Rossmorkvågen og Nord Talgje 59:13.75N
05:48.16E
10/11 July
We went to sleep in Egersund not knowing whether we would
make it to the Stavanger area on Friday. I'd downloaded GRIB files (wind forecasts) and there were some
serious gales brewing in the North Sea which could have turned our 15-20 kts
into 30+ on Norway's longest bolthole free,
lee shore. So it was up at 5.30am to get the latest GRIB files -
which still looked ok until noon and then a quick
6am departure, motoring round north Egersund.
Early morning -
Egersund
Fortunately this section of fronts moved a little slower
than forecast and whilst the swell was up to 2m, the wind stayed mainly around
5-10 kts and we made pretty good progress. As forecast things got a
little livelier in the afternoon, but by then we were back inside the
protecting skærgård (small islands), which kept the swell down. Again the winds were up in the 25-30kt
(Force 6-7) range and what swell we had was right on the beam.
Our plan was the meet up with friends Jack & Jocelyn in
their new HR40 'Windleblo' as our Viennese friends Martin & Dawn had joined
them for a few days on Friday (this represents
4 out of 6 of the crew of Mahina Tiare that sailed from Oban to Ellös last
summer). Off Tanager we exchanged text messages and set sail for
Nord-Talgje where they were heading to a recommended anchorage. Brisk
conditions but got there 40 minutes or so after them to find an amazingly
beautiful and well sheltered (still NW gale warnings for the night) anchorage -
but with a very tricky entrance, made more difficult by the lack of some key
depth contours on our electronic charts. Unfortunately at the key
decision point we went the obvious (but wrong) way and it suddenly got alarming
shallow -and then we were aground! Not fun, but after a few moments of
panic, a good blast with the engine combined with bow thruster saw us clear and
we edged gingerly into the cove.
Jack had buoyed his anchor, so we set ours and then rafted
the 2 boats together. It really is very tight in here and rafting up was
a harder manoeuvre than it would normally have been, but gives us a nice stable
platform, with 2 big anchors down and a very restricted swing - all comforting
given the available space. Jack dived down
to look at our keel - all fine - and make sure the
anchors were well set, and then it was a welcome beer, dinner on Windleblo and
after the early start and 67 nm of sailing, a much needed good night's sleep.
Swallow and Windleblo
Whilst the weather today (Sat) is great sailing weather -
light breeze and blue skies - we decided to spend a second night here and have
been ashore for much of the day, exploring our end of Nord-Talgje, which is a
nature reserve with lovelu coastal trails and walking to the small village at
the other end of the island. We hosted dinner - 6 round the saloon table
is a very easy fit - and the last of our Swedish meatballs were much
appreciated.
