2008 - Norway

2008 - Faustina II goes to Norway

We took Faustina II to Norway this year. (Well, in truth, Ann flew there and back –sensible girl that she is.) It’s an amazing cruising ground but it’s so big that you can only attempt a small bit of it in any one year. (The statistic I like is that if you pivot Norway round on its southern-most point, the North Cape would reach Rome.) We homed in on the area around Bergen and Stavanger. The cities are 165 miles apart and lie at the very SE of Norway. North of Bergen the coast line tends to be rugged with the classic high-sided hills whilst to the south the country becomes gentler – though as I will describe it has its fair share of steep-sided fjords too.

The incentive to go to Norway was a cruise in company organised by the Cruising Club of America (CCA). Initially they had planned to go to the Lofoten Islands but reality kicked in and they opted for an easier place to charter yachts. I took Faustina to Bergen with my friend Bruce and my step-grandson Sam as delivery crew . We/I had hoped to go via the Scottish west coast but the weather was so awful that we went via the Caledonian Canal with stops thereafter at Wick (ugh!), Kirkwall in the Orkneys with a day exploring the ‘mainland’ by car taking in the ancient village ruins at Skara Brae, Westray also in the Orkneys, past North Ronaldsay (how some names resonate) to Fair Isle, and then Lerwick in the Shetlands.

We then had a reasonable crossing of the North Sea to Norway, tucking into a small bay on arrival for a sleep before going up to Bergen. Here we got to know this lovely city which is infamous for the numerous days of rain it gets every year. In this year of an especially wet Ireland and England I won’t go on about it BUT - every day we were in Bergen we had hot sun all day, both on this visit and later in the cruise. Sorry.

We explored the sites for a few days and then the deliverers flew home and Ann, with Jennifer Guinness (ICC/CCA) and Alex Booth, flew in and we went south a few miles to Hjellestad, a village with a marina and the base for the start of the CCA’s ‘Norwegian Fjord Cruise, 12-24 July 2008’. For the record they had a large mothership (the Loyal ) with 14 CCA members on board, eight private yachts - including Faustina II, Paloma with Clive (ICC/CCC) and Elisabeth Scott and their crew of two CCA friends, and Pilgrim Soul with Andrew (ICC) and Helen Curtain and their crew Ray Lovett (ICC) and Noel Kelly – and nine chartered yachts. The general plan was to explore the Sognefjord, Norway’s longest (over 120M) and deepest (1300m) fjord.

The geography

OK, unless you know Norway well a little geography will help you keep up with what follows. The coast of Norway is very indented and there are umpteen islands and narrow passages. These are collectively known as the skjærgård and mean that for much of the coastline it is not necessary to go out into the open sea. Wonderful cruising grounds but it’s very difficult to do a map. So I have done a sketch to give you an idea of where the essential places are. If you want more, find a road map of Europe. Just note the positions of Bergen and Stavanger, then note where Sognefjord is and how long it is, Lysefjord at the bottom and finally Hardanger fjord. That will suffice, but I have numbered a few other places that are referred to below. You could try joining up the numbers with a red pen as you read along!

Fedje town

The oil tanker control tanker on Fedje Island

A lovely evening at anchor

The CCA cruise gets under way

You can leave a boat in Hjellestad (see 1 on the sketch) over winter (no ice in this area) and some do, but it tends to be a bit exposed to the weather. I wouldn’t. There are better places. From there we all went to a nearby island to eat at a very upmarket seafood restaurant which was incredibly expensive – and not that good. A bit ‘up itself’. It is called ‘Cornelius’ and you can only reach it by sea. (You probably don’t need to be told that pretty nearly everything in Norway is very expensive – especially drink. £7 for a beer is not unusual, £35 for a bottle of ordinary plonk. You sort of get used to it after a while so I won’t mention it again except to say that we took our own gin etc. and were not troubled at all by Customs authorities. You don’t even have to book into Norway even though it kept out of the EU.)

