Just as each snowflake is unique, this past week has been unlike any other in our voyage.

Imagine...

• Anchoring in a quiet cove and swimming off the stern in glassy, 60-degree water one night, then
  
• Rafting up eight deep in a mid-sized Norwegian town where two festivals compete for attention the next.
• And the very next morning, setting sail for an offshore island that might as well be the Aleutians, tying up behind a breakwater as near gale force winds howl into the night.
• Then, braving the seas again in 25-knot winds through two-meter swell for the ten-mile return reach to protected inside passages.
  
• The saga continued when we took a berth in Tau, a ferry stop on the way to Preikestolen. We caught a tour bus to the trailhead for the four-hour, five-mile hike to view the fjord more than 600 meters directly below.
• We were joined on the trail by hundreds of tourists speaking every language imaginable. It was no surprise -- Preikestolen is the most visited tourist attraction in the Stavanger region.
  
• And every evening we enjoyed gourmet repasts prepared by the Slow Food Governor of California's Bay Area region

Quite a remarkable week!

Yesterday morning, we bid a fond farewell to Andy and Carmen, who rounded out this year's crew. We've just learned, sadly, that Martin and Dawn, our first crew mates, must cancel their return tour due to other obligations. Bummer! So it's the skeleton crew for the duration...and a chance for Windleblo to show us how easy she is to sail short-handed.

Last night, a pleasant surprise. Our Tananger welcoming committee did it again! Mark and Marilyn greeted us with two six-packs of Coors Light and came aboard for a lively but all too short visit accompanied by their friends Colby and Adrianne.

We're now ready to disembark Tananger to catch westerlies, which finally arrived after two weeks of southerlies. We're headed south to round Lindesnes and and then back to Norway's east coast. We can't exaggerate how much we've loved Norway's West Coast -- beautiful!