Sail from Norway to the Orkney Isles

Our first overnight sail, with watches, was from Gothenburg to Kristiansand, which we chose as the easiest place to exit the Schengen zone.

There are 3 watches in daylight, 4 hours each, and 4 watches at night, 3 hours each.  That way the three of us get to rotate through each watch rather than being stuck on midnight to 3am every day.

We arrived at Kristiansand in the morning at about 4:30am, found a berth, and went to bed. We walked to the police station to check out from the Schengen zone.  It took a while as even when the senior officers were summoned they had trouble with the EES.  I think the Germans on the Kiel canal had attached Martin's finger prints to the wrong passport.

The next big leg is the 60 hour, 370nm, stretch from Kristiansand to Kirkwell in the Orkney Isles.  We were motoring into the wind at first, after we turned west at the south coast of Norway then we had the opportunity to sail.

Once we were out in the open the waves were rough, the wind creates local waves on top of the swell.  I did my 9pm to midnight watch and slept like a log afterwards. I slept in the saloon midships, I expected it get rougher later - the rowing machine had collapsed onto my side of the bunk anyway.  My sleep score was bad: terrible going to bed and waking times but hardly any interruptions.  I woke just in time to do my 6am to 9am shift.  The sails were set and we were tacking into the westerly wind.  Martin left me on a SW course and told me to take in sail if it got too windy but more likely the wind would drop and I should start the engine if our speed dropped below 5kn reliably, so that's what I did. I've been reading a lot - the Platinum Pohl anthology. I'm also listening to the Hamnet audio book again (I saw the movie on a plane, I'd like to see that again too).  I'm on the 5pm to 9pm watch now.

For some time the wind has been 2-5kn so we've been motor sailing.  The sea is calm, there's only a low swell - nowhere near as rough as yesterday when the wind was higher. There is very little happening out there.  Occasional tankers and cargo ships, I can see them on the chart plotter because they transmit AIS but I might not see them otherwise because they are way out on the horizon.  It's not like earlier when there were quite a few vessels and sometimes our "1 hour predicted position" lines cross creating a need to judge if we'd pass close to each other or not.  There was one time we would have passed perhaps 200-300m in front of a tanker but if we'd tacked away we'd be on top of another ship coming the other way.  Martin used the radio to tell them our plans and not to worry (perhaps they weren't that concerned?)  So we tacked in front of one ship and passed behind the other.  Very smooth!

It'll be 10 hours before we see our first oil rig.  After that our track passes within a few miles of a few rigs.  I can't see any ships over near them but AIS is VHF line of sight so we are too far away at the moment.

My back is fine BTW!

It's 11:11 am.  I did 3am to 6am last night (this morning?) and have just woken up.  The boat is being tossed around like a cork, I can only move about by holding on with two hands and leaning against things when I move one hand to a new hold, it's a terrific core exercise.  I'd hate to get it wrong and get thrown into something.  I was lucky with my watch, we were just getting into the oil field and would come within 1 nm of a rig soon.  There the lights of rigs were all around, many just a smudge of light over the horizon.  There weren't support vessels buzzing about, the only AIS positions seemed to be "Other" type, I think they are exploration or drilling vessels also mostly stationary.  I didn't get any photos of rigs, it's hard to take crisp photos in the dark while being tossed around.

David left me with all the sails up, doing 7-8kn.  The wind changed a little and I had to decide what to do about that.  There's nothing like being *alone* on watch at *night*, making changes to sails and the auto-helm, to focus the mind on the instruments and the sails and am I doing it right?  I was concerned there for a while (knowing I could get someone out of their bunk to help) but my changes seemed to work out, though I might not have been sailing a efficiently as possible.

We arrived at Kirkwall at 4:30am.  The marina was pretty full, the only likely space was a spot where the strong wind was blowing us off.  It took 3 attempts to get a line on and then it was a struggle to winch us on and secure the bow and stern lines without causing any damage with the wind pushing us around. It was drizzling slightly, and chilly.  Once fast, we all went to bed.

Last night was another one of strong wind and rough seas and occasionally falling off a steep wave and hitting the trough with a crash!  It's nice to  have an auto-helm though, we call it Rupert.  Having to be on the wheel for 3 hours straight would be very tough I'm sure.  Not that I could relax - constantly scanning the instruments in case of a sudden wind shift or a wave that knocks us off course enough that Rupert looses control (rare but it happens).  We (at least David and I?) were finding it a bit hard to take towards the end!  Having made it it feels like an achievement :).

We've walked into town to do some washing and look around.  So far I've only seen Albert Street, the tourist drag, and not  much else.  The sensation that the ground is moving under me was strong as well as a faint sea sickness feeling, the same feeling in my stomach in the early stages sailing on the yacht, a very weird feeling to have on land.  I haven't been sea sick at all really, which is nice.  I have been taking Kwells just in case though.