Scotland!

In Scotland, making our way west to the Caledonian canal. The scenery here is dramatic, green hills and barren rocks steeping into a roaring sea. The same sea we crossed nearly a week ago, the same sea we experienced roaring a bit.

We left Mandal at five pm, the first hours we motored in calm and the last hours we had 30 knots and big waves of 3 meters. We arrived in Peterhead at midnight on the second day and it was nice to have solid ground under our feet again. At once we got to know the hospitality of the scotish people, we got invited to the anual BBQ in the marina. The second day we got offered a ride twice, just by asking for dicections. This is the land of "kindness of a stranger".

I think I have a crush on Scotland and I feel a bit sad knowing we hurry past it. Think I could stay here for the hole year...  Scotland makes you feel melancholic but at the same time free att heart.

On the North Sea passage dolphins came to keep us company, they made severel appearances and kept our mood up in the bad weather. We also had a bird visitor aboard for a little while. Gannets dove into the water from 30 metres above, puffins sailing by. Bioluminescence glowing in the night. Now we´re in Lossiemouth. On the way here we saw a seal, not diving when we passed but curiously stretched his neck. The wildlife here is magnificent.

And of course we had to eat lobsters, even though we´re on a buget. Buying them directly from the fisherman (via recomendations from our harbour master Bertie in Whitehills) we could almost afford them! Cooking them onboard, they made a great feast.

My mum and her friend Lena came with us from Norway. When we told them what an expensive country Norway was, they came loaded with food on the train and boat from Sweden! Maybe that´s the mummy gene? Anyway, they´re two tuff women crossing the North Sea and we were glad to have them aboard!

/Lotta

Norway

What a great place! But expensive. Food is free though if you have fishing gear. Mackerel is caught while sailing and even tied to the dock in the marinas you can drop the hook over the side and pick up fish. The other day we had fresh cod for dinner. Crabs are plentiful too. You catch them at night just at the edge of the archipelago where they come up to eat.

We try to spend as much time as possible on anchor but as the weather is a bit unstable it's not always easy. The archipelago is very deep, even close to land so finding good holding ground and enough room to swing by anchor is difficult. Two nights ago we anchored out in a "hole" formed by a few islands called Valöya. Deep as usual we had to anchor close to land without enough room to swing if the wind shifted. No problem, we dropped the anchor from the bow at 7 metres depth and backed up until we were 15 metres from land, we then pulled a couple of lines ashore to hold the stern. The winds were light and came from west which meant that we had the side towards the wind. Again, no problem, the wind was supposed to pick up and we were expecting a force 6-7 during the night but from SW-S where we had the mountain behind us to give us shelter. Now, the problem was that the wind did pick up but stayed westerly, not good. We didn't have enough room to swing around so we could only hope that the anchor and stern lines would hold. During the night the winds peaked at around 30-35 knots and we didn't get much sleep. The stern lines and anchor chain were like violin strings, but we hadn't needed to worry. The truth is that the boat didn't move an inch. Good anchor and/or good holding ground. I'll put a video under "Pics and Vids of Valöya before the winds picked up.

We're now in Grimstad, just a few M W of Valöya, getting ready to leave. Heading west again, winds against us, again. Lots of westerlies along this coast. We'll see what the sea has to offer for dinner today!


/Fishing vessel Ingeborg