We will be waiting on weather here in Dover. It’s a fine marina located in an old dock basin. They have built a completely new dock that will soon be opened.
Welcome to our sail blog. We are a Norwegian married/retired couple making our dream come true on this 2 year long sail voyage. We would like to share our experiences with you and will try to update this blog as often as possible.
05/08/2021
04/08/2021
Sorry France, Boris opened up…
We had originally wanted our first port of call to be Dover. But we were told they did not accept non UK boats and to contact them again for possible changes. As we sailed into the English Channel yesterday we sent another request by email. The reply was very good. Coming from an EU/Shengen country and being fully vaccinated we were very welcome. We arrived at 2200 and were given a good pontoon in Granville dock. Geir had made a previous visit here as crew of another boat and almost remembered the way into the marina. The view at low and high tide can be very deceptive.
The weather forecast does not look very promising for the coming days. We might have to stay here for the weekend.
31/07/2021
Enroute from Farsund to Boulogne-sur-mer
We had a real jump start. Our departure had to be put forward 4 days as the only weather window was now.
Getting supplies etc loaded on the boat. We departed from Farsund just before midnight Friday 30th.
We had originally wanted to go to Dover, but they were closed to foreign arrivals. UK is experiencing
massive spreading of the Delta variant of Covid and we guess they are in a limbo on what to do
when it comes to visiting yachts.
We got a very polite and friendly reply from Boulogne Marina, who wished us very welcome.
We hope to arrive there late Tuesday or early Wednesday.
The weather has so far been great for sailing - NW 15-25 knots and we are averaging 6 knots.
The weather "after Boulogne" might be more difficult, as strong westerly winds are forecasted.
However, we hope to be able to advance to Cherbourgh and then Brest after a few days there.
Grete & Geir
Getting supplies etc loaded on the boat. We departed from Farsund just before midnight Friday 30th.
We had originally wanted to go to Dover, but they were closed to foreign arrivals. UK is experiencing
massive spreading of the Delta variant of Covid and we guess they are in a limbo on what to do
when it comes to visiting yachts.
We got a very polite and friendly reply from Boulogne Marina, who wished us very welcome.
We hope to arrive there late Tuesday or early Wednesday.
The weather has so far been great for sailing - NW 15-25 knots and we are averaging 6 knots.
The weather "after Boulogne" might be more difficult, as strong westerly winds are forecasted.
However, we hope to be able to advance to Cherbourgh and then Brest after a few days there.
Grete & Geir
18/07/2021
We are sailing again !
After more than a year at home, we have decided to start another trip towards the sunshine. We have too many places yet to visit - many of which we had to skip as Covid-19 made us sail back home to Norway in May-July in 2020.
The departure will be in the first week of August. By then we have both had our 2 Covid-19 vaxinations.
Our sail plan is departing Farsund for the English channel, possibly have short stops at Boulogne-Sur-Mer, Cherbourgh and finally to Brest, where we will wait for a decent weather window to cross the Bay of Biscay. We hope to make it to Viana Do Castelo, Portugal in one go.
From Portugal we will sail to Porto Santo in the Madeiras where we will spend a few weeks.
Then onwards to the Canary islands where we will visit various places we haven't been before.
In December we will, covid permitting, set course for Barbados alternatively, Grenada.
We have done lots of replacements and improvements on the boat. New solar panels, new anchor winch/chain, bow thruster, cooling box. Electrics has had good TLC. Also fitted a new MF/HF radio with DSC and purchased a small Inreach tracking device, that will enable you to keep continous track of our position. Have a look at this link Ocean Viking - position chart
More will follow when we get under way. Love from Grete & Geir
06/07/2020
Horta to Norway
Our voyage from Horta was good but with variable weather.
Geir had daily contact with radio friends on HAM radio and on the radio networks on marine bands.
.
The last week we had a LOW with high winds and choppy seas.
2 days prior this LOW we turned due East and sailed towards the Spanish NW coast to get further away from the high winds.
On friday noon wind picked up from the SW to 20-25 knots and seas were building. The wind slowly increased to 30-35 knots and the sea to 5-6 meters. It stayed like that untill Saturday evening. Sunday morning it slowly decreased and by noon wind was down to 15-20 knots.
