Mountain with a hole

May 20th Brønnøysund   

The hatlike mountain with the hole through is one of the most striking geological formations in Norway as well as one of the most visited attractions. Even if I´ve been there before I thought it would be well worth a second trip, especially in really nice weather. And of course the trip got microscopical more expedition like since I hade to pedal my collapsible bike to the foot of the climb and back.

According to a fairly official website it is 18 km from Brønnøysund and a 250 m climb when you get there. The trip meter on my smartwatch had it at 13 km and 110 m climb.

The tunnel is around 160 m long 25-35 m high and 12-15 m wide.

The hole of tunnel is formed at the end of an ice age when sea levels was higher than today. Waves in combination with frost weathering worked on a weaker part of the rock and over time hollowed out caves from both ens of the mountain. Eventually the caves met and formed a tunnel.

Sources are unclear on when the hole was formed. Most just states an ice age and a few points to the last. However the official maps of the maximum height of the sea after the last ice age (important level to chart to be able predict quick clay areas with high risk of deadly landsides) has the hole above the level of the sea indicating that the hole is from an older ice age. 

At the foot of the climb an information sign told that it is possible to go around the mountain by foot or bike so I did.

New life to lost (almost) fishing village

 May 19th Rørvik to Brønnøysund

Between Rørvik and Brønnøysund on the route I usually have chosen you pass through the old fishing village Risværet. Risværet was once a thriving society and was for some periods the leading town in the area. It had a school and a prison. It's said that the school was the smallest in Norway. 

As with many other similar society the transition from sails to engines led to the demise of the society. The last person left in the 1960. When I passed for the first time on 2018 only two houses, or skeletons of houses, was barely standing. 

When browsing the net while passing  in 2018 og 2019 I saw that somebody had bought the former village with the intention to rebuild it in some form or other - dreamer I thought.

But then southbound last year construction work was ongoing on the main island. And this year newly renovated or rebuilt buildings had reappeared. And more work was ongoing.

So for coming years progress for the renovations will give a new interesting side show for this part of any passage.

As for this days trip this was sort of the exciting point even if the landscape even on this gray day in most other countries is really exciting.

Summer is coming - the North is calling

 May 16th - 18th Kongensvoll - Stokksund - Rørvik

While my touring friends had to turn their bows towards Trondheim I still have a week left on my spring mini holiday. So here I am leaving for the north on may 16th.

If the first day in to be a sign on what to expect for the next months I probably is going to regret the endeavor altogether. Even if the weather wasn't that bad it was damp, windless and coldish. But at the end of the day I arrived at Kuringen marina in Stokksund. Got connected to shore power to warm the boat up - I didn't mention that the heater isn't working did I.

I did take a walk and got a glimpse of the ships being broken up at the salvage yard at Fosen Gjennvinning. 

May 17th the big National day of Norway celebrating the 207th anniversary of the signing of our constitution. Normally this is a big celebration with parades in all cities, towns or any other kind of community that can gather more a few heads. But this year very little of the traditional celebration was possible since we are not allowed to gather outside our own little group - of cohort as the authorities calls it. I woke early and decided to leave really early to have options if the wind would pick up more than forecasted during the day. 

 As I left the dock the grey sky from yesterday was starting to clear and the much debated windmills atop of Hardbaksfjellet was starting to show through the grey.

A little further on a orange glow of the sunrise started to appear.

And before I was ready for breakfast genuine National day weather appeared.

At Buholmråsa I decided to make the day a long one and continue over Folla to Rørvik. Th infamous Folla started mirror flat but after a while the wind as forecasted did pick up and I could set the sails. 

The wind picked up slowly and kept turning more and more into headwind. So what started as a reach ended up with me tacking and with a reefed main.

I'm not very fond of the marina at Rørvik it is always full of badly docked boats and it is always blowing a tricky wind from the north making maneuvering in the cramped port difficult. Today I learned that it seems like it is blowing this 3-5 m/s northerly here whatever the wind is doing outside of the harbour. (the next day I learned that it is possible to get a tricky southerly in the port as well. 

After docking the sailing garb was quickly discarded and I found my best shirt, a tie and a suit jacket and went to a restaurant to at least make a little celebration of the big day.

Spring tour 2021 part 2

 May 14th - 16th Knarrlagsund - Hellandsjøen - Kongensvoll

The spring tour continued with a downwind leg to Hellandsjøen. 

The light wind from the rear starboard quarter gave ample time to hoist and use the genakker. Even though I had the sail mounted backwards and needed help from S/Y Elanthea to get it to fly when doing a really board reach in the end - I still kept up with the fleet.

Well most of it.

The last part into Hellandsjøen is twisty and quite narrow som I replaced the genakker with the jib as its easier to handle. But still most boats sailed almost to the dock.

At Hellabndsjøen the local pub found its ols barbecue barrel and let us us that and provided wine and bear for this so inclined.

