Tønsberg, Norway 59:16.197N 010:24.065E

Pelagia
Frans & Sarah Toonen
Mon 3 Jul 2017 17:00
Monday 3 July 2017. 3.9 engine hours. 39nm. Dry, S3-4. Passage 10.5 hours. 

Wind on the nose today and so we tacked to make our way south. In this area a sea breeze often sets in strongly in the afternoons as the land heats up more quickly during the day. Determined to motor as little as possible we put up with a bit of slamming into the swell being pushed up the Oslo fiord from the Skaggerak. We were aiming for an anchorage we had read about at the Bolærne islands where we could get shelter from the south-westerly. The bay has clearly been filled with pontoons and moorings since our book was written and everywhere was full so we carried on and returned to Tønsberg with the 8pm bridge lifts. Despite the marina being so busy some boats were rafted, we got alongside a pontoon on the inside of the ‘pump out’ (for the toilet tanks) station. There was no smell from it and during our stay it was only used a few times. Most Scandinavian boats have a deck fitting to access their tanks and it works like a giant hoover. 

We stayed 6 nights as we felt a bit lazy and it was like having a holiday from our sailing holiday. There was some good weather and we did a little walking and explored the Norwegian version of B&Q which is always fun. We needed a length of garden hose for a deck wash (using pumped sea water) Frans fitted in April. Sarah found one in town for 100 pounds (Barbie pink with gold chain carry handle) and Frans found a builders merchant where he only paid 15 pounds. 

This season the AIS (Automatic Identification System) signal to the chart plotter on deck has been playing up. All commercial shipping has to send AIS information by vhf radio frequency and we have a unit which, as well as sending our information, receives information and displays the vessel positions, speed, heading etc on our plotter. We use this to ensure we don’t get hit by large vessels in the dark or in fog. Although the vessels were displaying on our old plotter inside at the chart table that is not nearly as handy as outside on the newer plotter. Frans spent a long time investigating the problem and found that the wiring to the plotter (installed ‘ professionally’ i.e. at great cost) on deck had a loose wire and he was able to repair that within the special waterproof deck mount plug thing. He also managed to do a software update on our very old plotter inside (much harder than it sounds) as the old plotter sends the data on to the new plotter. 

Tønsberg guest harbour, northing wrong with that view

Identified this noisy little bird as we got too close to her nest as a Reed Bunting (corrects us if we’re wrong).