However, we decided to drop sailing up to Ireland, as this ment sailing with the beam to the high seas created by the gale force winds.
We therefore set our course for Yarmouth Harbour on the Isle of Wight.
Our friend Thom D'Arcy on S/Y Fathom - put in a good word for us - as Yarmouth is his home port.
The first day we did 150nm. The wind was blowing from the SW at 15-20 knots and we were "flying" along out of the English Channel and into the North Sea.
We kept out of the Traffic Separation Sone sailing along the English coast and the Dutch coast.
There were a few fishing trawlers, windfarms og offshore oil/gas platforms - but we sailed through without any problems.
Approaching Dogger Bank we exspected yet another gale. The forecast was intitially for gusts up to 35-40 knots, but later downgraded to 25-30. When it arrived it slowly built up from the SW from 15 up to 25, then varied slowly up to 25 to 30 knots from the SW. The water depth of Doggerbank is ony 12-25 meters and seas builds fast and creates quite choppy seas. But again Ocean Viking showed us what a great sea going boat we have. And I have good praise to our Hydrovane and our Simrad AP25/AC20 autopilot. They steered the boat better than I can do manually.
The wind started to ease off early morning on Saturday 4.7. In the afternoon/evening we were getting close to the Norwegian trench. We were approached by a Danish fishing boat. We called them on the radio and had a great chat with the captain, who was from the Faroes - but living in Denmark. He also had a 31 foot sailboat at home.
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| Grete's new baked bread tasted wonderfull! |
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| Refilling the diesel tank underway. |
Weather forecasts was sent to us by LA3ZH Leif in Kristiansand every day and we also downloaded forecasts from Predictwind.com. Another feature was position reports via Predictwind.
This gave us the oportunity to report our own position and to see other boats position while underway.
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| This is a "Happy meal" while underway |
The last week we had a LOW with high winds and choppy seas.
2 days prior this LOW we turned due East and sailed towards the Spanish NW coast to get further away from the high winds.
On friday noon wind picked up from the SW to 20-25 knots and seas were building. The wind slowly increased to 30-35 knots and the sea to 5-6 meters. It stayed like that untill Saturday evening. Sunday morning it slowly decreased and by noon wind was down to 15-20 knots.
The boat sailed very well through this gale - and living aboard was fine. We even cooked our dinner and relaxed quite comfortbaly.
We therefore set our course for Yarmouth Harbour on the Isle of Wight.
Our friend Thom D'Arcy on S/Y Fathom - put in a good word for us - as Yarmouth is his home port.
We were therefore given a fine berth when we arrived on June 25th.
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| Just tied up at the Yellow Pontoon in Yarmouth Harbour |
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| We celebrated our 20th year anniversity. A few pictures from Yarmouth: |
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| Boat needed to be "pimped up" with some brass. |
We spent a few days relaxing and went for fresh supplies at the local grocery shop.
Finally we tanked up with water and diesel and started our voyage to our home port Farsund in south Norway. We departed with the current flowing from west to east - and managed to do great distance before the direction turned.
We kept out of the Traffic Separation Sone sailing along the English coast and the Dutch coast.
There were a few fishing trawlers, windfarms og offshore oil/gas platforms - but we sailed through without any problems.
Approaching Dogger Bank we exspected yet another gale. The forecast was intitially for gusts up to 35-40 knots, but later downgraded to 25-30. When it arrived it slowly built up from the SW from 15 up to 25, then varied slowly up to 25 to 30 knots from the SW. The water depth of Doggerbank is ony 12-25 meters and seas builds fast and creates quite choppy seas. But again Ocean Viking showed us what a great sea going boat we have. And I have good praise to our Hydrovane and our Simrad AP25/AC20 autopilot. They steered the boat better than I can do manually.
The wind started to ease off early morning on Saturday 4.7. In the afternoon/evening we were getting close to the Norwegian trench. We were approached by a Danish fishing boat. We called them on the radio and had a great chat with the captain, who was from the Faroes - but living in Denmark. He also had a 31 foot sailboat at home.
He came up pretty close to us and took pictures that he later emailed us. Here is a couple of them.
We arrived in the early morning at Farsund and was moored at 3AM and even if it was kinda late,
a toast or two... was very appropriate.
