24 June: Decision Taken
The magic Lysefjorden just East of Stavanger
The decision has now been made. A major decision from our new modest perspectives and down-to-earth way of living. Or should I say “down-to-sea”? No, I don’t mean the step to cast off from home any longer or any other step in changing our lives. These mental decisions seem already far away.

I’m talking about the grand step to do it right now and here, namely to cross the North Sea, We will thus leave the waters of South Utsira, which by last year’s standard sounded more than exotic. We are now on our way entering yet a new forecast area with the breathtaking name “Viking” to then continue in yet a further forecast area called “Forties”.

The decision was anything but easy. Not that we did not want to sail to Scotland. By the contrary, that has always been part of our plans. The question was just when, and if we, possibly, should go via Shetlands, since despite lying further north, they are actually some 80 nm closer than heading for Scotland on a direct course.

Friends, with similar plans met headwinds with gale force when they tried to leave Norway for Scotland a couple of weeks ago. They fought for hours and then gave up, despite being very experienced, turned south again, and are now on the southerly route via the Kiel Canal, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France to eventually head over the Biscay to Spain. May we possibly see them there then!

These last couple of days we have thus cruised around the land of Fjords, on the Norwegian west coast, while closely monitoring the weather development with all available tools and help. Our good friend Jan has been of great support. Since he is a pilot, he understands weather better than most others and with his high speed Internet connection, he has collected weather reports and forecasts for us. Another thanks goes to Eirik Time, whom we got to know as a result from him finding our reginasailing-homepage some years ago and who is very active on the HR discussion forum. Since he works at Statoil in Stavanger with all their offshore rigs out there in the North Sea, he has access to good long-term forecasts. When not solving IT security problems within Statoil, Eirik sails their beautiful HR34 POESI.

Not long ago, I was the one being onshore, making weather forecasts for Mahina Tiare III and other fellow sailors, helping them from Tromsø in Northernmost Norway all the way to the Pacific. Now we are the ones who enjoy others who support us with weather information.
Poesi and Regina, two sisters of the same age stroking gently each other's hull
Eirik Time and his charming wife Inger-Lise and their three children Oda, Siri and Peder (can you see why their HR34 is called “POESI”?!) invited us to celebrate St Hans together (meaning “Midsummer” in Norwegian, Eirik translated to his Swedish friend). It was a great honor and pleasure to share the celebration of the longest day and shortest night on our northernmost stop on our blue water year. We made up to meet at an anchorage just north of Stavanger and arrived there both more or less at the same time. Bonfires were burning on each an every islet we could see from where we sat, which is how Norwegians shoo away their witches on this day, while Swedes dance the Frog Dance around our phallus symbol. Our “bonfire” was a barbeque that Erik carefully guarded, while Inga-Lise was onboard, preparing skewers to put on the barbeque.
Celebrating Midsummer Norwegian Style with the crew of Poesi
So many nice people we get to know on our cruise! Here, the old and the new co-moderator of the HR discussion group moored hull by hull. We would have loved to also share it with our main moderator, Manlio, who is currently cruising in the Mediterranean with his brand-new HR40.
Jessica, speaking Swedish, plaing with Oda, Siri and Peder in Norwegian
The kids were playing together, perfectly understanding each other’s Norwegian and Swedish without any problems. The relaxed atmosphere definitely inspired us to feel that we really must be underway by now. This just can’t be a normal holiday, can it? The moment was thus perfect to open the bottle of Asti we got from our friends Bengt and Anette back home, which we said we would open when we first realized that we definitely were cruising. There couldn’t have been any better moment.
Jessica and Jonathan exploring the spectacular Lysefjorden with Miranda, our dinghy
Norway is such a fantastic cruising area, hardly recognized by the mass of sailors. Only the “connoisseurs”, who sacrifice warmer climate, accept the many rainy and cloudy days and don’t care if they can’t go swimming in the chilly water, come here. You share the cruising ground with a very few other devoted sailors from all over Europe, while many Norwegians regard their sea as a natural way of transportation, using their powerboats like we use our cars.

Of course, we envy a little our family and friends back home who tell us about current hot summer days in Sweden, while we are really happy if the temperature goes up to some 18 degrees C and if the sun shines part of the day. On the other hand, the days are long here in June so the sun has many chances to show up the most remarkable ways.

Like the day when we approached the Norwegian coast coming from Farsund. Fog had spread its chilly arms around us, while we could from time to time get a glimpse of the blue sky above. Suddenly the fog lifted slightly, so we could see the coastline underneath, as well as the tops of the mountains, while the fog still embraced the middle of the Fjälls. It was so beautiful to enter one of our favorite anchorages inside a narrow Fjord (58 16.6N 006 22.5E) just north of the isle of Hidra. The perfect hiding place from a hectic life.
Sailing out of the fog (left), we met the impressive Norwegian landscape suddenly popping up.
Norwegian clilffs liberating themselves from the cold fog
In blue sky and lifting fog, Jonathan steers along the Norwegian coastline
Another of these fantastic Fjords is Lysefjorden just east of Stavanger.

