MJ

Too often this summer, this has been our view of Ireland and W. Scotland. We tie up in a marina, wait out windy, rainy weather for 4-5 days, then scoot to the next port on a fair weather day, and REPEAT. We’ve got our fingers crossed right now, because the current forecast shows that we […]

Ballycastle While sitting out the bad weather in Port Ellen, Islay, we realized how very close we were to Northern Ireland – just 25 miles!  So we thought: Why not? So after three days in Port Ellen (with two days of winds gusting over 45 mph), we set off for Ballycastle, Ireland in lighter winds

Caledonian Canal Inverness Marina is directly adjacent to the entrance to the Caledonian Canal. Transiting the canal avoids the need to sail through the treacherous Pentland Firth that runs between Scotland and the Orkney Islands to the north. The Caledonian Canal is 60 miles in length and consists of 29 locks, 10 swing bridges, and

North Sea Crossing As noted earlier, Torrey and Sara Lawrence joined us in Norway to help us cross the North Sea (as well as to see the sights of Norway, Orkney Islands, and Scotland). The North Sea is a relatively shallow body of water with a reputation for rough, choppy seas and large obstructions, such

Stavern (auto-pilot broke) We sailed up to the north part of West Sweden (town of Stromstad) so that we’d have just a short distance (40 miles) to cross the Skaggerak Sea to Norway. The weather forecast was calling for rain and light winds, so we assumed it would just be kind of a light misty

Taking Care of Business We ended up spending a week at Brodernas Martinsson boatyard getting an engine service done and a few items installed (life raft, engine mount, large fire extinguisher). It was rainy and windy much of the time we were there, so we stayed longer than planned (didn’t want to head out in

Lango After Grebbestad, we made one more stop on our way back to Ellös and the Hallberg-Rassy boatyard. We chose Lango Harbor because it was a fjord-like harbor that looked well-protected. It also had 5 mooring balls belonging to the Swedish Cruising Association (we are members and can use the moorings). It was a beautiful

Nyckelbykilen Having stayed in marinas in small towns for a bit, we thought it was time to anchor in a more remote setting as we continued on our way north towards Fredrikstad, Norway. We reviewed our sailing guides and found a very well protected anchorage in a fjord-like area where the land/rocks were covered in

On Tuesday, May 14, 2024, we departed Ellös for Fredrikstad, Norway (72 nm north of Ellös) with various stops along the way–stops that we decided upon the previous night. Our only agenda is to get to Fredrikstad by early next week to export the boat by documenting that we left Sweden. Exporting the boat saves

It’s Friday in Ellös and we had hoped to leave by Sunday for easy-going cruising up to Fredrikstad. When we began filling our water tanks today we found that the water was going into the bilge rather than into the tanks. We have three tanks: the two smaller tanks are empty, and the large main