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| The good stuff - Gin from Peters Cafe Sport in Horta |
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| Why has that nose turned so RED ? |
It's been a great year - but it could had been so much better. The COVID-19 pandemic unfortunatly set a total stop to our trip.
We feel we still have lots to see. Who knows - we may cast off again on new adventures in the future.
17/06/2020
Horta and voyage to UK/Ireland
We arrived at the port of Horta located on the southeast of the island Faial in the Azores Archepilago in the early morning hours
the 28. May. We called the marina before entering and got a friendly welcome and we were asked to anchor in the bay.
There were 20-25 boats anchored there already but we managed to find a good spot right infront of the marina office
with enough room to swing around the anchor. The bottom had very good holding.
We were checked in on the VHF and instructed that we were not allowed ashore and could not put our dinghy in the water.
Later the same day the harbour police came to our boat and checked our passports and gave us a signed form stating the regulations
for the port of Horta.
The famous Peter Cafe Sport has for many years been a well visited bar in Horta. Now that no one could come ashore, they ran
a service for all the boats at anchor. They were available on VHF and WhatsApp and could arrange to get us just about anything.
We bought take-away food, groceries, they filled our water jerry cans, brought us medicine. We will remember them always for their great service.
The boats were coming and going. But the turnover was slow and at some stage there were almost 40 boats anchored. Boats that need repair or fuel and water were allowed to come alongside the dock that was isolated and fenced.
We spent almost 2 weeks waiting for the right weather window - but it never appeared.
The forecast was very unreliable.
What looked ok one day, was totally changed the next. At the end we just decided we'd had enough and set a departure day.
We were given permission to come in to fill up with fuel and water and to stay over night in order to have some 230V to do some cleaning/hoovering
and to top up our batteries. Same evening we were invited for a beer/drinks at another Norwegian boat.
They were there as they needed repair to their gear-box. It was very good to have some social contact with others
as we had been isolated to the boat for more than a month.
We left in the morning Friday the 12th June. We set sail and cruised towards the east and then northeast past the island of Terceira in order to avoid a weather system with high winds, that was forecasted.
We were successful and had a great sail.
We lost sight of Terceira Saturday evening. Sunday noon the wind calmed down and we had to motorsail.
Wind returned from the southeast and later east and we sailed north. When we reached a point 600nm west of Porto in Portugal we changed to an easterly course as there is a LOW pressure coming in from the west with high winds.
We are now 525 nautical miles from Horta and have 800 left to UK or Ireland.
Ireland is still locked down with the COVID-19 - we can visit a port, but then we will have to quarentine for 2 weeks. UK is partially open in certain ports iin south England.
Days passes fast. We cook meals, read books, chat on the radio etc. Geir sends daily position reports and checks in on the Ocean Cruiser Clubs Atlantic West to East radio net every evening.
Leif/LA3ZH keeps an eye of the weather forecast for our route and gives us great advise.
Geir also have contact with radio friends on 14328 every evening at 2100 UTC. It is very nice to hear
friends familiar voices. It breaks up boredom and feeling of isolation.
Now that we have decided to return home, we really look forward to see our kids and their families and our newest grandson Tobias. He is now almost 5 months old. Grete's phone is bursting with pictures and video's of the little guy. We look forward to meet him for the first time.
the 28. May. We called the marina before entering and got a friendly welcome and we were asked to anchor in the bay.
There were 20-25 boats anchored there already but we managed to find a good spot right infront of the marina office
with enough room to swing around the anchor. The bottom had very good holding.
We were checked in on the VHF and instructed that we were not allowed ashore and could not put our dinghy in the water.
Later the same day the harbour police came to our boat and checked our passports and gave us a signed form stating the regulations
for the port of Horta.
The famous Peter Cafe Sport has for many years been a well visited bar in Horta. Now that no one could come ashore, they ran
a service for all the boats at anchor. They were available on VHF and WhatsApp and could arrange to get us just about anything.
We bought take-away food, groceries, they filled our water jerry cans, brought us medicine. We will remember them always for their great service.
The boats were coming and going. But the turnover was slow and at some stage there were almost 40 boats anchored. Boats that need repair or fuel and water were allowed to come alongside the dock that was isolated and fenced.
