pm arctic time! 

After 6 days sailing on our first Lofoten Islands trip Rich said ‘I like it here, I’m glad we came!’

I’m not surprised.  We sailed 240 miles, visited 10 picturesque harbours and anchorages, were chased by a pod of killer whales, watched majestic sea eagles soaring in the sky, anchored in tiny coves next to white sandy beaches, motored between towering cliffs down the majestic trollfjord, dined in the cockpit 3 evenings, watched the sun dip behind a hill just before midnight and enjoyed ourselves in the good company of our guests.

The weather makes any trip, and to be perfectly honest it was miserable on the day Liz and Dave joined.  The forecast suggested that there would be less rain on the Lofoten side of Vesteralen, and that the wind would veer round to the west, so it made sense to go for a long sail on the first day and get ourselves west to Reine.  Although it was dull, the rain held off and the wind was steady so we had a fast sail often reaching at 8 knots. 

We had a second fast sail the second morning to Nusfjord, a tiny pretty little place, nestled in a narrow fjord.  We tied alongside a 72’ ex challenge yacht now called Polar Bear, and discovered that I had taught the owner and the skipper to sail in 1991, what a small world.  Polar Bear used to be called Aviva, and is probably remembered as the boat that Dee Caffari sailed single handed around the world in 2002. 

It is always great to meet other yachtsmen and share knowledge.  I spent a long time talking to the guys from Polar Bear, who had also spent last season up north and they told me of a fantastic anchorage with sea eagles in Lille Molle.  We tried it later in the week  and they were right!

It was certainly the right decision to sail clockwise around the coastline.  The wind veered daily and allowed us to sail on a beam reach most of the time.  Our pattern became early breakfast, sail in the morning and stop mid afternoon. Walk ashore and explore a bit before  meandering amongst skerries to an evening anchorage.  Dinner was often quite late at 9pm, but still in bright sunshine.  After the first day, the skies cleared, the sun came out and we had temperatures in the 20’s.  The locals assure us that it does get even warmer. Whilst sitting in T shirts it is hard to believe we are in the Arctic although no one has been brave enough to swim yet; Rich and David went paddling to land the dinghy on a beach, bracing !

All of the places we visited were picturesque, but different, varying from tiny fishing villages nestled amongst high mountains on the Lofoten islands side to low islands with green pastoral fields and lots of trees the mainland side.  There is so much choice of where to go that deciding where to go is often the hardest part of the day.  Rich and I spend hours pouring over the charts and the pilot books looking for options, and then making final decisions based on the current wind and predicted wind to ensure best shelter. Although there are two pilot books in English, they are written for boats a bit smaller than us and often talk about anchorages that are only 2 m deep – not good when we need 2.4m, so we are also using the Norwegian equivalent of an Admiralty pilot book for big ships called Den Lorske Nos, it is a great book with chartlets and pictures, but is only in Norwegian, so our small dictionary is quickly becoming well thumbed.  Luckily the text is fairly repetitive as regards vocabulary for harbours, so it is not too tiresome.

We’re full for the next two trips, but still have 2 places left for the last Lofoten Islands trip.  Why not join us and enjoy a fantastic Arctic experience.  It really is spectacular.