Kristiansand 58:08.60N 08:00.12E
6/7 July
A key requirement of the next few days is getting the engine
serviced by Volvo. Not that it really needs servicing or that we couldn't
do it ourselves, but it gets us a further year's warranty. This apparantly
simple task is harder to achieve than you would think. Everybody is about
to go on holiday in Norway, most of them by boat, and all the workshops are full.
However, after a long daisy chain of phone calls and cross references, I came
across Per who couldn't do it, but passed me on to Jon who might be able to arrange
something in Kristiansand, our planned destination for Monday. So we set
off a little later than usual (all those phone calls ) and had an interesting
sail/motor sail of around 50 nm. Part was inside the outer islands and
narrow, tricky to sail and quite busy. Part was in the Skagerrak proper
in 20-25 knots of wind on the nose and a decent swell - and not surprisingly
uncrowded. But we made it and I at least was smiling.
Kristiansand is a largish city by Norwegian standards but
with a small compact centre and a fine guest harbour next to the old fort.
We tied up to a sister HR342 (3 months older) and opposite an HR37. A
third HR342 arrived on Tuesday morning - meaning 1.5% of all HR342's ever built
were tied up within 20 yards of each other. We all congratulated each
other on an excellent choice of boat (in the rather self-satisfied style that
all HR owners quickly adopt).
Tuesday was spent wandering around town, waiting for Volvo,
restocking, fixing a few things and generally relaxing. Volvo never
showed, but I have a firm commitment from the engineer personally to an 8am
visit on Wednesday (they come to us) and with a bit of luck we will be sailing
and heading south by 10. Like almost all Norwegian towns, Kristiansand has
an active fishing fleet, which means a fish market and great seafood.
Lunch was fresh crayfish and dinner a fish stew, with smoked mackerel for lunch
tomorrow and our first taste of Norwegian fish cakes (award winning ones at that)
for dinner tomorrow. Right by the fish market is area of cafes and
restaurants. As you will see from the photos below, the credit crunch is
clearing affecting the accounting trade badly in Kristiansand and both Ernst
& Young and PwC now appear to have moved into the restaurant business.
