Ålesund

25 August 2014

After a short talk with the guests one thing was clear: everybody wanted to see a really deep fjord. So we left Bergen and set course for the Søgnefjorden, the deepest in the world! In between the beautiful high mountainsides, full of trees and big rocks, with here and there a waterfall, a church and two houses, in short: the real Norway.
In the morning we arrived in Flåm. A touristic village at the end of one of the many branches of the Søgnefjorden. Here everybody went for a nice walk and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. When we were all back on board we left and continued enjoying the magnificent surroundings.
After a night sailing out of the fjord we could head north again. When we came to the Stavfjorden there also came a bit of wind, so we switched off the engine and hoisted the sails. The wind came from the northwest, where we wanted to go, but that could not hurt us, we just changed our plan and went into the Førdefjorden.
This was a good choice, for it did not take long before the first mackerels came on deck. At the end of the day the wind shut down for the night, so we sailed in a bay near Øvre Redal and dropped our anchor.
The forecast said westerly winds for the afternoon and after that mainly northerly, we decided to head to sea after breakfast and sail north, towards Ålesund. A few hours of good sailing before the wind died out again, but the swell stayed. This was not nice for some of us, so we took the first opportunity back ‘in’, to find calmer waters.
This morning we arrived in Ålesund and everybody is exploring the little town. This afternoon we will make use of the northerly wind and see how far we get before we drop our anchor again and maybe even light up the BBQ. The last few days it was a bit ‘moistly’, but now it looks like the sun is really winning.