Off to Henan on the north coast of Orust today.  As we filled up with diesel and water before departure we were told that this would be a beautiful trip, and 'much better than yesterday', which was difficult to imagine frankly. We also chatted to some more admirers of the boat, which was nice, and then off for what turned out to be another outstanding day.

 

The channel between Orust and the mainland , on a clear sunny day like today, was simply breathtaking. It is a combination of wide channels, much like big lakes, then very narrow stretches where you can almost touch the rocks on each side. Couple all this with a good Force 4 for most of the day, pushing us in the right direction and you have sailing Nirvana. On such a clear day, with all the electronic toys the navigation is hardly complex, but it is certainly interesting as we plotted courses via numerous beacons and bouys.

 

Steve wanted to check out the radar, and so we fired it up ( on a bright clerar day....). However, there is method in this madness, since it helps a lot to be able to see what your radar sees when training. Great fun painting the yacht a half mile in fron as target 1 and the one half a mile behind as target 2, and then adjust our speed to try and keep us in the middle with little relative speed to either, to stop the radar alarm sounding to tell us of a converging target ahead or astern. Probably not what Raymarine had in mind when they developed their MARPA software in the radar, but good fun nevertheless.

 

Arrival into Henan was problem free and we have a view from the deck house looking straight down the fjord, as the sky starts to turn pink and purple towards sunset. Boaties might also be interested to learn that we are surrounded by Najad yachts, and seem to be next to their repair and service yard, so we are certainly in classy company here. The theme will continue tomorrow as we should pass the Hallberg Rassey yard on our way to Lysekil, past many more islands.

 

 

We did a lot of sailing withgybe  preventer, and pole for the genoa and took pride in passing various other boats with the red ensign flying ! We all agreed that this was a perfect day. 

 

Problem in attaching pictures today, so will try and catch up with some tomorrow.