Norway

[westhinder]

We have just returned from a seven week round trip from Belgium to the west coast of Norway. Favourable winds both on the outward and homebound legs and great scenery in the fjords, so quite pleased. The weather had some room for improvement, but nothing you would not expect there.
For those of you interested in the region, I have kept a blog of my trip, which I’m still adding to. It is written in Dutch, so that might be a bit of a challenge, but there are plenty of pictures to whet your appetite. www.ossian.be
I’ll be glad to answer any questions.

 

[Ohlin Karcher]

I've been sailing in S.Norway recently, it is popular with Belgians and Dutchmen in particular.
I sailed back from Kristiansand to Newcastle, after leaving the Skagerrak we had ~60 hrs of zero wind, followed by ~50 hrs of NW-lies, 24-28 kts, so it took about 6 days but plenty of variety..
Some very nice photos on your blog, how far north did you get?

 

[Malish]

Nice blog, a web translator takes care of the Dutch ;-)

 

[westhinder]

I've been sailing in S.Norway recently, it is popular with Belgians and Dutchmen in particular.
I sailed back from Kristiansand to Newcastle, after leaving the Skagerrak we had ~60 hrs of zero wind, followed by ~50 hrs of NW-lies, 24-28 kts, so it took about 6 days but plenty of variety..
Some very nice photos on your blog, how far north did you get?

We went straight to Tananger and then spent 5 weeks cruising the fjords. We did not go further North than Bergen, but spent quite some time in the Hardangerfjord and its branches and in the fjords and islands around Stavanger.
We were extremely lucky that we had favourable winds both on the trip there and back.
I crewed for a friend on a trip along the S Norwegian coast up to Oslo a couple of years ago and liked it very much. The fjords offer much more spectaculair scenery, on a scale that is a lot vaster than the west coast of Scotland, which had always been my favourite cruising ground.

 

[Ohlin Karcher]

Yes lucky indeed with your winds! It was a bar steward beating out of the Skagerrak.. and we learned how the Jammerbucht got its name!
I have my sights set on the far north, at least as far as I can go without getting involved with search and rescue bonds and bear guns..a friend's right up there now on a small MAB, Sailing Embla is his You tube channel if anyone's interested..
thanks WH or should I say tusen takk

 

[Tim Good]

Loved Norway!!!! We sailed through scotland and up to near Tromso over 6 months. Wrote an article in Sailing Today about it. REally looking forward to going back there. Click pic for the read:

 

[westhinder]

Loved Norway!!!! We sailed through scotland and up to near Tromso over 6 months. Wrote an article in Sailing Today about it. REally looking forward to going back there. ]

Great trip and a very nice article with beautiful photography
What we did was merely tourism, nothing really off the beaten track.
As you say, it is a place one looks forward to going back to.

 

[Sgeir]

Norway has an absolutely amazing coastline with great variety of islands, mountains, glaciers, fjords and spectacular crags that are a multiple of the Aonach Dubh. Very taken with the place.

We sailed in the areas south of Statt, in Sogn og Fjordane and Hordaland down to Korsfjorden. We saw very few yachts, and not many more motor boats north of Fensfjorden which, for us, had the most dramatic scenery and great sailing; it becomes much more "suburban" to the south, but still quite beautiful.

Even in fairly sparsely populated areas like Bulandet, a series of skerries and small islands joined by causeways and bridges, the infrastructure spend has been impressive, using the oil money to invest in the remote and poorer areas in preparation for a post-oil economy (our oil wealth was just pissed up against the wall in tax cuts).

We shall be back some time.