Angelica and 37 rock piles

Moving right along we awoke on sun.July 06/14 at 1030 to a cold damp rainy foggy morning. What to do?
Haa not what you think.We went to the supermarket and bought two sticky buns and had them for breakfast then a 1130 got underway for a very long trip of 5 miles. That's nautical miles which are longer then land miles and 6 miles shorter than a Norwegian mile and before you ask I don't know why a Norwegian mile is 7 times as long as ours. Maybe because they use Kilometres? But I digressed back to the story. We put on our foulies and they were, no sun for a while so no drying. Brrrrrr. fired up the young engine Cleared out of the harbour into fog. Bummer glad to have Radar as the mark 1 eyeball couldn't see 10 feet! Opened the throttle No I didn't strangle anyone! though the thought has crossed my mind at 1 or 2 occasions. I digress again bad noel. set the rev's (revolutions per minute of the engine for the uninitiated) at 1700 and away we went at 6 knots. GPS and electronic charts are the cat's bark. We crossed the open water negotiated the rock guarded channel and arrived at our destination of Sandshamn which just happens to mean what it sounds like. Which brings us to the title of this chapter. Angelica is a plant that was a staple in the vikings diet and is a sure give away that they were somewhere because they all ways took it with them and you find it where ever they were. Quite interesting tasted like BITTER lemon with a dash of celery and raw horseradish. Maybe the cause of them not being very friendly? So the stuff is everywhere. Now the 37 rock piles relate to the 37 known viking graves on the island. None of which have anything of interest left in them. or so I've been told. I am going to get a metal detector to check some out for myself. who knows I might find something and be able to afford this cruising life style? We arrived in Sandshamn  just in time to see everyone leaving? Hmmm I said to myself what's up with this? No smoke, No bodies, No screaming women Obviously not the aftermath of a viking raid so???? Dam we missed another festival! This has happened to us for the whole trip a day late or three days to early for the party.Good thing was we had the whole town to ourselves as the inhabitants recovered! Went down to the fiske plant that's fish plant in English and bartered Sally for a fresh caught red fish. Sally's favourite colour is red in case no one knew that. No not really I can't find crew as good as her so no plans on a replacement. I can write this because she's asleep and can't peek over my shoulder. Heeee,Heeee don't tell her or I'm in the BIG doodooo. Since the party was over we left.
1015 in the AM It's raining!! Cold and the wind on our back so had a not so nice days travel  to Alesund.
We spent 4 delight full days in Alesund at the Sailing club.My cousin Aud Marie arrived with her two girls Freda and Aldene and they brought along our friend Dianne Leggett. I was overcome with estrogen. We did quite a bit here as Aud had her car so we were able to move around. quite easily. Though for some reason we mostly walked? and climbed up the 244 steps to the lookout restaurant where we all had an ise. and a beer. Well not the two girls cause mom wouldn't let them. Tried to get the fridge fixed but everyone going on hollidays and it would be to expensive(the price of a new house in Toronto) so I didn't but bought a coolatron box instead! so now cold beer and milk yiippeee Did a couple of other things like go for a rather refreshing swim and the last day of Aud's visit we all went to the Aquarium. I think Aquarium must be a Roman name because it has um in it. could be wrong though. Looked at all the locally caught inhabitants and could only thing of dinner go figure. All good things must end so Aud left me with just Sally and Diane still to much estrogen but bearable.there was a boat festival on also so we wandered around there and Diane got lost but found her own way back to the boat which resulted and the estrogen threat level dropping back to a reasonable yellow.bought a pair of sandals and now they are my favourite foot wear. Getting ready to leave so until the next instalment toodle ooo

