From Trondheim we sailed south although Roland was keen to go north to the Lofotens, Consie vetoed the idea because of the cold. A trip of only 230 miles north to the Arctic circle just to say we had been there seemed pointless, although tempting.

We retraced our steps to Kristiansund and then through the notorious Hustadvika skerrigard before proceeding further south to Alesund, where the past Commodore of the Yacht Club kindly offered to let us use his address for delivery of our bowthruster parts.  We found a friendly boatyard owner at Langevag, some 4 or 5 miles from Alesund, who let us rest our bow on his cradle carriage while Roland repaired the bowthruster. A difficult, but fun event in retrospect.

Whilst waiting for the bowthruster parts to arrive from NZ we made a side trip up the spectacular Geirangerfjord, which entailed a full day trip of 75 n.miles (150 km) past 600 metre rock cliffs with snow and ice down to waterlevel, and many waterfalls and mini glaciers. Luckily it was a perfect day with temperatures in the 20s C.

Once the bowthruster was fixed by resting on the ramp of a friendly boatyard, we set off south, rounding Statt point (Norway’s boat graveyard) where we saw thousands of puffins fishing and we caught 2 cod. On to Floro, where we found a nearly empty guest marina – and later the reason why – the town was completely closed from Saturday 2pm to Monday morning.

On leaving Floro we had a wonderful sail culminating in a 25kt following wind to an anchorage described in the guidebook as ‘Bleak’, at Trovag. It certainly was bleak !!!

The next day we reached Vikingvag, an almost completely enclosed secret harbour where we found a rock dwelling thought to be left behind by Vikings (sounds good anyway.)

On to Bergen as we had friends arriving from the Chesapeake, Rhonda and John. There we tied up by the 1700s brightly coloured warehouses from the Hanseatic (German) merchants. Every day is market day at Bergen and the shops stay open until 10pm as it is quite a tourist spot with cruise ships arriving daily, oh yes and it is daylight at 10pm, in fact it has been daylight for 24 hours a day. In the market you could buy sealskins, white wolves or reindeer skins for 600 kroner (US$110) or Norwegian jumpers for 1200 kroner. Also every type of fish, pickled, smoked, fresh or dried, including Whale. After a trip up the impressive funicular we left before a gale and caught a large salmon on our new salmon lure, big enough for several meals. 

We motored through Haugesund and south again to a peaceful anchorage at Dragoyvika.

The next excursion was down the Lysefjorden to the bottom of the famous Pulpit Rock (Prekestolen) a lookout just under 700 metres high with no safety lines. (See this in any Norwegian tourist brochure).  We could see crowds on the rock and they looked like little ants on the skyline!

Next stop was Stavanger, and the World Volleyball Championships were taking place 500 metres away from us, we were tied up at the guest dock in the centre of town. Rhonda and John left us here after exploring town and visiting the very impressive Oil Museum (as in North Sea exploration, and the reason why Norway is so enormously wealthy. They made their money selling hydro power but have really capitalized from Oil and now there is US$1.5 million in the bank for every one of the 4.6 million Norwegians, put away for a rainy day. As a consequence everything is very expensive and even a Big Mac meal at Macdonalds is  US$25, a can of beer in the supermarket is just under US$4. Luckily we are still drinking our Scottish supplies!!)

South again to Egersund as a good weather window gave us 2 lovely days of sailing in open waters down the exposed southwestern coast of Norway. There we rounded the famous Lindesnes lighthouse at the southern tip, to reach a lovely sheltered anchorage at Haekholm some 10 miles to the east, and then another one at Skalevig.

We've caught some lovely fish in Norway, salmon, cod, mackerel and piper.

On 2nd July, we go to Kristiansand to meet our Kiwi friend Peter who has flown over specially to cruise with us for 2 weeks. On 17 July Olivia and James arrive in Oslo to cruise with us.  Gilbert, who is currently in the south of France as first mate on a superyacht, is also trying to join us for a family get together some time in the next month, as we cruise towards Sweden.

The weather is getting warmer, as is the sea temperature and whilst we have seen very few yachts, with the whole of Norway about to go on vacation we will no doubt see a lot more.

We are amazed at the infrastructure of this coast with bridges and tunnels everywhere and every fjord seems to have at least one if not more high speed car ferries shuttling back and forth. Every cove seems to have a holiday home and most of those have boat houses with very smart runabouts inside; signs of the wealth of this absolutely beautiful country which has literally tens of thousands of anchorages. Most towns have Guest marina berths where one pays at a pay-and-display meter the same way one would pay to park a car, and at about half the price of British marinas. People learn English at schools from the age of six, so language has not been a problem for us.