We have enjoyed a spell of pleasant sunny weather for the last few days. This is all the more surprising as we have spent a couple of days in Bergen , which is reputed to be the wettest place in Europe. To give you an idea of how wet , in one of the side […]
As we make our way slowly North through the marvellous archipelago that cloaks most of Norway’s coast , it is hard not to dwell on how it was in years gone by . The original Norsemen travelled by water because it was by far the quickest way to get anywhere. Their speeds were not very […]
Neptune toyed with us on our passage to Norway. He boxed our ears in the shallow waters of the Friesian islands , gave us a welcome kick north as we took the tail of the gale across the German Bight, and then teased us with a light NW that one minute allowed us to hold […]
One of the most important factors about any port of call is where to find the internet. In the case of Harlingen we found a nice old bar where , for the cost of a beer , or coffee , or apple cake ( or indeed all three!) we could study the weather to our […]
We were up and off the moment the new calorifier passed its’ installation checks. What bliss! Not only did we have a perfect 12 knots of wind from just aft of the beam ( a moist SE’er giving advanced warning of the blow to come) but the boat was back in one piece. No more […]
It was the wind that did it. For the first time in a month it turned southerly and instead of the sharp cold bite that we have become used to, it enveloped us with a warm gentle , almost Mediterranean caress and whispered into our ears “Take me North , take me North, take me […]
When we first visited Enkhuizen in 1975 , our boat ( Undine , a 32 ft plank on edge racing cutter from 1889) was little changed from vessels which had called there for 300 years. Admittedly we had an engine of sorts , but it seldom worked. There were no electronics and lights were paraffin […]