Well, what do you do if you want to go to western Norway and the first week of the holiday the wind is against us if we would sail straight there .... well, then you just make a 'detour' via east Scotland? A detour of about 200 miles (vd in total 690 miles) .... quite a lot, but with very quiet and sunny weather. So for us a very relaxed way to start our holiday.
Not the first hours when we sail out of Roompot on Saturday the 9th of July around 2 p.m. through the Geul of Banjaard to the north-west. Then we get wind force 7 for our choice with corresponding waves. We notice that mentally this is no problem after all those miles of experience at sea, but physically it is (after a year of 'sitting still';-). So we all dive into bed early without food. Marinthe after she threw out all her food. Eline and I manage with a pill, and Toine by quietly sitting outside. Well, in the night the wind almost disappears, and for the rest of the trip to Peterhead, Scotland, we sail on motorbikes. With sun almost all the time and very little wind. Only the last few hours the wind is a bit stronger and it is a bit uncomfortable. We do exactly 3 stages over the 400 miles.
Tuesday morning July 12th we arrive at Peterhead, at the tip of east Scotland just above Aberdeen. A fine marina with only 'long distance sailors' from the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the UK itself. It is still sunny because for a change there is a high pressure area above Scotland. Because of this we will keep the weather calm and sunny the coming days. And that while in the Netherlands it is autumn-like weather with lots of wind and rain.
We stay in Peterhead for two days, rent a car and explore this part of Scotland. Very beautiful, with high cliffs along the coast, small farming villages, forests and fields. On Thursday the 14th of July we leave for the 280-mile trip to Bergen in Norway. Again we have very quiet weather, lots of sun, very little wind and we do everything by motor except for the last few hours off the coast of Norway. Ah, quite relaxed so ... reading a book in the sun, watching a movie, eating from plates on the table. And a beautiful dolphin show somewhere halfway with about 10 very large dolphins swimming along for 20 minutes. That remains a beautiful sight and we had never seen them that big before.
Between Scotland and Norway we mainly encounter drilling rigs and almost no ship. Only just off the coast of Norway the weather gets a bit busier. And so it happens that exactly one week after our departure, with the first week almost only sunshine, we arrive in Bergen.