Stavanger to Hareid via Stat

View from Stavager Old town

Found in Stavanger old town

Monday 9^th May 2011

We left Stavanger in the late morning, having visited the Tourist Office, who kindly gave me a free road map of Norway, which I am now using to chart our progress north, as all James’ navigation charts are on the computer and it is quite difficult to look very far ahead and get an idea of where we are going.  We also collected as usual lots of other useful (?) leaflets. We never managed to pay the NOK200 + 100 for electricity, which should have been done at the parking ticket machine, I even took a local boat owner to try and help me – in the end he said ‘wait for someone’ to come and collect the money which never happened, actually I thought the cost was heading to South Coast of England prices i.e. high, but there was one of the best water hoses we have ever had and I did manage a lot of hand washing for two days the boat looked like a Chinese laundry!  

James insisted that we had to go up a Fjord and Lysefjorden is considered to be one of the prettiest southern fjords, with the famous pulpit rock where all the tourist boats from Stavanger seem to go.  We chose to go on a day which had a strong easterly wind blowing which of course was on the nose for us going up the Fjord.  I was also concerned that our fuel gauge was getting close to the red zone and eventually managed to get James to see that we might run short, luckily at the beginning of the fjord I had read that fuel was available at Forsand (having not seen anywhere in Stavanger) of course just as we had tied up and checked that we could have diesel and even better use our credit card, the local fast ferry up the fjord wanted to stop, so we had to leave and stand off whilst he collected his passengers.  Once we were fuelled up and had enjoyed an ice cream it was off for a very wet (spray over the bow) and bumpy journey up the fjord on numerous occasions I was keen to give up, as it was so unpleasant going against the flow and into wind of Beaufort force 5 / 6 with gusts of 9, of course the wind is funnelled down the fjord.  We could not identify the Pulpit rock even though I had marked using AIS the spots where the tourist boat had stopped obviously for its passengers to take photos.

View down the Lysefjord

It was 25 nautical miles up the Fjord and when we got to Lysebotn at the top of the fjord, it was almost surreal (if I have the right word) lights on in various buildings and two sprinkler systems going but not a soul to be seen, I was looking for someone to pay for our night against their wall.  The area at the bottom of the Fjord is given over to a campsite, Sleepy Head B &B with the Hard Rock Café adjoining which I found amusing, a pub, a further hotel none of which was open and lots of sheep with bells round their necks and their lambs gambolling beside them.  At the waterside were various workshops and a place where people who jump off rocks with parachutes obviously get picked up with a notice saying they could re-pack their parachutes inside! Around the area were a number of holiday homes and a big hydro-electric plant was situated inside the hillside, obviously using a source of underwater to generate the power, we saw the water outlet.  On the opposite side was a fairly spectacular waterfall.

Distance motored: 41 nm

Mint & Sauce!

Sheep wearing a 'cow' bell!

Tuesday 10^th May 2011

1am: I was awaken by the arrival of a workboat and watched with interested as they moored alongside the jetty.

7am: we were up early to watch the fast ferry arrive and fend off the boat if necessary as there were warnings of bad wash from the ferry.  The workboat had started to unload some items, but moved off for the ferry and then returned to unload some huge pipes, for which a crane on a back of a lorry which had arrived to transport the pipes was used to unload them.  We took the opportunity to walk the short distance to the village, the 50 year old church was shut and there was not much else to be seen so we walked a little way up the road out towards the mountain, James had been keen to take the advertised daily bus to the top where there was a café for a good view down to the boat.  However, as the season had not started there was no bus and we were told the café was also shut as was the road due to snow.  We met a young fit Spaniard who came off the 7 am ferry and he did walk up to the café but said the view was spoilt by the mist, we certainly did not feel inclined to do the 7 km each way part of it through a poorly lit tunnel!

12.30: we left for the journey back down the fjord, as least this time what little wind there was, was with us as was the current, so the sails came out for a while.  We were able to sit out and spot the various well know landmarks including Kjerag a boulder wedged between two mountain tops which people like to stand on and where we think those who delight in jumping off cliffs attached to small squares of cloth do so!

The famous Pulpit Rock

Further down we did find the Pulpit Rock which juts out from one of the mountains and to which you can walk 2 hours each way from the bus route for a vertical view down in and over the Lysefjorden, predictably as the season has not really started no one was to be seen on either Kjerag or Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock).

