16th June- Arriving in Norway-
We came to our first Norwegian islands at 12am after sailing all of the day and night before. It was an incredibly beautiful fjord with dark forests and pearly pink oysters shining on the rocks and funky sea weed that curls in floral patterns growing off of the rocks. The water is incredibly deep, sometime 300/400 metres and incredibly clean. There were also allot of Feuerquallen which have over a meter long tentacles which also made snorkelling a bit creepy…
Something I love is slowly seeing the landscape change as we go further north, especially after spending a year in the flatlands of North Germany. It´s really surprising how fast it seems to change, from the white cliffs in Denmark, to rocky Swedish islands with small oak forests, roses and nettles, and in Norway where the forest is full of pine and moss, bracken and heather very much like Scotland. The main difference is the wild blueberry bushes covering the ground like a green nest, and I may or may not have smuggled one to scotland for my grandfather…
It was very tempting to stay, it was warm and we could swim whenever we liked, climb through the rocks and trees and wait for the blueberries to ripen…. but we want to sail to Scotland before the summer storms, and Mila and Momo have a Flix-bus to catch on the 22nd, and so we tried to average 30 miles a day to get to Stravanger in time.
Solstice through the awning The sun rolls over yawning I plant a wild blueberry Cut my hair it was very short for the longest morning
The following morning we left our sweet green fjord with all its Feuerquallen and tiny starfish behind, sailing 21 miles south to another fjord that was full of motor boats, it was relatively shallow but we drove slowly and found a peaceful corner with tiny rocky islands. I made Foccacia (with not-so-fresh-yeast leftover from our dumpster dive in Sweden which defied all expectations and rose like a champion) which we ate in the sunshine between swimming to cool down. We had no idea Norway could be so warm and gorgeous!
Over the next five days we sailed 140 miles to Rekefjord.
There wasn’t much wind forecast for the week, so in order to keep moving forwards we had to leave as soon as any wind came, often early in the morning. The sun sets around 22:53 and rises at 4:30 which made the days feel very long and sleepy. We would take it in turns to lie below deck, or we´d bring the bedding out in the cockpit and listen to Douglas Adams audiobooks in the sun. On these long days we made Apfelringe, embroidered/repaired clothes, Niels crocheted a lampshade, we played Dix-It and listened to Norwegian music folk music and Aurora.
During this time we sailed around Cape Lindess- the most southern point in Norway- which was the hardest part of our journey so far. The wind was 5 Beaufort (20-28kmh) which is manageable, but not relaxed, and the waves were big and close together which really threw us around, and made steering difficult. Our sail also got caught while being pulled up after reefing, and ripped in two places, but we could repair these ourselves when we finally reached land after travelling 71.7 miles, 13hrs of sailing.
Now we were heading North again, it was colder and cloudier, and for the first time on our journey it rained- although not much- there are still forest fire warnings, and the land is incredibly dry. We climbed a hill that reminded me so much of Scotland it was hard to believe that it wasn´t, with its sheep, heather and misty pine forests. There was also wildflower meadows with rare flowers and orchids that we carefully walked through, making Mila incredibly excited.
In Rekkefjord we found a harbour in our “100 harbours in Norway” guide from 2004 -which thankfully still exists- which has bicycles you can take to town to get whatever you need, unfortunately they were the two worst bicycles in the world. Neither could change out of their gear to cycle up the mountain, and you couldn’t roll down once you got to the top as the chain would come off, so you had to pedal incredibly fast down the slope. Then we got a puncture and had to walk an hour Back. Niels did however get a gas adaptor (to refill our gas bottle) from some Germans in a campervan who were leaving Norway, and we met Rachel and Sam, two sweet cyclists who were on the same route we are sailing to Stravanger, but had cycled all the way from France!
By this point the wind was picking up and we weren’t up for sailing to Stravanger if it made our crew seasick, and Niels and I completely fertig. Mila and Momo could get a train from Egersundwhich was only 15 miles away from our anchorage, and afterwards we could sail to Stravanger in our own time, where we could wait for good wind to cross the North Sea.
These were the last days of Nirumimo. We had managed to get to Norway, only one of us having previous sailing experience, we had lived on the boat for a month with four people in one bed, sharing our tiny boat with two guitars, an accordion, 2 big backpacks, Ölzeug everywhere, boxes of rescued vegetables, and we loved almost every minuit.
Once we´d arrived in Egersund- a smelly little town with a big fishy factory- Mila and Momo packed, Niels tried to fry bananas, and Mila and I sang silly songs about our journey. We ate chocolate ice-cream and walked to the train station. Goodbyes are always hard, and as Niels and I walked back to the boat, we checked the supermarket bins to cheer ourselves up, with no luck.
The following day was our last chance to get LPG gas, so we cooked flatbreads, lentils and beans, successfully running out of gas in time to hitch, bottle in Rucksak, to Naerbo. A father and son picked us up on their way to their annual-family-solstice-fire, and it turns out the gas station we needed belongs to his nephew, of course! They were so friendly and spoke about politics in Norway, the English royal family, local farming, electric cars and most importantly “brown cheese” – they were horrified to find out that we hadn’t tried it yet. They proceeded to drive us to the supermarket to show us the cheese, and were offended when instead of buying the pre-sliced version, we opted for the block which “we could just cut with a knife” to which they explained “is a war crime in Norway”.
Over the next days we picked up and built in our new AIS, filled up the boat with fruit and vegetables from the bins in the indoor car park in Tanager which I can only recommend, and sailed 52.7 miles to Stravanger. We had a long list of little things to repair and prepare before crossing the North Sea as this was our last stop in Norway, and while Niels cycled around looking for hardware stores, I went looking for Norwegian jumpers.
Finally, on the 27th June, almost a month since leaving Germany, and 1 year and 1 month since I left the UK, we sailed out of the harbour and headed west to the Orkney Islands over the North sea, as my Vikings ancestors did just over a thousand years before, only with less conquer-ous intentions, and more bananas.
Denglish Dictionary:
Ankerplatz- Anchorage
Feuerquallen- Fire Jellyfish
Apfelringe- Apple rings
Fertig- Finished, in reference to feeling exhausted
Rucksak- Backpack
Ölzeug- Rain and sea proof sailing clothes
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