Norwegan Waters - info required

[sbrockman]

Thinking of heading across to Stavanger next summer and notice that my Reeds Almanac doesn't go that far north. Is there an almanac that covers Norwegan waters? Also are there any pilots/cruising guides worthy of a look?
A final question - when considering charts is there a Norwegan version of UKHO or am I just as well buying the UKHO ones?

Any help or advice gratefully received.

Steve b

 

[Krusty]

Cruised Norwegian waters from Oslo to 70N in past two summers: not aware of anything like Reeds, but Norwegian charts are so incredibly detailed I would not consider buying UK charts exept for N.sea passage. Do get 'Norwegian Cruising Guide' by John Armitage & Mark Brackenbury, (Alard Coles): not comprehensive, but invaluable, for a start. The Norwegian pilot-books, Den Norske Los cover the whole coastline in great detail (several volumes). No3 covers the W coast from S of Stavanger up to Stad, 4 & 5 up to Lofoten: you need an English-Norwegian dictionary and lots of time, but the harbour chartlets and photgraphs from the air are brilliant.

 

[Eightball]

hi stevs have a brouse here.www.noonsite.com you might get a fair bit of in fo

 

[Eightball]

hi stevs have a brouse here.www.noonsite.com you might get a fair bit of in fo go to countrys

 

[Dyflin]

You could always try the Admiralty Pilots for Norway as well

 

[temptress]

I don't have the info handy but - yes to all your questions.

I sailed and lived on board up there for a few years. The Norwegian Sailing directions are published in Norsk and English and are a must if you want to cruise that part of the world.

Do NOT use Uk charts use the Norwegian ones they are much more detailed and allow you to find your way using the stick system between the rocks.

I'll look up the info and post more for you later.

 

[roger]

charts and pilots

Den Norske Los - the last one we bought was Norwegian only. Older ones in many cases were both Norwegian and English.
There are about 16 volumes of these and they are each fairly pricey. My memory says about £40 each. They mainly concentrate on commercial ports - the further north you go the more likely it is that you will be using them.
The norwegian charts are excellent even if its sometimes useful to photocopy sections at double scale to make them easily readable. The main cruising areas (Swedish border to about Alesund) are covered by packs of small charts(sportkarts) in plastic envelopes except for the great fjords where you revert to normal charts.
Many of the guest harbours shown on the sport karts are intended for the local small motor boats and may be shallow.
At Stavanger tides are pretty small and even at Bergen they are only about a metre or so.
However if you get up to the /forums/images/graemlins/blush.giffoten Islands you may meet the Maelstrom.
There are at least two guides published giving guest harbour details, neither is comprehensive but they are useful.
There are also some very good and expensive guides published for natural harbours (in Norwegian only)

 

[Sadlermike]

Re: charts and pilots

I've spent three of the last four summers in Norway sailing from the Swedish border to Lofoten. IMO
1 the norwegian almanac only gives tide/lunar info etc and, as already stated, tides are small and can be worked out from Reeds

2 Den Norske Los is not worth the money. Northern volumes are in Norwegian only and all volumes are of limited interest to the cruising yachtsman

3 See morganscloud.com for updates to the Armitage sailing directions.

 

[ChrisE]

We're currently working our way North from Stavanger and would agree with most of the above. Regarding Den Norske Los, they no longer print the English/Norwegian versions. We have found the Sportskarts useful but largely use our C-Map driven chartplotter which make a lot more obvious sense of the sometimes complex leads through the islands.

There are a couple of Norwegian locals who inhabit this board who have given me a lot of useful info. If you decide to do the trip PM me if you need any more information.