Way way beyond Bergen

So here we are.
 Sitting on the boat in Rorvik. a long way from Bergen and a long way from good internet connections. This is why there haven't been any updates for a while. My story and we're sticking to it!
We (Sally and I in case you were wondering)  left Flam at 0300 to catch the ebb and motored out of the Harbour  flat calm MB ride until about 1030 when the wind started to blow a force 4.on the nose. Not much fun for the rest of the day but at 1730 we dropped the anchor in 10ft in a very nice peace full bay called VagsVegan. Went sleepybys after a drink and,,,,,, the skys opened up with a deluge and a bunch of wind. No problems as Bruce was stuck good and proper in the mud.Sooo rolled over and slept like a little lamb. (don't really know how little lambs sleep). Awoke at 10ish  on July 3/14 and got underway at 1115. Had to use the motor to break Bruce out of jail as the crew just wasn't strong enough. Motored out into the main fjord and at noon shut the motor off(don't like the term Killed the engine anymore so try not to use it and I think the new one understands English so do have to be care full) Raised the sails all two of them, the little main and the BIG Genoa and away we went at 6.5 to 7 knots ( now knots for you who don't know and youz who do will just have to bare with me as I'm the writer or you can skip this part and jump to the next bit.
 Which of course hasn't been written yet so there really is no point on jumping fore word.
 Anyway Knots were and still are in some cases a way of telling your speed through the water. What one does is have a very long string with knots tied in it at measured length and with a triangular board tied to the end and a means of telling the time. Once this is all set up you toss the wood bit over the side making sure the other end of the string is tied off or held onto for the obvious reason. then as the string slides gently through your fingers you count the knots as they pass by in a given time and viola after some simple math you know how fast you were going when you tossed the log but not how fast your going at the moment. Or you could just look at the speedometer.
 Ok whose still with me? Sally?
 We  sailed on and on until we reached secret anchorage 32 dam should be #2 big fingers.Helle Hamn water was too deep for the crew so we decided to try out the Norwegian custom of just sliding up to a somewhat vertical rock and tying off to it. So we put all our fenders over the Starbord or right side (Yes we did tie them off to the stanchions) and sidled up to said rock and Bobs your uncle(Not mine but probably some of you have an Uncle Bob) We were nicely tied off and secured and comfy The kelp actually works as a very nice cushion. Went walk about and dinghy about and I caught a bunch of Mussels,clams and winkles and we had Seafood Pasta for dinner.
Friday July 4 2014 HAPPY BIRTHDAY to those ingrates who didn't like paying their fair share of the tea tax. We arose at the leisurely hour of  0800 and managed to get away by 0830 for our next destination. At 0949 we shut the engine off hoisted the sail and away we went at up to 7 kts(short form for knots) arriving at Floro (not the real name but I don't have a keyboard that can do the funny stuff with O'ss) at 1300. We got secured and had hot dogs or as they're know here Polsk and Lumpas then went walk about and did some shopping. We returned to the boat with our hard earned goods and never went out again as the heavens decided it was a good time to drain the pool and we were at the end of the hose! So then we had Cauliflower and cheese for dinner and even turned the furnace on for a while.
We left Floro at 0800 and headed of to a place called Selje which has an abandoned Monastery on it.The old time monks were pretty smart they snuck away from England and built the Monastery right in the backyard of the vikings where they knew the vikings wouldn't think of looking for them.. We motored the whole way there and into the little harbour only to find a cruise boat/taxi tied up in the middle of the only pontoon and a bunch of tourists clambering around the ruins or sunbathing on the rocks like a flock of seals. We couldn't land so settled on some photo's and left for the Dreaded rounding of the third miserable nasty headland called Stat,Statt or Stad depending on how well the map maker could spell.
 How bad could it be?
 No wind, flat sea, blue sky, not a cloud to be seen and shorts and t shirt weather except of course for the sunbathers at Selje.
 We rounded the first half and could see the second half and a bunch of small boats out fishing We've got this one made I thought to myself, didn't want the gods hearing me. Well the buggers can read minds especially that Thor fellow and his side kick the wind god.
 No sooner had we made the halfway or point of no return they,the above two deities woke up saw us and BAM 40 KNOTS off the mountain and into our a Genoa which promptly jammed and wouldn't furl just as we were trying to get out of the way of a freighter that wanted the same piece of water we were in.Which by the way was only about 300 feet wide between the rock and a hard place. We headed off to shore managed to get the sail furled as said freighter passed by us and the captain at least gave us a friendly wave. We round the cape and had a nice sail to Brinsinghaug where we tied up to the nicest quietest most comfortable pontoon in the whole world.

Wick to Bergen or North Sea madness.

All righty now. We've left Inverness sailed motored and made our way to Wick where we arrived at 0500 in the morning! No one and I mean no one not even the dogs cats cow sheep or rats were awake except for a dutchman who was just leaving.
We secured the boat had a 4 hour nap. cleared in to the marina office and went walk about to the Pultney distillery for a tour. 23 hours later they found me in the warehouse! Dam!! However i did manage to talk to the harbour master who is the cousin of a Staff Sgt. I worked for in a previous life.Actually one of the nicest I ever worked for or with. We wandered around the town did a bit of shopping and went out for dinner at Witherspoons also known as just spoons Scots don't like spending to many letters hense the shortened version. Fish and chips and REALLY CHEAP BEER! 2.50#/pint. Only problem, It wasn't to good and I can't remember the name to warn you!
We left at 0900 or there abouts the next morning for the NORTH SEA CROSSING1 It really didn't matter what time we left cause it was a long way anyway. At least 2 days. We exited the harbour raised the sails set the CH(short form for Cape Horn self steering system) deployed the duo Gen in water mode(electricity generating system) and away we went.WELL it started off well but then quickly deteriorated into, I don't like this. Then,I want off. then why us, then I'm going to sell the boat and move to Winnepeg and finally,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,I'm glad thats over but what a great sail 47 hours Wick to Norway! Glad it didn't reach the Free boat stage! We made our way to the Bergen Sailing Club in Kviturspollen. 289 miles 47 hours average 6.2 knots.

