Bergen Part I

I weighed anchor early Thursday as the mist was rising on Dragoya and John and Jocelyn were snoring. The wind was calm, so I motored through Haugesund joined only by a few fishing boats. We snuck through the short leg exposed directly to the North Sea without incident and then tucked back in behind the protective islands. The wind built from the south creating a wonderful broad reach for much of the rest of the 49-mile trip to Lokksund, a dramatic narrow channel connecting Hardangerfjorden with Bjornafjorden. Once through, I steered Windleblo into the narrow entry to Gripnesvagen, our destination for the day.

Inside the protected cove, we spied a perfect cliffy island to try our first rock tie up, Scandinavian style. I had purchased two large orange fender balls in Stavanger for just such an occasion. After a couple of recon circles, we pulled up to our mooring for the night, closely watching the depth meter. We landed without mishap, using rocks and trees to tie ourselves off. Though this was routine for the Norwegians, it was a first for us, and we felt quite accomplished.

After a walk on shore, John tried his hand at fishing, to no avail. Our felafel dinner was extracted from the freezer.

We left Gripnesvagen at 9 a.m. Friday for the two hour motor through calm winds to Hjellestad, a lovely village in the flight path of planes landing at the Bergen airport. En route, we spied something floating in the water. It was a message in a bottle! We circled back to retrieve it. We opened the bottle. Inside, the message read, "Hello! We are from Norway. We sent this out 04-24-09. If you find this contact on +47 90 24 65 64 or +47 46 46 02 85. Love from Agnes and Thea Marie." We have been trying to contact Agnes and Thea Marie to say, "Hey. We're from the United States and we found your message," but haven't been able to get through yet. We'll keep trying.

Chris had emailed us that he, Anne, and Martin were awaiting the proper weather window in Hjellestad for their passage to the Shetland Islands. But we didn't find Swallow there. A check of Chris's blog showed they had moved to Bergen yesterday, so we had missed them. We tied up to the mooring platform and got settled in. John and I went on a nice run, finding an interesting trail through the woods, which led to a botanical garden. Upon our return, we invited Jocelyn to come see it. As we were leaving, what did we see approaching the docks but Swallow! They had rafted four deep for a night in Bergen vagen, seen the town, and decided to return to Hjellestad until their departure. We all walked to the botanical garden, finding a beautiful Japanese garden there. Then, we enjoyed another delightful dinner together aboard Windleblo.

The weather window for their North Sea passage opens early Sunday morning. We'll stay here to await Emily's arrival Monday night. Then, we'll head north Tuesday.