Our position is 58:52.021N 09:35.25E

Distance covered 46.1 Nm

Just as we were about to leave there was a heavy rain shower so we delayed our early departure a little, but were soon underway, threading through the rocks making up the nature reserve.

   Leaving Stora

It was a grey, wet passage with little of interest. The wind was up and down but always too little to sail with alone so we were motorsailing. In the first two hours only one fishing boat was seen, but it was on a collision course – what are the odds on that in such a large area of water – but successful evasive action was taken and we continued on our way.

The boat we successfully avoided

Our Norwegian destination was the island of Jomfruland – chosen because of proximity -  and as we closed on the passage into the channel behind the island where our planned stopping place (Tarnbrygga) was sited, we had to navigate through a fleet of racing yachts, firstly running down with spinnakers and then beating back up again.

    Some of the competitors seemed to be taking it more seriously than others

  This was in the same area as the yacht race and the guys up the pole seemed oblivious to all the excitement

I think we were expecting something more noteworthy than the couple of pontoons stuck out from the bank inhabited mainly by motor boats, as we nearly went on past, but soon I was facing up to the problem of jumping onto a narrow, wobbly pontoon again. Luckily a friendly native took pity on me and took our warps and the risk of a dunking was averted.

    Tied up amongst the motorboats

but there were a few other yachts (Norway has considerably more motor boats than yachts though)

After our first cup of tea on Norwegian soil, we went ashore to see what we could find. The answer was not much! The facilities block was nearly a quarter of a mile away up the hill and when we paid at the machine it failed to issue any sort of receipt. The showers required coins and we didn’t have any. It was a holiday weekend in Norway and the people of the motor boats were all socializing on the pontoons, so feeling rather lonely we went back to the boat and settled in for the evening.

The next morning the weather was brighter and we went for a walk up to the lighthouse, which stands beside the old lighthouse tower. The latter is open to the public, but not until later in the season (even though it was a holiday) so we walked on through the woods to the East side of the island, then back to the road past a pretty pond. On our way back down to the harbour we stopped and chatted to Knut, a bicycle repair and hire man with very good English who had spent time at college in Torquay. He told us the island has 60 permanent residents but also 160 summer homes and 250 small huts, also used for accommodation as well as a camping facility. He had a lot of bikes, most of which had been given to him and I’m guessing they all get used at the height of the summer, although there was only one main road down the spine of the island and a few other tracks. He was keen we should come back, but it was time to move on again so we went back to the boat to get ready for departure.

  The cows seemed just to roam loose and evidence of that was everywhere we went

  The current lighthouse

       and the one we couldn’t go up with some interesting additions

  The pond in the woods

  These were just a few of a much bigger group on a public holiday outing