We also thought we would go close to a waterfall (as per the tourist boat brochure) and try and collect some water, in the end we chicken out a meter from it!  The mountains often go straight down into the water to great depths.  We both left the Fjord feeling that we did not like the dominating mountain scenery, awe inspiring as it is, but very bleak and ominously dark, I am constantly amazed by where people build houses and then how they reach them.  We know that Norway builds amazing tunnels to reach places by road and train but some of these hamlets can only be reached by boat in good weather.  I think most of them nowadays are only used as holiday homes.

19.30 We tied up at some staging on the Island of Langoy (a popular name in Norway) near Stavanger for the night and were surprised to find a black rabbit nibbling the grass near the shower / WC block, it seemed very at home but I assume must have been a pet rabbit once-upon-a-time.  This is the second cultivated rabbit we have met in unusual places this cruise, the first was a lop-eared bunny lolloping down the main street in Helgoland one evening; the nearby café said it came quite often but without any obvious human attendant! I had a pleasant walk around our part of the Island which used to be an old Shell Petroleum storage facility and there were still parts of buildings left.
Distance motored / sailed: 35 nm

Staging on Langoy

Black Honey Bunny!

Wednesday 11^th May 2011

8 am departure from Langoy for a 12+ hour day.  However, we did make a 2 hour stop at Utsira: James suddenly noticed that the Island was not far out to sea and as it was a fairly calm day decided he would like to visit it, as it is part of the shipping forecast.  So we headed out to the Island under sail and opted for the North Harbour as we had a southerly wind but of course on the guest mooring, we were being blown on!  We walked the one mile across to the South Harbour for a quick view and then continued with our voyage but at least we can now visualise South and North Utsira!  That night we found a half built Marina on the southern end of the Island of Stord, where we tied up for a free night!

Distance motored / sailed: 73 nm

Thursday 12^th May 2011

This rushed passed us and we then saw it again in Bergen

After another early start (7 am) we reached Bergen at 2.30 pm and headed for the city harbour (Vagen) which although beginning to fill up, particularly with motor boats arriving for the National (Independence) Day celebrations on 17^th, we were still able to find an alongside the wall berth near the city end with water but no electricity close by.  The cost was NOK 150 per night, electricity would have been extra.  The Harbour Masters were quickly on hand to collect the fee!

Distance Motored: 50 nm

We made the tourist board our first port of call, followed by finding a telephone shop to sell us the data card that we had failed find in Stavanger, so now for £1.25 per day when we use the card we can get the internet, particularly important for up to-date and long range weather forecasts, especially as Jeremy is off for his belated Honeymoon in a week and will be away for three weeks, also I expect he will be pleased not to have his father constantly asking for forecasts.

We then took the funicular railway up one of Bergen’s seven mountains for a superb view of the harbour and surrounding area and enjoyed a tea break at the café at the top!  Bergen is Norway’s second city and was its first real capital in 13^th century.  We then returned to the Tourist board before it closed at 8pm to book the ‘Norway in a Nutshell’ trip for the following day.

Views over Bergen, from the top of the Funicular railway

Paddington IV can be seen on the wall just behind the buses & tourist train.

 Friday 13^th May 2011

‘Norway in a Nutshell’:  We caught the 08.40 train from Bergen to Myrdal, having got up early enough to bake some long life baguettes to fill for our lunch.  The train ran alongside various lakes and through many tunnels to Voss after which we were going up mountains, until we were in the snow line and the lakes were frozen.  We saw many waterfalls and the rivers were in full spate with the melt waters, at times the water was turquoise – I think due to clay particles in the water which refract the light to give such a wonderful colour.  The line ends at Myrdal where we crossed over the platform to take the waiting train down to Flam.

Views from the train en route to Myrdal

A still partially frozen lake                                   

Kjosfossen Waterfall

This is one of the main tourist attractions in Norway and I had heard various things about it, from “don’t bother - it is a tourist trap” to most people saying it must not be missed, we certainly come into this category.  The railway line in itself is a feat of engineering, running from Flam at the bottom at 2 metres above sea level to Myrdal at an altitude of 866 metres, which means the line has a gradient of 1 in 18, making it the steepest normal gauge railway line in Northern Europe.  The Flam Railway is often called the 20:20 railway as it took 20 years to complete (fully operational in 1944) and has 20 tunnels, 18 of which were built by hand.  There is a hairpin tunnel which manages the great difference in altitude by making a 180 degree turn inside the mountain.  The train makes a stop at the Kjosfossen Waterfall with a fall of 94 metres for everyone to get out and take photos.  
I had read that in the season it plays cheesy music, but there was no sound during our visit.  The water is also used to produce electricity for the railway.  Being early in the season and early in the day we had a very empty train only 6 of us in our carriage so there was plenty of room to rush from side to side to see the amazing views and for the photographers to get pictures through open windows on either side.  Later in the afternoon we did see a cruise ship dock and I am sure then that the train was very full.
Some views from the train ride down to Flam:

This shows the navvies road zigzaging down the hill and James wants to cycle it later in the summer!