Scotland and beyond not beonce!

OK OK I know you.ve all been waiting for the next installment so here it is.

We left Carrick Fergus with the tide and headed off to sunny Scotland (yea right sunny) at 0830 and had a motor boat ride across the North channel (the one between Ireland and Scotland, not the one at the top of Georgian Bay.this is for youz who are Geographically challenged). With local knowledge that we were able to obtain with bribes we were able to hug the coast close in and had a favourable 2 knots + against the ebb so we made good time and were well positioned when the tide turned and we crossed at 7-8 knots and sometimes more. We had light fog, med fog light fog and some more med fog and cold all the way. Foulies got a work out. Oh in case you didn't know it the term foulies comes from the perfume generated by wet gear that has been stored on board over the winter without ventilation!
We made it to Ardminish in good time 63 miles in 9 hours with no give or take. Picked up a mooring and there were 10 other boats all ready there and two more came in after us. A very popular spot. We were going to bypass it this year and go to the Queens ( the real one) beach but it was occupied. Spent the night and really early the next morning 0930 we left for Oban. A Dull foogy trip but quick sally figured out the time to leave to catch the tide and I added a whoops factor so we didn't get the full advantage but we still made 11.5 knots and arrived at Oban in good time. took a mooring and stayed on board and started to cook the rapidly thawing meat supply.
We left Oban at 0200 so that we could catch the Sea Lock at Corpatch which is only open 2hrs either side of High Water who is actually not the brother of low water but the brother of no water. It was a very calm foggy morning and as the sun rose yup in the East I could see the fog lifting up into the Scottish Hills. I even saw a wraith. You might ask what a wraith is or not care but I'm going to tell you anyway because I have the keyboard! So a wraith is a lost wandering spirit that only comes out on dull dreary misty foggy days. They kind of hang around close to the ground for the maximum scare value if you happen upon one whilst walking in a glen or some other part of Scotland. Think they might also be territorial as I only saw one and He, She, It did look a little lonely and I don't think they can swim either as He, She,It didn't come out to the boat for a visit. I was hoping it would as Sally was sleeping down below and a visit from a real wraith would have been priceless. Oh and they don't talk much so all in all would not make a bad guest. So back to the trip which was so quick i made it to the Lock to early! and had to wait for the opening. Didn't take long and it gave Ian and Margaret time to arrive. Which they did.
Loxk finally opened and in and up we went just like an elevator except somewhat dryer. Once Ian and Margaret were on board and they're stuff stowed ie thrown on the floor we did the escalator of Neptune's stair case. Once at the top we secured the boat right outside the facilities had a scrumtious dinner and a wobbly or two(hollidays so no one counts) we all went sleepy bys.
Sunday June 15/14 0830 we cast off for the arduous journey East through the Caledonia Canal which if you don't know was built by the same guy as who built the Rideau Canal Thomas Telford. He did an excellant job with both and they were both sized to take an English Frigate. In due time we arrived in Fort Augustus locked down insted of up tied up close to the lou again went walk about had another scrumptious dinner of soon to go bad stuff. We met a couple of guys with an older swan(boat not the bird) though there were some birds around. And after the girls chatted them up we got invited for breakfast in their condo in the old Abbey  which had been made into an Abbey after the fort got to expensive to maintain so the Prince Augustus ave it to the Monks. Then the Monks fell on bad times and sold out to a condo developer so we got to go for breakfast. Left there later than I wanted but on dry land Captain doesn't count for much! We eventuall got under way and had a motorboat ride down Loch Ness and no Nessie this year guess she recognized us. and in due time we arrived in Inverness. Ian and Margaret left us after a great few days and we were left all alone :(. Not for long we called Fiona and she and Neil and Poppy came for dinner. Oh Poppy is a spoiled red dog make unknown at the moment but very friendly anyway. Tried to get the fridge fixed and no one in the whole @#$%^&*&^%$# country could be bothered to even come and have look at it! So it still isn't but the sea is cold so the beer is tolerable.
We left Inverness with the tide at 1730 hours and motored out of the harbour and once out past Fort George (the one in Scotland not NOTL) we hoisted the sails and had a very nice sail to Wick. arriving at 0500. Got squared away and went walk about to the distillery and then out to dinner at Witherspoons 2.95 pints!!!! and some fish and Chips.
Done UK and Ireland now so you'll just have to wait for Norway. OH OH just realized it wasn't a wraith but a Specter description still applies though.