Next day we cruised north to the island of Fedje (see 2, and pics above). It has a nice little bay and harbour – and it also has the watch tower that controls all the movements of oil tankers in the area of SE Norway. They really care. Every tanker that comes inside the line of islands has a tug attached to its stern just in case the steering fails. We were given an interesting tour of the tower and its workings. We weighed at 0445 next day and set out for the Sognefjord and made our longest daily run of the cruise (90M) to Balestrand (see 3) with a stop en route for lunch and walk. The German Kaiser regularly used to summer here and at the beginning of WW1 the locals gave him 24hrs to leave. We cleverly anchored in a nice clear spot near the rest of the fleet and then realised that it was clear because were over an electric cable. We tried to lift the anchor to move but.... Having run a length of chain looped on the end of a line down our anchor chain we luckily cleared the cable without blacking out the nearby villages and slunk off to a more crowded part of the anchorage.

We made our way up a gloomy Sognefjord

Ever deeper into the mountains

Balesrund with the Kviknes Hotel on the right.

The fleet at Fjaerland

By now we were well ‘inland’ and the mountains were closing in around us, stunning with their clouds draped attractively over them. The weather had been cloudy and cool and there wasn’t much wind. We had to motor for most of the CCA cruise – indeed for most of our time in Norway. Next day we moved on to Fjaerland (4), a village famous (in Norway at least) for its many book shops. There were lots and they all had books in many languages – mainly English (which everyone in Norway speaks almost fluently). That evening we were guests at a reception given by a CCA member in the wonderful historic wooden Mundal Hotel built in 1891 which is full of original furniture. The hotel always closes during the winter months and the owner thinks that her furniture has lasted so long as it gets so cold in the winter months that creatures that might damage it get killed off.

Hotel Mundal, Fjaerland

John and Ann at the Hotel Mundal dressed for the party

David T, the cruise organiser, addresses the group

Visit to glacier and museum at Jostedalbreen

The following day we went by coach to visit the Glacier Museum and the Josterdalbreen (5) (breen means ‘the glacier’), the largest glacier in Europe. The museum was a little disappointing (I guess that we all expect so much these days) but the glacier was fun despite the heavy rain. Actually we didn’t get ON to the glacier – we only got below two of its ‘tails’ and scrabbled to walk on the debris of ice and rock that has fallen off the glacier at one of them. It was a scene of some grandeur with the edge of the glacier hanging above us We enjoyed a ‘cool’ day out and the walk away from the boats.

The approach march to the glacier

John, Ann and Clive below the glacier

Jennifer and Ann

Some of the party on the glacier tail.

Run off water

Pseudo polar explorers!

Dinner at Kvikne's Hotel

Next day we returned to Balestrand (3) and Kvikne’s Hotel, the largest wooden structure in Norway – somewhat spoilt by the hideous rectangular block they have built behind it to make more rooms. We anchored again, carefully avoiding any electric cables, and prepared for the mid-cruise dinner to be held that evening in the hotel. The CCA doesn’t do things by halves and the dinner, which followed drinks and a talk about the hotel by the manager, a descendent of the original owner, was excellent. The hotel is beautifully furnished with an outstanding collection of oil paintings mostly created by visiting artists from around the world. We sat at tables (jackets and ties) with a great view over the fjord. I could get used to living like that!

Kvikne's Hotel at Balesstrand

The Stave church at Urnes

Ann and Jenny pause for breath

Wooden wall panel

Solvern and a stave church

Back to reality on board. We set off at 0800 into a dull day which happily brightened up as we went further east along the Sognefjord and then NNW up the Lustrafjord to Solvorn (6)– deep into the mountains. We anchored and then took a ferry across the fjord to visit the stave church at Urnes which we reached after a stiff climb up the hill. Stave churches are so called from the massive tree trunks around which they were built back in the 12th century. There are 28 remaining and this one is the oldest still standing. It is quite well preserved though sadly the interior fittings had been removed whilst the exterior is renovated. We were to see another stave church later. We bought some raspberry jam here. This particular jam was disappointing but I mention it as they grow a lot of raspberries hereabouts and the fresh ones are lovely. It’s strange - I wouldn't have associated Norway with raspberries any more that I had associated Iceland with rhubarb. (Modern joke: Q. What is the capital of Iceland? A. About €4.35)