              

Old village of Flam

On arriving at Flam we had over 3 hours to wait for our fjord boat trip, so we had our lunch on a bench, where I think I must have lost my cap, getting the lunch box out of my backpack.  The cap itself had been a freebie from our yacht insurers but irritatingly I lost a good safety clip-on strap which attached it to ones clothing – great when sailing when it might blown off and which we had found in Gdansk and was quite expensive, so James was cross with me!  We then had plenty of time to enjoy the railway museum and all the photo and film shows that were on offer.  The boat trip was delayed waiting for people who had come from Oslo for the trip, whose train had been late arriving.  For us the trip was rather ‘coals to Newcastle’ it took in a couple of Fjords including the Naeroyfjord (Narrow Fjord) which UNESCO has added to its World Heritage List.  It was certainly narrow in places just 250 metres across with surrounding mountains reaching heights of 1,660 metres.  The cruise ended at the top of the Fjord at Gudvangen where coaches were waiting for us and surprisingly we had caught up the time lost.  The coach took us back to Voss via a 1.5 km stretch of road that twists its way down the mountainside with 13 sharp hairpin bends it was quite a sight including two fairly spectacular waterfalls – James now says he has a enough waterfall pictures to last a life time!  In Voss we caught the train back to Bergen and we were back on the boat by 9pm.  It really was an excellent day, expensive at £225 for the pair of us but the cost of motoring up the 100 miles of Fjord to Flam would have been similar before other costs were added on!

The boat trip up the Naeroyfjord with the rain beginning!

Now James wants to do it again on the way south from the Arctic Circle, using a high speed ferry from the end of the Sognefjord and taking our bikes with us so that having taken the railway from Flam up to Myrdal, we cycle back down the Navvies Road (which was used in the building of the railway) which is now a popular walk / cycle trail and at one point there is a series of hairpin beds – I just hope our brakes are good!  The other problem I foresee with this dream of James’ will be the difficulty of getting the ferry timetables to fit in with the time it takes to get a train (50 minutes up plus extra to wait for one) and cycle back approx. 2 hours!

Saturday 14^th May 2011

We were at the supermarket waiting for it to open at 9 am to replenish our fresh fruit and vegetable supplies, before James visited a book shop where he was hoping to find tidal flow charts but to no avail, however, he did find an excellent Harbour Guide now printed in English and Norsk, which he took me back to see – I had no hesitation in sanctioning the £50 to buy it as I had been complaining that neither Judy Lomax’s Norwegian Cruising Guide or the Norwegian Cruising guide which you buy and down load on to the lap top gave good harbour plans and information.  I am really pleased with it and feel the book has already proved itself helping us to find suitable overnight berths and when we get back into anchoring will be equally as good.  I also bought a replacement cap off a market stall and we found the statue in the harbour to Leif Larsen, who I had been reading about in “The Shetland Bus” by David Howarth about the WW2 wartime exploits of many Norwegian Seamen who manned fishing boats from the Shetlands across to Norway during the dark winter months to land spies, equipment etc and rescue others.

Leif was obviously a very remarkable man as he received more British military honours than any other man foreign or British has ever done and he just did not get the Victoria Cross because the Shetland Bus operation came under the aegis of the secret Special Operations Executive rather than the regular forces.  He was of course a National Hero here in Norway.  If anyone wants a good factual read then I highly recommend “The Shetland Bus” regardless of whether you are visiting Norway.