And as a last treat we got magic light at the end of the day/early night.

Next leg was back up Trondheimsleia to Kongensvoll. Today this meant tacking upwind. Most boats waited until they where out of the narrow parts and out in Trondheimsleia to hoist their sails, but the other Hanse S/Y Jan Himp and me sailed out made much easier with our selftackers.

Even with one reef in the main I managed to keep up with some of the boats, but the wind coming from over the terrain on land was fluky at times so for several of the boats keeping around the same speed as me luck was probably more important than skills in deciding who came first the the dock.

You don't get the same easy view of the sunset form Kongensvoll but a short walk along the road offered prima vistas. It was raining to and from so I doubt that I would have taken the walk if it hadn't been for us having a exercising campaign at work - but that's often what's needed and this evening the payback was real and direct.

Spring tour 2021 part 1

 May 11th - May 13th Brekstad - Sivertsvika - Knarrlagsund

With the upcoming Ascension weekend it was time to sail to Sivertsvik marina to see if any other sailboats appeared there. 

To my knowledge no announcement was made about any organized tour, but anyhow 20 boats showed up - a lot for a tiny marina.

Myself ended up on the outside of S/Y Elanthea at a spot that was a little to shallow. It turned out that on low tide my rudder was into the bottom mud. By adjusting the boat forward and pulling the stern as much in as possible we managed to get her floating.

On the morning walk in the former Hysnes fort I met this shy guy. From Sivertsvik we sailed to Knarrlagsund. Even if several of us tried to sail from start there where to little wind to get any progress. But around half way somewhere between Garten and Agdenes the wind picked up and we could sail on a close reach in around 7 m/s. Good sailingsconditions form my Hanse and I maxed out at 8.5 knots. Some of us met for a nice dinner (mussels for me please) at the restaurant.

Time to leave the winter behind

April 25th - April 30th Orkanger - Brekstad 

On April 28th the most important items was checked of the to do list and Rulten (and I) was ready to leave the rainy Orkanger behind with hopes for brighter conditions on the coast.

With temperatures on the rather chilly side I had to pack my already significant body into quite a bulk of clothing to stay warm.

As it was weather got brighter further out the fjord.

After lunch on the day of departure from Orkanger (the 28th of April) the boat officially became my main office for the coming months, but the two days at Brekstad became the first full days. 

In the evening after work I got this kind of views - the ferry dock in the background doesn't look industrial at all with a sailing ship through the sunset.

Even the bathroom run in the morning became something quite nice.

The sailing ship Motig was originally a diesel motored fishing boat built by Gjert Eidesvik Skipsbyggeri in Rosendal in Hardanger in 1930. The boat was this first boat the legendary Leif (Shetlands) Larsen crossed the North Sea with bringing himself and others wanted by the Germans to safety to Lerwick on Shetland in February of 1941. Actually Larsen and his gang came to Turøy in the Bergen archipelago in a small motorboat not suited for crossing the North Sea in winter so they in essence stole the boat for the crossing. After the war Motig was returned to its owners and continued fishing for the next decades. In 2006 the boat was purchased by Harald Krogstad in Trondheim who rebuilt her as a sailing cutter and brought her to the pretty state she is at now.

On the hard (winter of 2020-2021)

October 21st 2020 - April 25th 2021 Orkanger

This winter leaving the boat a long way from home felt even more sketchy than normal. Would the corona restrictions hinder me in any way to come to the boat when needed. In the end most things went well. The one restriction that stopped me from more visits was the general request to avoid unessential travels. To be honest not being able to visit my parent as often as I would have liked, hurt more than not being able to confirm that the boat is ok. 

I ended up with Christmas and Easter/spring boat work/launching day. But since nothing got damaged besides several bungee cords securing getting broken or lost their elastics. Thus my plan to avoid halyards slamming the mast - making noise didn't work as planned and the cockpit didn't work as well as it should have. 

Due to the work from "home" order I chose to go to Orkanger a week earlier than for a normal Easter holiday. One of the aims was to get more boat work done. Before launch.

But many of the extra (and ordinary) days was like this. In the end we, the boat owners that was to launch together, decided to postpone the launching with a week to at least get some decent weather for boat work. 

And some nice evenings to enjoy the surroundings.

(Luckily the noise of the industries and commercial port on either side of the marina doesn't show in images)

In the end though launch day came and everything that wasn't done has to be done with the boat in the water. Weather on launch day morning was not ideal - it had snowed during the night so first item on the to do list was to clear snow from the boat.

Since the dock was covered in 5-10 cm of snow I got the idea to drive up to my parents and borrow their snow shovel and clear the dock before eager (or panicked) boaters where run around with their boats swinging through the air.

Weather improved and before all boats was launched all snow was gone.

With all boats in the water there where a mess of stands and other items left on shore that had to be tidied before the boating season could start proper. I also had to launch my dingy that I store inflated under the boat during winter.