Preparing for six months on the hard in high latitude winters

 October 15th - October 20th Orkanger

With lift out planned for the 17th the afternoons was spent preparing the boat for winter.

To avoid close contacts I chose to try to take down and fold the sails alone. I store the sails at a sail loft in Trondheim so the folding don't need better than to get them to fit in the sailbags. Luckily the dock was dry. But finish in the darkness.

Through the week more and more of the boats that was to be lifted out together showed up. Unfortunately at least one of the boats was to deep and bottomed out in the low tide. I also winterised the engine and emptied the freshwater while in the water this time. 

The lift out went well, albeit wet, cold and fairly windy. We amateur load handlers made up of a ragtag tema of sailors had a couple of near misses when hanging boats swung a little to close to other boats for comfort. But no damage was made.

Sunday (18th) the weather got better. And I could have last short moment of cockpit, though the benches was wet. My nephew and his girlfriend came and helped me getting a tarpaulin cover to try to protect the teak from most of the expected maybe 1 m of snow at some time during the winter. I also tried to secure the halyards to avoid them banging against the mast in the upcoming gales and storms. Neither the cover or the securing of the halyards was entirely successful - but everything survived the winter. 

Not much snow yet on December 26th

I keep all cushions and most other textiles in the boat over winter. I  place som moisture traps and close the down completely, trying to avoid any exchange with the outside air. I believe this is against all recommendations (ventilate well and store textiles in heated rooms). I have done it this way all seven winters I've had the boat without any problems.  Here the high latitudes and stable low winter temperatures actually is helping, mold doesn't grow much below 7ºC.

Thanks for a nice but somewhat distanced season.

Final sail of 2020

 October 7th - 11th    Brekstad - Orkanger

I took the car from my home outside Oslo and the 500 km up to Orkanger where the boat is going up on the hard.

On the way there I took a detour through a fall covered and as ever spectacular Romsdal. I even stoppet at Verma and made a short walk down to a view over Kylling bridge. 

The weather was a little too gloomy for me to fully admire the sharp peaks in Romsdalen and here in Eikesdalen. 

Around Eresfjord somebody had made a sort of art installation by placing brightly painted bikes around the landscape. I'm a little unsure to the need since this i a very pretty part of the world bikes or not, especially in fall colours. 

After spending a couple of days at my parents I took the high speed ferry out to prepare for the last sail of the season. This was also the only trip on this first corona year that I had a visitor on board since my sister joined. 

In a grey and sometimes rainy weather the trip was fairly on spectacular, but it is always nice having company so it became quite enjoyable anyhow. We even got some downwind sailing before the wind again wained. And by then the strange sailing season of 2020 came to an end. 1163 nm miles sailed (to be honest - mostly motored) and 86 nights spent a board. The latter thought,  not bad for a weekend boat spending 6 month of the year on the hard, is mainly due to the stay at home corona restrictions allowing for doing my office work from the boat.

A grey end to a grey stay

 September 12th - 14th Stadsbygd - Brekstad

I do not often adapt my sailing to the tides, less than I should probably since it might cost my lots of diesel. But a local told that there were a sandbar just outside the marina entrance that might be a little high for me to pass on low tide.

From the  sea the fog bell doesn't look quite as quaint as in the evening light yesterday.

In the morning there where still some traces of the sun left, on what turned out to be a grey and later wet weekend. 

Out towards the sea the weather on the end of my trip seemed nicer - for a little while at least.

Fog bells and traktors

 September 11th    Trondheim - Stadsbygd (Sandbakken marina)

Short motor after work today.

Before I left Trondheim we got a short stopover from a new built traditional jekt.

Got another nice evening. At least on pictures - there where a couple of quite hefty showers - but in between sights like this appeared.

In the evening light the fog bell at Rødberg became even more worth the short walk from the marina. The fog bell is built after standard drawing and is of the same type as the other 4 preserved fog bells in Norway (all in the Oslofjord). It was erected in 1919 and retired in 1986. Radard and chart plotters has made this kind of navigational aids obsolete.

On my short walk this old Volvo. Its said that the only thing that prevents most Volvos from being classified as traktors is that they lack the ability to apply brakes on one side only. This is a real traktor though.

