And Now She Gets Some Rest...

There's a saying among sailors that "You can choose the time or you can choose the place, but you can't choose both." Our planning for this trip involved a LOT of both! In fact, at times we had just days to re-provision, repair, and rest before setting off on the next leg. So it is not without some sense of awe that we have arrived to Oslo, Norway on the EXACT date we planned.

We arrived at the top of Oslofjord at 12:15pm (local time) on Sunday, August 15, 2010. We had a beer at the little restaurant on Hovedoya Island across from downtown before moving over to Dronningen Marina (and the Royal Norwegian Sailing Club) for the night.

The trip up to Oslo from Kristiansand was gorgeous. The southeast coast of Norway is packed with tiny rocky islands (sometimes just a few meters across), many of which have quaint summer cabins. We wound our way through narrow (as little as a meter on each side) and shallow (as little as 1.5 feet below the keel) paths through these islands. We stayed at the Arendal Sailing Club the first night out of Kristiansand. They provided a tie-up alongside their dock, fresh coffee, and showers all for free. And one of their members gave us detailed instructions on routes and anchorages up to the entrance of Oslofjord. It was an incredibly warm and generous welcome to Arendal!

The next day we sailed to a Norwegian Heritage Village of Lyngor, where we met Hanne and Leif on their sailboat. They suggested we join them in a great anchorage a few hours away. So we followed them to a small cove through a narrows that you'd never attempt if you were just looking at the chart. It was magic! Hanne, Leif, Karl, and I swam -- yes, swam! -- in the cove. The water was surprisingly not cold (I wouldn't say it was exactly warm) at about 70F/20C. Hanne and Leif shared some aquavit and strawberries (Norwegian liquor) and we shared some coffee and brownies. They even liked our Starbucks instant coffee, or maybe they were just being polite? :-) They were a lot of fun, and we will be seeing them again tomorrow for the weekly sailboat racing in Oslo.

So, the trip up to Oslo was a wonderful welcome into the new life we will be having here.

We'll be tallying up total distances, days sailed, etc. and posting them soon!