Our position is 58:21.195N 11:13.429E

Distance covered 25.3 Nm

The wind had dropped away to practically nothing and was blowing from the North as we set off to make more progress up the Skaggerak, threading our way among the rocks. At least we had a helpful current and before long we were trying to work out where the entrance was to the harbour at Smogen. We had been alarmed by the sight of a bridge, seemingly on our track, but it turned out to be beyond the harbour entrance. Smogen is a long inlet with mooring on both sides, but we chose the North side, nearer to the town. Jumping ashore to tie up was slightly hampered by the fact that we ended up on a portion of the wall already bearing a rescue ladder and lifebelt, an information sign, a stack of power outlets and a bin, but after embracing the sign and the power outlets I managed to disentangle the warps and secure us to the land.

    Goodbye to Astol

From a distance we were unsure what this depicted but it seemed to be a fish, no doubt a reflection on how so many make their living

   Still some evidence of the strong winds on the waves on the rocky shores

  Approaching Smogen

  Tied up in spite of the dockside clutter

We were soon chatting to CA members Phyllis and Roger, who had been sailing in the area for many years, and were there with their Nimbus motor cruiser.  They were able to share their wealth of information with us before we dragged ourselves away to explore the town and find the harbourmaster. The harbourmaster proved extremely elusive but turned up much later in the evening with the toilet code and also some wifi codes (3 lasting 1hr each). Unfortunately these proved rather erratic and very prone to cutting off.

The harbour front had several lively restaurants and the walk round the town went up to a viewpoint above the harbour. There were a few shops, mostly selling beach equipment, but we were able to buy some milk at a bakery when the “milk” we thought we had bought in Astol turned out to be some form of runny yoghurt.

  The main square

Typical narrow streets, houses built rather higgledy, piggledy where there is a flattish surface

    Looking down on the inner end of the harbour

Unfortunately our plan to shower in the morning was foiled by the fact that we apparently should have bought a card from the harbourmaster to activate the water, something he had omitted to point out, so we had to move on unwashed.