Fw: RESTLESS IN OSLO 59.54n 10.41e
Restless of Auckland
Roland and Consie Lennox-King
Mon 21 Jul 2008 13:00
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We are tied up at the KNS (Kongelig Norske
Seilforening - that's the Royal Norwegian Yacht Club in English). The
King's superyacht - a beautiful sparkling old fashioned cruise ship
- is in the harbour nearby, and his tender is a couple of hundred
yards away, a lovely old-fashioned launch, with gleaming varnish and paint.
Summer holidays have started in Norway, which means that most of the locals have
left town, and their marina berths are available on a day-to day basis.
Norway is a beautiful country, and we are having a great
time. As we have gone further South it has got warmer and darker earlier at
night - in the north there is a 24 hour hour day, which is quite
disorientating for a while! Here in Oslo it gets dark at about 11:30pm, so we
have lovely long evenings outside, and you feel as if you can squeeze much more
into a day. Although it is not exactly hot here, we are wearing jeans and
tee-shirts or shorts and long sleeves during the day, so its not too bad! We
have really enjoyed having our visitors aboard, and we love being able to
share our adventures with our friends.
In our last update our kiwi friend Peter was arriving in
Kristiansand for a fortnight with us. We collected him from the bus terminal and
had salmon for dinner. He was a great visitor, and it was lovely to hear all the
news from back home. Peter had brought us a new RNZYS ensign, ours had
been flying for 15,000 miles and was see-through! Our new Danish friends on BAT
had invited us over for a huge pile of shrimp for lunch, and they came over for
after-dinner coffee. We will see them again in Denmark.The next day was Market
Day in Kristiansand, and even though it was a Wednesday the streets and shops
were crowded. The wind was picking up and our berth was not ideal in an onshore
breeze, so after a quick look at Fort Christianholm Festning and getting
some food supplies, we set off to find a quiet anchorage a couple of miles
away.
Sven rowed out from his beach house in Rosenlund bay
and invited us ashore for a real Norwegian lunch of shrimp salad, lingonberry
jam, brown cheese, salted fish and fresh bread. Sven and Kari showed us round
their lovely (red) home and showed us pictures of a famous old Norwegian
tallship, Gjoa, that had belonged to his grandfather. Sven had sailed around the
world in a ship before teaching history for 35 years, so between them they could
answer our many questions about Norway. They sent us back to the boat with a
bowl of delicious salted fish. Unfortunately we got a jellyfish in our generator
intake, necessitating the removal of the water pump and fitting of a
new impellor. We set off to Gamle Hellesund on 5 July, and caught some
small fish for breakfast.
The next day we sailed for the Blindleia, a wonderful
corridor with thousands of tiny rocky islands. Often there was a queue of
boats to go through the tiny passages between the islands, and each one had
a beach house, boathouse, and selection of well-loved wooden boats. Our main
mast being a bit too high for the bridge out of the Blindleia, we anchored
in Subbernes, Justoya and the next day set off outside in strong head
winds, later becoming torrential rain as well, anchoring for the night of 7
July in Skevigen, near Grimstad.
Peter kindly took us out to dinner at a
restaurant in town right on the promenade of boats. Skevigen was a very lucky
choice, for as R replaced the impeller he found the blockage had also
caused the pump bracket to crack and it was only a matter of time before it
would become worse. Coincidentally there was a huge boatbuilding
yard nearby who welded the damage in a few minutes.
9 July took us into Arendal, only 8 miles up the
coast where we tied up at the marina and walked around this lovely old town
and replenished our food supplies. The next day we had another sail in
sunshine and big ocean rollers to Kragero and Hellefjord, anchoring for the
night in Abyfjord. We had great fishing success there---a young family came and
gave us 6 wriggling mackerel for dinner! A great way to catch fish.
July 12 started off with rain, but the sun came out and
we had a great reach up the Oslofjord to Hvasser, where Roland
enticed Peter to have a swim in the warm water!!! We could not believe the
size of the cottages and the number of smart runabouts at their docks. Easy to
see where Norway's newfound wealth is being spent. As one local remarked,
Everyone is wealthy in Norway. Neither Norway, nor Switzerland want to join the
EU, no wonder when their combined wealth exceeds all the other
member countries put together!
After yet another blow and rain, a late start the
next day saw us have a great run in 25knts up the Oslofjord into
the Droebaksund, passing through a narrow gateway of 2 markers with deep
water between a 2 metre sill into Sandspollen, first stop for many Oslo yachties
heading off for their annual holidays which started that weekend. We saw more
yachts in that bay than we had seen sailing the previous 2 months. A beautiful
spot with pine trees right down to the water in a virtually totally enclosed
circular bay.
14 July we sailed up the Oslofjord to Snaroykilen, 3 miles
from downtown Oslo, an island with many enormous houses and expensive
homes. Peter's stay with us was fast coming to an end, and we motored into Oslo
and tied up at KNS, in time to see 3 museums including the Viking ships, the Kon
Tiki and the Fram, where we had a close look at the famous Gjoa. Museumed
out for one day, Peter took us out to dinner near the KNS (the yacht club is
closed for the summer as most of the members have gone on vacation, taking their
boats). We took Peter to the station to catch the train to the airport on the
16th, and did all our laundry in time to collect Olivia and James
from the same station on the 17th. Our friends from Nordlys came and stayed a
night on board, they have left Nordlys, after having just completed their
circumnavigation, in the Caribbean and have come over to visit friends and
relatives.
It is wonderful to have Olivia and James on board, and we
are hoping Gilbert will be able to join us for some time, he has just sailed
from France to Palma on Kokomo of London. The Nordlys' friends, Tove and Gunner
who have sailed the world in their boat, Embla, took us to the Maritime museum
with its spectacular panorama movie of Norway, and also to the Vigeland Park,
where there are thousands of amazing sculptures by Gustav Vigeland, what an
enormous amount of work from one person. Then we had dinner in their lovely home
- always a treat to meet people in the countries we visit.
Soon we will set off south to explore more of the
beautiful southeast coast before crossing over to cruise the Swedish
side of the Oslofjord, planning to take about a month to reach
Gotenburg.
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