Another memorable passage is soon coming to its end while we start to understand what it means to sail these waters. Not only that we crossed an extensive offshore oil platform area during a misty and rainy night, we got a last minute near gale warning from the Norwegian Met Office.
Wind gusts of 30kn and around 2m wind waves/8s for 7 hours was what we were promised and accepted for this passage to Norway at the time of leaving Lerwick. Wave period and direction might make it a bit unpleasant but it’s a balanced decision to be taken.
The wind gusts projected became the new baseline – Near Gale 7. In other words, 30kn of wind accompanied by 3m waves on the beam for 12 hours spiced up with heavy rain. Thank you! Luckily no further gusts on top of that and at least the wind direction stayed as promised.
Some waves flying over the deck managed to creep through small openings in the cockpit tent to get our extended living area into a salty mess.
We are done with our contribution towards heavy weather cruising for this year and look forward to our landfall in Norway.
125nm to go and another cleaning day soon emerging on the horizon.
Fair winds…
Bernd
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