Detail of the wooden roof

All aboard the Flamsbana from Flam to Myrdal - and back

The Flam mountain railway

Then we went to Flåm (7) at the head of Aurlandsfjord. Flåm is a serious tourist trap and is justly famous for its railway (the Flåmsbana) which climbs through rugged valleys past many waterfalls to take passengers to Myrdal where they can join the Oslo to Bergen train. The line is an amazing feat of engineering. There are many tunnels and roofs to protect against avalanches and the train occasionally doubles back in 180° turns.

At one point the train stops by the impressive Kjosfossen (fossen means ‘the waterfall’) where we were amazed by the appearance of two Viking ladies ‘singing’ to us from the rocks accompanied by music from loudspeakers. They were getting very wet and we were really more sorry for them than appreciative of their sacrifice.

Our locomotive

The Kjos waterfall

Looking back down at part of the rail track

Borgund stave church

Jenny and Alex had to leave us at Flåm to return home to supervise the building of their new home. The next day was Sunday (20 Jul) and perhaps appropriately we went by bus through lovely countryside to visit the Stave church at Borgund. This is the finest preserved stave church anywhere. The stave churches, which are all wood, are unique to Scandinavia – they are small and were not only built strongly enough to last nearly a thousand years but they have a special and unique beauty as well. They are regularly tarred on the exterior to preserve the wood. Fascinating buildings.

Borgund stave churcj

A beautiful fjord

Returning to the boats we all cruised down the fjord and turned left into the Naeroyfjord (8) which is a World Heritage Site. This is a cracker of a fjord – considered by many to be the most beautiful in Norway. It’s so narrow in places and at its head that cruise ships are not allowed to go into it – and that can’t be bad. The mothership Loyal went in and then returned to Flåm, but a few of us found a stunning anchorage in the fjord for the night and partied for a while with the noise of a big waterfall across the fjord providing local ‘ambience’.

Naeroyfjord

Guests on board F2 while at anchor in Naeroyfjord

Our guests, Bob and Mindy, check out the route for the morrow

Naeroyfjord

Naeroyfjord in the morning

Back to Bergen

It was a long haul back west along Sognefjord next day and that evening we left the fleet and found our own quiet night stop at Brekke (9) where we were able to go alongside, shop at a small local supermarket a few metres away and go for a walk. We had a nice quiet night before a day of gloomy weather but with interesting navigation through a minefield of islands and narrow passages (we had deliberately taken the ‘interesting’ route) to the next collective anchorage amongst the islands near a nature reserve (10). Then it was on to Bergen where the sun was shining brightly. After dealing with mundane matters like getting our laundry done and taking Ann sightseeing to the Bryggen, we attended the final cruise dinner at the Floien restaurant which, for those of you that may know Bergen, is the one at the top of the 320m high funicular railway. Very smart, very expensive, quite good and great craic.

The church at Brekke

Ann, Jenny and Alex walking near Brekke

Sognefjord

Moored in central Bergen

The old quarter of Bryggen by the harbour in Bergen

View of Bergen and its harbour from the top of the Floien funicular

The end of the cruise

All that remained now was to return to Hjellestad (1) where those that had chartered boats handed them back. Apparently the boats were excellent. Everyone had really enjoyed the cruise which had been well planned in great detail to provide us all with an interesting list of venues and functions. We all got on well and we were made to feel very welcome by all the CCA members – including of course old friends Bob (ICC) and Mindy who were there in their 53ft motorsailer Night Hawk (which was up for sale). Our especial thanks to David T who must be one of the most competent cruise organiser anywhere. No detail was too small for him to have considered. His attention to detail and his vast knowledge of these waters sailing his beautiful yacht Night Watch meant that we had had a wonderful experience.

David T's beautiful yawl 'Night Watch'

'Loyal', the cruise mother ship