63 07.07 N, 07 43.98 E

 

James took over just before midnight BST to find that the wind had filled in and he had a constant beam reach under the moon until 3 am when Fe took over again. Every single fishing boat then appeared in the channel giving her the chance to revise her ships lights and signals.

 

The wind increased to a decent F 5 (no gusts) still on a beam reach. We were in Krakvegfjord as planned at the break of day. There was just one unlit islet giving cause for concern (as well as a fisherman who was either not on deck or just gave way to nothing).

 

James took over at this point and motor sailed down the narrow channel between the isle of Hitra and the shore. The hills here are

rounded and flatter and more heavy industry is apparent with a gas works on one hand and a massive wind farm on the other. The promised gales did not materialise yet; wind strength remaining only F4 from ENE all morning - hardly the southerly gale forecast.

 

Nonetheless the forecast was adamant that strong Southerlies veering to Westerly were imminent, with wave heights of 5 to 7 meters. A 7 metre wave needs explaining: if a breaking wave is higher than the beam of the boat it will roll the boat, and our beam is 4m. This is actually serious, not just uncomfortable. We also calculated the distance and time to Inverness and realised we’d not make it until Sunday night, and if either of us were not back by Monday we’d probably be sacked. So reluctantly we decided to put into Kristiansund: only 300 miles from Scotland, so we’ve at least broken the back of the 1400 mile journey back from Svalbard, and seen a lot of Norway into the bargain.

 

Next morning it was clearer that we’d made a prudent decision as the barometer had fallen 15 millibars over night, the wind had picked up and it was raining hard.