We spent almost 2 weeks waiting for the right weather window - but it never appeared.
The forecast was very unreliable.
What looked ok one day, was totally changed the next. At the end we just decided we'd had enough and set a departure day.
We were given permission to come in to fill up with fuel and water and to stay over night in order to have some 230V to do some cleaning/hoovering
and to top up our batteries. Same evening we were invited for a beer/drinks at another Norwegian boat.
They were there as they needed repair to their gear-box. It was very good to have some social contact with others
as we had been isolated to the boat for more than a month.
We left in the morning Friday the 12th June. We set sail and cruised towards the east and then northeast past the island of Terceira in order to avoid a weather system with high winds, that was forecasted.
We were successful and had a great sail.
We lost sight of Terceira Saturday evening. Sunday noon the wind calmed down and we had to motorsail.
Wind returned from the southeast and later east and we sailed north. When we reached a point 600nm west of Porto in Portugal we changed to an easterly course as there is a LOW pressure coming in from the west with high winds.
We are now 525 nautical miles from Horta and have 800 left to UK or Ireland.
Ireland is still locked down with the COVID-19 - we can visit a port, but then we will have to quarentine for 2 weeks. UK is partially open in certain ports iin south England.
Weather will decide which way we will go back to Norway. One is via Ireland, Scottish west coast
via Pentland strait accros the North Sea.
The other is up the English channel and up the North Sea.
Days passes fast. We cook meals, read books, chat on the radio etc. Geir sends daily position reports and checks in on the Ocean Cruiser Clubs Atlantic West to East radio net every evening.
Leif/LA3ZH keeps an eye of the weather forecast for our route and gives us great advise.
Geir also have contact with radio friends on 14328 every evening at 2100 UTC. It is very nice to hear
friends familiar voices. It breaks up boredom and feeling of isolation.
Now that we have decided to return home, we really look forward to see our kids and their families and our newest grandson Tobias. He is now almost 5 months old. Grete's phone is bursting with pictures and video's of the little guy. We look forward to meet him for the first time.
01/06/2020
Arrived at Horta
We arrived Horta at 5AM on the 28ght May. We have sailed 2553nm in 24 days and 17hrs. From Sainte-Anne anchorage in Martinique to Horta. Average speed was 5.4 knots.
Much of our trip was motorsailing and some even plain motoring.
Luckily we purchased more jerry cans in Grenada and we had filled up our main tank (225L)
and had 210L in cans on deck. We gave away 20L to another sailboat - underway.
When we arrived Horta we had some 20L left in total.
There were just some 20 boats in the harbord and easy to find a spot to drop the anchor.
Went to sleep for a few hours. Later we were visited by the harbour police and we were checked in to Portugal.
We also had a visit from the friendly guys from Peters Cafe Sport who offered their services to us.
We got their whats-app number and later ordered take-away food and groceries to be delivered next day. The food waas great. We had both Chicken Curry and th Sirloin with pepper sauce.
Now we are waiting for a suitable weather window for our next voyage up to UK/Ireland.
Unfortunately the wind is pretty persistent with a fresh breeze to near gale from the NE.
By the end of next week (6-8. June) it looks like we might set sail.
Much of our trip was motorsailing and some even plain motoring.
Luckily we purchased more jerry cans in Grenada and we had filled up our main tank (225L)
and had 210L in cans on deck. We gave away 20L to another sailboat - underway.
When we arrived Horta we had some 20L left in total.
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| Horta |
There were just some 20 boats in the harbord and easy to find a spot to drop the anchor.
Went to sleep for a few hours. Later we were visited by the harbour police and we were checked in to Portugal.
 | |
| Menu from Peters Cafe Sport |
We also had a visit from the friendly guys from Peters Cafe Sport who offered their services to us.
We got their whats-app number and later ordered take-away food and groceries to be delivered next day. The food waas great. We had both Chicken Curry and th Sirloin with pepper sauce.
Now we are waiting for a suitable weather window for our next voyage up to UK/Ireland.
Unfortunately the wind is pretty persistent with a fresh breeze to near gale from the NE.
By the end of next week (6-8. June) it looks like we might set sail.
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