Towards Stavanger
Matilda, Ulf and I left Kristiansand on July 15 and headed for Stavanger to start our passage across the North Sea . It took a day longer than planned,, We made two anchorages on the way, one outside Flekkefjord and one a little further north. The one at Flekkefjord was super nice, completely protected in a very beautiful bay.
Thursday 18 July we arrived in Stavanger and on Friday Roger joined us for the passage across the North Sea and further. We explored the town and took the opportunity to visit the Oil Museum. For those of you who haven't seen the Norwegian series Lykkelandet on SVT a while ago, do so if you can. Very good historical drama series!
Stavanger, a lovely city
The three of us happy and full of anticipation
Over the North Sea
Saturday promised 25 degrees and sunny weather as well as moderate winds in the right direction across the North Sea. this will be a piece of cake, we thought. Huh! The sea became very rough after just an hour or so, sto the extent that only Ulf could steer in the beginning. To top it off, we haven't got the autopilot to work yet, so we had to hand steer the whole way, 219 nautical miles. Of course, we had worked out a watch schedule, but seasickness and our lack of ability to take over the wheel for longer periods of time put a lot of pressure on Ulf, with the consequence that he didn't get much sleep. In the end we just had to make it, it went OK but the waves being between three and four meters made it very difficult to steer and we (all but Ulf) couldn't last long. The first 35 hours we had good speed, though, 9-10 knots and on two occasions even 14 knots! Then the wind dropped and at the same time the engine chose to stop.. We then had wind of possibly 3 m/s in the nose and without an engine the last 50 nautical miles took forever. In total the passage took 50 hours.
Towed by Lerwicks sead pilot
As we could not use the engine we needed towing assistance into Lerwick harbour, where we arrived at 2.30pm. We were so well taken care of and everything went super smoothly. The pilot boat had just helped a large cargo ship out of the canal and was able to directly take care of us.
Tired, cold but happy
The feeling of finally arriving at port and looking forward to a nice hot meal ....and the disappointment when you realize that on Mondays almost no restaurants are open and if they are open you should made a reservation (not really our focus during the crossing 😁). But we finally got a seat at the C'est la vie restaurant and had the the most wonderful meal you can imagine. Both because we were so hungry and because the food was truly fantastic. And then, going to bed, knowing you culd actually sleep all night and more, was just heaven! Even though everything was damp. Sheets, blankets, pillows. Who caresd we slept like babies anyway. The feeling of having completed the challenge and now being able to eat and rest was worth everything.
In addition to that, we have been rewarded with wonderfully nice, sunny days here in Shetland!
Motor fix and sightseeing
As Lerwick is also an industrial port there is good help to be had. Today we have an engine guy on the boat who sorted out our diesel problems which should now hopefully be resolved.
Today we rented a car and went sightseeing. Shetland is so beautiful! See here
This is the view when we came into port
Lerwick city
Lerwick city
Dramatic nature, very nice with an excursion by car
There were many of these around 😍
This is how clear the water was inside the town (the town has 7,000 inhabitants)
Fish & chips at Frankie's
We ate lovely fish & chips at Frankie's. We could see why it is so popular - gigantic portions of delicious fish.
Look at these big, lovely chunks of fish!
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