To Trondheim and a real office (for some days)

September 7th - september 10th    Orkanger - Trondheim

I continued my trip in the fjord to Trondheim. No wind yet so it became a wet and grey motor.

During the week the wind and bad weather showed so the choice to "cruise" the more protected waters in the fjord was not wrong. After the first day with boat office in Trondheim, one of my colleagues here convinced me that it was ok for me to sit at our office here. Thus I got three workdays at a real office - with the exception for a day of meetings in June this was the first day at a real office since March 7th.

With the guest harbour at Skansen being neighbours to the sail club I got to admire the forest of masts every time a break in the weather occurred.

Sometimes well laid plans fails and adapting becomes key - a.k.a an in season visit to Orkanger

 September 3rd - september 6th    Brekstad - Orkanger

I had made this scheme to get two sailing weekends and stay in one of the idyllic outlying villages in the week between having yet another week of home office in the boat.

I flew up on Wednesday before the first weekend. To offset the losses the corona restrictions places on the full commercial route between Oslo and Brekstad the authorities has allowed the airline to merge it with the subsidised route between Oslo and Røros, and thus compensation sort of can cover both. For us going to Brekstad this means a stopover at the UNESCO World Heritage mining town of Røros.

Or at least lets us admire it from above.

However my scheme failed - the forecasted weather did not invite to spend the week out in the islands, exposed to the weather. Thus I decided to go into the fjord to get more protection. Start with spending the weekend with my parents and later in the week to go somewhere else in the fjord. 

Despite the high wind forecasted later in the week there where to little of it to propel the boat at any speed  Saturday (the 5th). But I was treated at least to a double rainbow on my way in the fjord, passing Rissa.

And a torrential rain and hail shower just as I was arriving at Orkanger.

According to the county conservator the wooden cityscape of Nerøra on Orkanger is after Røros the most important concentration wooden houses in Trøndelag. 

The name Orkanger only is from 1920 the town it self can be traced many centuries back. The large flod of 1789 (Storofsen) swept the entire town out into the fjord so that all building in the wooden town today is younger than that. If you expand the area considered further south than what we locals would say is Nerøra the building of wooden town of Orkanger covers the entire period since then. Nerøra as such mainly consist of building from the 19th and the first decades of the 20th century.

Back in my school days, the primary and secondary school had two classes that mainly was geographically divided. I'm form the other part of town, and as I remember we didn't mix much with kids from the other class. Thus in my youth I rarely ventured down to Nerøra.  So despite having grown up close to this gem I was oblivious to its charm and conservatorial value until just a few years ago. 

 August 16th - august 19th Stokksund - Brekstad

With a ticket to go home booked for the 19th this time in the boat was definitively almost over and it was time to make the final stage to the home port. 

There is something tangible in passing Kjeungskjær lighthouse, the trip is either really starting or really ending. For me it is also the prettiest lighthouse. And for most foreigners (and many Norwegians a tongue twister). 

Just after I rounded the southernmost point of this summers tour at 63º37,76´N I met this couple out fishing the old fashioned rowing way.

Even after a long one and a half month and 793 nm of summer sailing there still was pretty sunsets to be had.

The two workdays spent in Brekstad was (beside working my paid job) being spent franticly chasing face masks that by now had been obligatory on airplanes even in Norway. And trying to tidy the boat and make it ready for managing on its on for a month or more. In the end I got masks and was allowed onboard the Megagripen airplane (SAAB 2000).

Tacking the summer holiday out

 August 9th - 15th    Bessaker - Kuringvågen, Stokksund

For the last day of the summer holiday I was decided on sailing at any cost. In the beginning of the sail the wind was blowing from where I had to go. The waters here was also fairly confined so there had to be a lot of tacking involved. And on several of the tacks I was almost on the rocks before tacking.

From the moring (well noon) the wind was strong enough for me to reef the main a little.

Luckily no ships that I would have had to yield to appeared on the narrow parts.

However at a safe distance I met Statsnets M/S Elektron II transporting a road transport transformer carrier with a transformer. Elektron II loads its heavy rolling load through a bow gate and ramp like a WWII LST.

