The 28 June was yet another glorious day, with good F3 and F4 SW winds forecast, which was perfect for our trip up to Hanko  ( ( 59:12.5N, 010:47E ), Oslo Fjord. We had received some good advice from a neighbouring boat in Stromstad, and were able to plan an interesting routing along the inside of the Norwegian Hvaller islands, and then out into Oslo Fjord for the final leg into Hanko.

 

This turned out to be one of the best days sailing of the trip, with us being able to sail most of the 30 mile route, in fantatstic weather. Navigation was intricate for most of the day, with several abrupt changes of direction to weave through the only sequence of channels not blocked by low bridges, and dodging the rocks. We were also now well into the unique Norwegian marks, posts and beacons....the chart plotter helpfully describes these as 'conforming to no system', which about sums them up. However, once you get used to them they are logical enough, and some have been around since the vikings. The bigger issue is that they don't put them on every rock.....I am still not sure what qualifies a rock to have a post, while its neighbour lurks ready to catch you out. We also concluded that Norwegians are blessed wqith 20/20 vision....why else would they use thin black posts to mark hazards....it is easy to miss the posts or suddenly see them alarmingly close.

 

As we came out into the entrances to Oslo Fjord we had some great sailing in modest swell, with an almost perfect beam reach, and spray flying in the sunshine. It was about then that we suddenly fouind ourselves near the downwind mark of sailing race for 40 to 50 foot yachts with full crews. We had been watching them for a while and were by this time on a run with the genoa poled out on our approach to Hanko. We were too busy admiring the spectacle to notice that we were approaching a large yellow bouy with a race committee boat nearby. A 50 foot race boat with spinnaker flying goes rather faster than Moondog, and we finally realised that we were heading for the same bit of water. Some hasty course changing and sail trimming got us out of the way, but close enough to hear the normal screaming and shouting as spinnakers fell in the water and boats got too close to each other at the mark. We definitely saw one hit the mark and not do a penalty 360 degree turn, but we will leave that to the crew's conscience....

 

The approach up a narrow sound to the Hanko sailing club was very nice and we then stooged around for a while to find the gust harbour, and tied up in a very quiet little bay next to the rather grand sailing club. A great day's sail.