Many sailors, who have been even further north in Norway, of course keep telling us about the beauty and wildness around Bergen and beyond in great passion. For us, Lysefjorden was still an excitement. The water in Lysefjorden is more than 300 m deep with steep Fjälls ranging up to more than 600 m on both sides. Almost one kilometer of vertical walls!
Regina ghosting into the Lysefjorden
It was a magic moment for us when we entered the Fjord. Shortly before the famous Preikestolen, we found the perfect hiding place, which it also had acted as according to the legend. The name of the tiny hole is Fantahålå resembling on the thief (= Fanta) hiding in this hole (Hålå). The legend reveals that the refugees sailed into the tiny creek hiding behind a rock, escaping from the approaching police, who could not see them and continued into the Lysefjorden. Of course, we, too, had to find this narrow hole with its steep walls, which all, but the GPS, found really exciting (the poor GPS could just see some single satellite vertically above, which he could not do much calculation with).
Who dares to enter the hardly visible Fantahålå, the dark creek behind Regina?
Slowly entering the Fantahålå, while the echo sounder reveals some 20 m depth.
Regina hiding behind the very same rock, the thieves once did, while the police went on chacing them outside in the Lysefjorden, passing their invisable hiding spot!
Having motored out of Lysefjorden again, we spent the night in a beautiful small place called Lysefjorden Marina at the very entry of the Lysefjorden. I can clearly understand why this family business has been ongoing for over 150 years: a well stocked shop, washing machines, friendly helpful owners, a harbour fee of NOK 25 (USD 3.50), a very competitive price on diesel of the highest quality in brand-new dieseltanks made this the perfect stop-over and bunkering place. We shared it with one other guest boat from the UK.
The charming little marina called Lysefjorden Marina at the foot of a high Fjäll
Enjoying mussles at Lysefjorden Marina
Harbour fees on the west coast of Norway are generally merely to cover costs since traveling by boat is as natural for the Norwegians as using the car. Who would accept similar costs for parking your car to what is charged elsewhere as “harbour fee”? It was thus with a great smile we paid our NOK 90 (USD 13) harbour duty in Stavanger: You put money into a parking machine, similar to the ones you use in car parks. Hence it was printed on the ticket to ”please place it inside the front window, clearly visible from the outside”. Luckily, Hallberg-Rassy boats do have a front wind shield, where we could put it. We don’t know if any inspectors ever could see it from ashore and, in any case, we did not get anyone asking for the receipt. Farsund, on the other hand, has no harbour fee at all, since they want to encourage sailors to come and stay in their town, spending money in the local shops and restaurants. We gladly do!
Regina in Stavanger at midnight on a bright midsummer's night.
We were, in other words, enjoying the sheltered places in the archipelago, hiding behind huge rocks and becoming totally becalmed. But we knew what kind of decision we had to take in due course, namely when it was timely to get out into the harsh North Sea.

Two to three days it would take to cross over to Scottland, and by this passing the 0-Meridian starting to count in positive, westerly angles rather than the easterly we were used to.

The question was just: When?

We clearly wanted to avoid any strong winds, especially since this would be our first big leg covering several days. At the same time, we want to avoid the prevailing westerly head winds, which would persist as long as the so longed-for high pressure was lacking. High pressure areas seemed just as scarce as hot summer days with refreshing swims in a warm sea, currently.

But now the decision has been taken and we are already at some 3 degrees East with a steady 260 degrees course heading for Scotland. What makes the situation a bit more interesting is that we are trying to leave South Utsira close to Norway as quickly as possible, since along the Norwegian coast northerly gale winds are predicted. If our calculations work out, and if we’re lucky, we will have left the South Utsira area just before the predicted gale sets in, while in the more western part of the North Sea, comfortable 15-20 knots of north winds are predicted. That’s why we try to make as many miles ahead as possible. The closer we get to Scotland, the weaker winds can be expected.

I think that our decision seems right, since during the darkest hours of the night following Midsummer, when our fellow Swedes have had their dances and snapses, we suddenly got visitors! And these were not any kind of visitors: these visitors meant luck! I woke the entire boat up and all came on deck at 01.00. During more than half an hour we had some 10-15 dolphins playing with us in the dark. Midsummer nights are so light that we clearly could see them jumping and playing and shooting under Regina.

The returned the following day in the morning as well as in the afternoon. A big dream for Jessica has thus come true: to see free living dolphins playing at the bow. And these were really showing off, jumping wildly, even upside down, always turning their head towards us from time to time to also check if we really did see their great tricks. Of course, we did!
Jonathan watching dolphins playing in the bow of the boat
This fellow jumped high in the air, landing upside down showing his belly, then returning to check if we had seen....!
We felt we had taken the right decision.

Run, Regina, run, run with the wind. Run with the waves and with the building white horses on their tops. Carry us safely over to the other side. To the other side of the North Sea.
On our way from Stavanger, Norway to MacDuff, Scotland