Lief Larson statue

The town harbour (Vagen) in Bergen

We left our mooring at noon only to find that the bow thrusters would not work, so at our stop for diesel, James took it to pieces only to find it was just the top operating part that had packed up and whilst the chandlery where we fuelled up had various types it did not have our old model.  However, they kindly said they would ring the manufacturer which happens to be in Norway on Monday to see if they still have our model.  In the meantime James has connected a simple switch to the wires, cut a piece of plywood to the size of the hole, made a hole for the switch and screwed this back in place and we have a bow thrusters again.  This is all protected from the rain and spray by a takeaway clear plastic food box!  My clever husband never ceases to amaze me!  So it was 1.30 pm before we actually left Bergen.  We motored north up various fjords until after 7 pm when we decided to call it a day and the Island of Fedje got us – the second harbour we tried had space alongside a pontoon at a cost of NOK 150 which included electricity.

Fedje with the sun setting 

We did an engine oil change here and the harbour mistress kindly took our used oil for disposal.  After supper we managed a quick stroll around for the photographer to make good use of the beautiful evening light!  It is now light until at least 11 pm.

Distance motored: 77 nm

Sunday 15^th May 2011

We are back in ‘moving on fast mode’, so we left at 8 am with breakfast en route.  We had a north westerly force 5 – 6 wind so for much of the day the wind was on our nose and it was ‘a rocking and rolling’.  However, for the few occasions when we were going up Fjords and the wind was sailable James had some very good close hauled sails which he really enjoyed, so it was a day with the sails being brought in and out and the engine on and off!  His fastest speed was 10.5 knots under sail!  Again at 7 pm we looked around for somewhere to spend the night and found Floro – Norway’s western most town and a hub between Sognefjorden and Stad.  As it had started to rain we did not climb the Stardsen for the recommended ‘bird’s eye view of the wonderful archipelago outside the town’.  This time payment was via an honesty box – NOK 150 not including electric for which the hotel adjoining the marina can sell a card for the electricity boxes.  Whilst we were having supper we watched a little boat that we had overtaken much earlier in the day being brought in by the SAR (Search & Rescue) Vessel.  As they ‘parked’ him a long way from us we never found out what his problem was but considering some of the conditions in the open water stretches I can imagine that the solo sailor was certainly cold and very tired, at least we do this all from the comfort of an internal steering position with a heater when required, our ‘oilies’ have not yet been out on this cruise!

Distance Motored / Sailed: 77 nm

Monday 17^th May 2011   

Another early start – 7am departure, this time we have had a gentle southerly wind which makes for a calm journey and hence I have spent much of the day typing up my blog / diary.  James has had a couple of sails, particularly for a time around our first major headland of Stat, which is one of 3 headlands that we shall have to go out to sea for on our journey north and all the books say should be treated with caution, we felt it was not so different to rounding Beachy Head but I suppose the Norwegians are so used to doing most of their sailing in relatively inland waters hidden behind high mountains that it seems quite daunting to them.

Sail training ship 'Trinovante' from Ipswich rounding Stat

However, whilst we went further out to sea to avoid some rocks, I watched a fishing boat and cargo boat just hug the coast (rock) line all the way around!  As I write I am looking at snow covered mountain tops as we head inland from Stat.  It is also fascinating how the clouds seem to hug the mountain tops which often disappear from view into clouds.

We eventually decided to have supper on the move, as there was no wind and sea glassy.  In my provisioning for the boat this season, I found at the boat show some vacuum packed meals ready for the microwave or boil-in-the-bag, called ‘Look What We Found’ (www.lookwhatwefound.co.uk) and I ordered 38 bags out of quite a wide selection, so far all we have had have been good, tonight it was Mutton Stew which I served with gnocchi alla Nigella, she calls them ‘rapid roastine’, quickly fried for 4 minutes in a little oil.  I think a good supper in 7 minutes, using the microwave as the engine and inverter were on.  We stopped at 8.45 pm and are tied up at a place called Hareid pa Hareidlansel, this time a much more reasonable NOK 80 into an honesty box water on tap and electricity available at an extra cost by buying a card from the local garage.

Distance motored / sailed 90 nm

We are watching the weather carefully as is seems to be going bad by Thursday when we shall probably have to have 3 days in port so we are hoping to get to Kristiansund, where they have all facilities and it will probably be time to find a washing machine, as I am sure the bedding needs doing!

James seems to be coming down with a cold / man flu – he says he’s feeling dreadful and is swallowing flu tablets as though there is no tomorrow, in fact this has been brewing for a while as on Friday going to Flam he did not feel well and was sucking sore throat tablets.  It is also affecting his enjoyment of the trip, so far he has not really got into it, boat repairs, laptops not behaving as he would like and pain are causing him to be fairly miserable!