Yess ... we have arrived in Norway after more than 48 hours of sailing 😃😊. Now it really feels like we've left ☺️. We are in a very nice little private anchor bay on the island of Skarvøya near Farsund.

Before we start the crossing, we have a couple of very nice family days in Terschelling with visits from Inge, Mark and Tess 🥰. A special idea is that during this weekend, our daughters will also be in Eindhoven together with their boyfriends 🥰.

Also in this harbour, we are still almost alone. But the sailing season is tentatively starting and so we briefly meet Niels and Marloes from Windfinder who are making their first trip of the year to the Wadden Islands 😊.

We are also getting to know Terschelling much better on foot. We have been there before without a boat with our family and still young children. But not in West Terschelling. What a beautiful area with beautiful rugged nature 👌👍.

The weekend with Inge, Mark and Tess is very cosy and relaxed. On Friday evening, we pick them up from the fast ferry, eat delicious lasagne (cooked for 8 hours in the Crockpot!) and chat. On Saturday, we take a walk across West Terschelling with a delicious lunch (in the sun) at the Walvis overlooking the beach and Vlieland (thanks Jeanette for all the tips, a very nice spot 👍😊). The afternoon walk is tough with a stretch on the beach against the wind and through the dunes with loose sand. Really enjoyable (especially for Inge, Mark and Mira and a little less for Toine 😎). In the evening, we have a nice dinner at the Heksenketel.

On Sunday, we get up and watch F1 🏎️🥇 together. Then we go cycling 🚲, eat tasty cranberry cheesecake at the beach and have an unexpectedly delicious lunch at a joint in Midsland. All sitting outside in the sun ☀️, how lucky we are with the weather so early April ☺️.

We have been keeping an eye on the weather for a while to be able to sail to Norway. We see a weather window of exactly two days developing when we leave at high tide on Sunday afternoon at 4pm. That's the same time when Inge, Mark and Tess have to go to their ferry so that works out nicely. They are really waving us off now 🥰 👋. It was a lovely weekend, until next time!

The crossing to Norway is 313 nm and takes us just over 48 hours. We sail 20 hours close hauled, motor-sail 10 hours very close hauled and motor 18 hours against a light wind. It is a weather window, not very optimal because of close hauled sailing, but good enough and better than staying in Terschelling for at least another week to wait for the next weather window ☺️.

After departure, the first two hours of spirited sailing with bft 5 high to windward out of the Wadden current into the North Sea. With reef 2 in main and genoa it goes very well. But we don't really feel like eating, so we make do with some ‘emergency food’ (the nut cake we got from Groningen from Harrie and Anja and a little leftover nassi for Mira). After two hours, the wind drops to 3-4 bft as predicted and so we sail on high to windward until 1.30 in the night. Around 0.00, we have crossed both shippinglanes without any problem!

From 1.30am until 2pm the next day, we continue on the engine. In the morning, the wind eases and the sea flattens. We both sleep reasonably well the first night.

At 11 o'clock, the alarm suddenly goes off. It is the water alarm in the engine room. We are startled to see that there is indeed a layer of salt water in the engine room 😨. Where did that come from? Fortunately, the bilge in the cabin is dry. So the cause must be found in the engine room itself. Toine cleans up the water (at least about 10 litres) and checks all the inlets but sees nothing leaking. He thinks it might be the engine's cooling water pump, but it was replaced just last year. But keep a close eye on it and we check the engine room regularly.

All afternoon we sail high close hauled again until 9pm in the evening. First with full sails and finally with reef 2 in main and genoa. We make good progress in the right direction. But close hauled sailing will never be our favourite sailing position, especially in heavy seas 😅.

In the evening (when the sea gets a bit rougher), regular inspection in the engine room reveals where the water leak is. It is the tees in the tubless pipes where the sliding door drain is connected. So thankfully it is not the engine! The hose clamps had not been tightened sufficiently well (by Toine last summer when replacing the valves), as a result of which, precisely with a lot of movement and under an incline, seawater is forcefully pushed high into those tubes, after which it starts leaking. The shortcoming was remedied by tightening the hose clamps 😃. So we can confidently motor into the second night ☺️.

It is a very calm night with an increasingly flat sea in which we both sleep well. Like the first night, it is completely clear with a luminous moon. It is also not really very cold, but still, as we motor, we spend the watches inside lying comfortably on the couch in this empty stretch of North Sea. No ship comes near us apart from a single fisherman.

The last day we sit outside in the sunshine. At noon, a light breeze comes in, allowing us to motor. Soon we can see the Norwegian coast. Land insight 😎. In the last hour, the wind picks up a little more, the engine is turned off and we sail at 8 knots until we reach the coast with its many islets 🇳🇴 ⛵️😊. We sail a short distance to the small sheltered bay of the island of Skarvøya and there we drop anchor.

What a beautiful place! And how good it feels to be here. Especially since it was quite a tough trek at times. But then it feels all the better to arrive! We have a drink outside in the cockpit. The sun is shining here too ☀️👌.

We are tired, go to bed early and sleep around the clock. The next day (is today) the sun shines brightly and we clean the boat. First Toine rinses all the salt off the boat (it was necessary ...) and Mira dries the stainless steel, white polyester and windows with the chamois. Then we run two washes (how nice that this can be done at anchor on the batteries!) which dry well outside. Toine takes the cover off the dinghy and makes it clean and ready to sail. Toine also immediately tries out the drone ... see the result here 👌😃. The first picture is the narrow entrance to the bay.

Looking back on the crossing, we are very satisfied with how we did this together. We alternate nicely with the ‘skipper’ role 😊. PredictWind's routing function helped us well with understanding the weather window and how much to sail and motor. We set Starlink to ‘global priority’ 12 nm offshore and then kept reception at €2 per Gb. That too worked to our complete satisfaction. Our track is set every 15 min and PredictWind makes sure we stay visible on MarineTraffic as well.

It was a good try out for the upcoming crossings (only for the first time again at the end of June when we go to Svalbard).

Over the next few weeks, we will explore the south-western side of Norway at our leisure. How wonderful to have all the time for that 😃.