I ended my summer holiday at Kuringvågen. On Monday August 10th I was back at the boat office. I spent the first fall work week there in Teams meetings, answering mails and even trying to produce some meaningful text or documents. After work hours i took the kayak for a spin on several of the days staying there.

The wind farm on Hardbak fjellet that only had the towers when I was here in May was no finished, even if hidden in the fog here.

A knitted boat - does that really work?

 August 8th Vingsand - Løaholmen, Bessaker

The one day nice, the next day windy and rainy, or at least overcast that has been running since Bodø was continuing. To day the forecast warned for gale and rain from the afternoon. So this became a short jump under engine down to the boatclub at Løaholmen in Bessaker.

I was planning on trying my hands on making muffins in the boat and lacked a few ingredients so I had to take the bike a few kilometres to the bay where the grocery shop, with the oldfasioned name E. Hopstads Enke (E. Hopstads widow). Since the weather was nice I cycled in shorts and t-shirt. But just before arriving the gates of heaven opened and I arrived in the shop in a state of wetness usually only seen in the water or shower. For the trip back to the boat I took out the raincoat that I had in the backpack.

There obviously are a scare of this boat getting cold, why else knit a sweater. The sails are also knitted, I'm curious to how this contraption sails. 

First little sign of the coming autumn - or being further south

 August 7th    Ottersøy - Vingsand

As I already was at the eastern of the strait I chose to take the secondary route on the eastern side of Nærøy. In the northern end there is a power cable and a bridge that according to the chart is 16 m high. 

The top of my VHF antenna is 16,6 m high. Even if the tide was more than 2 m below the chart datum for overhead objects  the passages was made at very low speed and at the highest possible point. Especially the power cable was scary, even if much higher than the bridge in reality.

The crossing of the open to the Atlantic stretch Folla was made in no wind and clear skies.

Near to the end of Folla i passed close to the island of Villa. On Villa what was probably the last built coal fired lighthouse in the world was finished in 1839. It was rebuilt to burn liquid fuel in 1859 and decommissioned totally in 1890. The tower was still used as a lookout for the pilots living in the old lighthouse station. The last pilot left the island in 1946 after which the lighthouse fell into disrepair. Local enthusiasts has since 1976 brought the lighthouse back to its former glory. And as it stands today it is probably the best preserved coal fired lighthouse in the world.

After I passed Villa a boat under sail appeared from west. And even if I claim to have an underdeveloped eagerness to compete. This time the old saying of two sailboats going in the same direction always becoming a race was true. I set sail and the race was on - I lost in the end, and to a boat that should have been slower.

Being in august and this far south nights has become dark. Giving the opportunity to mix light from the sunset with artificial lights in images and real life. As much as I enjoy the light norther nights this also has its charm.

Leaving Nordland is nothing to record

 August 6th    Berg - Ottersøy

Grey, partly rainy head wind and waves trip under motor today. Strangely enough I didn't take any pictures.

Since I knew that the pontoons at Ottersøy has rings and not cleats I prepared the Hook and Moor stick and docking was thus no problem even if I could not use my normal lassoing technique for securing the first important line.

Sailing the narrow straits of Brønnøysund

 August 5th    Hommelstø - Berg i Sømna

The weather showed again its nice side. Breakfast was enjoyed underway in a dead flat fjord. 

At the mouth of the fjord the wind filled in and sails could be set. Direction and windspeed gave me the curate to sail through the narrow and often busy straits through Brønnøysund (all my previous passages had been under motor). Down Tilremsfjorden wind pushed the speed above 5 knots most of the time. In the narrows the speed limit is 5 knots and since I was uncertain on how the land would blanket and funnel the wind I chose to reef the main a little.

There where no noticeable funnelling effect, but much blanketing so I raced through the straits in a whopping 2-3 knots. 

The final narrow strait was mor upwind than the others and there where some bending of the wind so I had to start tacking, and in the end help with the engine for some minutes.

At Berg I was treated to the seasons last spectacular Nordland sunset, and pizza at Klakkskjæret Pub.