UK to Norway - Advice Gratefully Received!

[Daviessi15]

I’m a newbie on the forum so please excuse any mistakes on protocols.

We are planning our summer cruise to Norway this year - my daughter got to choose the destination this year and is a fan of all things Norwegian ??. Our current berth is Portsmouth, we are fortunate enough to have a well found 43’ and will have a crew of 4. We mainly sail southwestwards or in the med - so I’m unfamiliar with the delights of the Northsea!

I was looking at sailing around to the east coast (e.g. Lowestoft) and jumping off from there to head for S Norway, Kristiansand seemed the obvious point. By my reckoning that is about 3 days and change, with an alternative being to head for Thyborøn in DK. I realise that there are plenty of TSS and oil/gas/wind farm installations to dodge. Unfortunately, most of the pilot guides and passage planning advice seems to focus on crossing to N Netherlands or making the crossing from Scotland to Norway.

My questions are - have I missed something that makes this planned route a ‘no-no’?; is there a better routing, based on peoples’ experience?; finally, for the return voyage would you plan a different route (eg via the East Coast of Denmark and Kiel-North-sea Canal?

Sorry for the long post - any advice/observations/experience gratefully received!

 

[TrondS]

Welcome to Norway!
You might check out this thread. Some useful info there:
http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?520966-Norway

In 2016 I took a motor yacht from Lowestoft directly towards Bergen, Norway, but had to divert to Egersund, Norway, due to some engine issues. Notice that Egersund is not an official 1st port of call when arriving from another country, especially from outside Schengen. Customs was not happy, even though they were notified several hours prior to arrival! Immigration didn't even bother to meet us and was satisfied with an email with details about crew members.

Only TSS for this direct route, is close to Norway, and the oil fields were easy to avoid. Keeping minimum 500 meters from any oil rig, is mandatory.
Met lots of fishing vessels, and many turned off their AIS most of the time.

The North Sea can be very rough, so pay attention to weather forecasts. I found Windy.com and the Danish forecasts (dmi.dk) most accurate.
I chose the direct route because it was a delivery trip (saving fuel and time for the owner) and got lucky with the weather. Backup plan was either via the Kiel canal or north to roughly around Aberdeen before crossing the North Sea.

 

[Daviessi15]

TrondS - thanks for your observations and sharing your experience. The weather window is always the tricky part! I’ll look at the thread you suggest and I’m also looking at crossing to the Kiel Canal and cruising up via Denmark and Sweden also. That way we could also visit the boats birthplace on our way ��

Thanks!

 

[TrondS]

Wrote a long post which somehow got deleted... Here is a summary:
I recommend checking out the Harbor guide books (Havneguiden). Gives useful info for guest harbors and some anchorages. Text both in Norwegian and English, and includes pictures and maps. I believe there are digital versions of the books too.

Don't expect to see any harbor master, except for some of the most popular harbors in the southern part of the country.

A very common practice is to use stern anchor and a line from the bow to shore. Makes it easy to get ashore without a dinghy.

Useful apps:
Coast-weather - provides almost real time wind information for the coastal light houses.
Go marina - to pay harbor fees at many guest harbors

Tide tables and Pilot books can be downloaded for free at kartverket.no

 

[Daviessi15]

That’s really useful info thanks. We got used to mooring with a line ashore in the Med but that was stern to, so it will be interesting learning a new technique! It might be a little nerve wracking getting the bow close into the rocks for the first few times ����