Up the Irish

Ha you all thought we forgot about you didn't you? Well we didn't just too much happening in to short a time and no internet access any way. That's the story and we're sticking to it!
We left Kilmore Quay against all the advise about bad seas and weather dressed warm and in our foulies and had a wonder full motor sail to Arklow with the tide. Spent two days rigging halyards and waiting for a huge wind to die down and then after two days headed North once again with the tide. Had a great sail until Dalky when the not so huge wind shrunk to a whisper so kranked up the now trusty red deisel and motored the final 15 miles to Howth Every thing except the fridge working perfectly. While in Howth we did the run around to Customs trying to get the vat back on the engine purchase It really was an expensive run around a we used a cab to the airport and then the port No one knew what to do and we were finally advised to mail a letter to the head of the vat refund section outlining why we want the money back. Your guess is as good as mine as to what that outcome will be. The rest of the day was spent in Dublin doing Dublin stuff and then going to Melfield house to visit Uncle Mike and Auntie Joyce. Returned on the dart to the boat and left Howth at 0130 Wed June 11/14 and motored 96 miles in 14 hours and tied up in CarrickFergus Northern Ireland. Spent only the one night but went for a pint at the sailing club and listened to and watched a 23 member guitar 1 tambourine and a late entry keyboard band. jammin. Left the next morning for Gigha.

Weather thou goest!

Weathered in Kilmore Quay. Go figure, we finally get in the water on Wed. load the boat close up the house Party with the boatyard crew sleep on board for the first time in too long. Get up early on Thurs. fuel the boat cast off at 1030 on a glorious sunny day and motor down the Barrow river. Repaired Auto Pilot thinks it's in China and just wanted to go around in a circle so Sally and I took turns actually steering for a change. It was just a perfect day on the water. Arrived into the Quay. The mechanic came down to finish up some stuff and broke a tap (the threading thingy not the water one) in the shaft coupling to the transmission! Not a good end to the day!.
Woke up this oops forgot we went out last night for fish and chips. anyhow we did wake up this morning to a howler out of the S/E with some rain thrown in for good measure! Had the first bowl of oatmeal this season for breakfast.
 I then started on some easy jobs then the mechanics crew arrived to install the correct deluxe instrument panel and fix the coupling.
All went well and now everything is working except I now have a fuel leak from the top of the tank! But that's tomorrows job. If there is not a boat job everyday I get anxious and out of sorts.
Sally went off on the bus in the morning leaving me, So I went for a crab roll to feel better.
 Now back on board listening to the wind generator actually making electricity! Whooooppppeeee. don't have to plug in.
Looks like we might even be here tomorrow. So one days travel and two days idle multiplied by 27 and divided by 34 = a long long long summer! By for now.

I'm back!!!! Still in New Ross! awaiting a new Instrument panel that should have come with the engine! Almost got into the water on the weekend but the fridge decided that it didn't want to fridge. So now we're waiting for a relay to fix that problem. Need the fridge for beer and a whole lot of meat for Norway as the prices can turn one into a vegieterian don't know how to spell Vegan but you get the idea.
So welst we were waiting for parts we decided to drive up to Limerick to see the Beta dealer and pick up some spare filters and zincs. Had a nice visit with Cyril and then drove to a flying boat museum. Can't remember the town name) Where we boarded a Boeing flying boat for a tour and flight. Sally was the Pilot. I had a parachute.
Then last Tuesday We went out to Helen's BIG House for a salmon dinner (caught by Gerrard Helen's Gardiner also her Husband). 7 of us at table (Table sat 24 without any leafs) but we were all at the same end so easy to pass the salt and pepper.
Wed. we went to Adrian's for a bbq steak dinner. Thurs we were back at Longraid for another feast (think there is a secret competition going on ) with John and Carol, Mark and Jaquie. and Collin and Lizzie and assorted rug rats. Fri. We met Adrian at the undertakers and had 1 too many pints then off home for fish and Chips.
Sat. at the boat yard for a bbq of shisssskaboobs and veg. with a little wine for good measure. Sun back at the yard Sally off God bothering so a quiet morning. doing boat stuff. Why is it with a boat when something works last week it doesn't this? I pondered that all yesterday afternoon and into the evening then I went to bed.
Today yesterdays stuff that didn't work was fixed(fingers toes eyes and legs crossed) and some new stuff also fixed. Annnnd the boat isn't  even wet yet! But it's all fun (ya right) this comment brought to you by the right brain.
So I think this brings me up to date and there is even pictures for your edification and amusement.
by for now.