Sailing across the North Sea | Scotland - Norway

In the last episodes of Sailing So Far we continued our journey through the Caledonian Canal racing down Loch Ness and encountered strong weather when beginning our journey along the Scottish east coast. In this week's episode we depart Wick, Scotland and head out into the North Sea on passage to Norway. With some strong winds forecast things get a little bit interesting. Well good morning Commodore. Good morning young man. So what's special about today? Well today's Sunday, God's Day, which means we get to go to church. The church of the sea. Yeah good, good morning guys. Today's a special day as we're going to depart Wick which is where we currently are and head out to the North Sea and hopefully Arlesund. So conditions in the North Sea are probably about as good as we're going to get at the moment. So it'll be a sort of downwind passage on the quarter, a little bit variable switching and then it starts to get a little bit light, very light, and then it sort of fills in again before getting quite strong off the Norwegian coast and very strong actually. And then yeah straight up to Arlesund. So it's a passage of about sort of 365 miles more or less. That's straight lining it. Obviously it's very rare you straight line when you're sailing so we'll probably end up doing a few miles more than that but we're sort of expecting to get in there We've just come the other side of the Pentland Firth which is the gap of water between the top of Scotland and it separates the Orkney Islands here. And yeah we're cruising along nicely doing six knots which is great and the United Kingdom is just about to disappear on the horizon over there. So at the top of Scotland right there and you can just see the Orkney Islands over there in the distance and ahead of us we have sailing yachts so far. You might just be able to see but I think we're we're catching them up again now. So far today they've been able just to stay ahead and they've shaken out all of their reefs and they're cracking on. We've still got one reef in and a full genoa and I think we're gaining on them now. Yeah velocity made good to our waypoint is sort of 7.7 knots so that's pretty good. Well good afternoon on day one of our passage to Norway and um sorry I'm just making my way to the bow. So we have a full mainsail, staysail and we've got the Yankee pulled out to leeward. Essentially I just don't want to go quite dead downwind so we're a little bit off course but I'm just trying to keep it a little bit more stable really for Sam. See in the distance behind us we've got Aja and um yeah Liam's gone wing on wing I'm guessing to make better sort of VMG. But we're not doing too bad we're getting a little bit of a flop in the Yankee occasionally that's mainly down to the swell. Doing between sort of four and a half and six knots course-wise not fantastic but um I think we'll just head a little bit more east and then we'll look at going wing on wing later. Yeah we're going the right direction that-a-way that-a-way Norway. Sailing dead downwind in a long keel boat sounds easy. Point the bow and let the wind push you. The good part these boats track straight but the catch is the roll. With waves on the quarter a long keel can rock you side to side like a metronome. Add in sluggish steering and the risk of a heavy accidental jibe and it's not always the smoothest ride. That's why many sailors like to angle off to a broad reach that way you have less roll and more speed and a lot more control. We sailed dead downwind for this portion of the passage to help push us north into the stronger breeze and it would also put us on a nice beam reach for when the stronger winds arrived. Well good morning on day number two. We have yeah we got about sort of 16 to 20 knots of breeze now on the beam um but don't let this nice sort of sunny-ish dry day deceive you. It's been raining all morning and it's been a bit of a busy one jibing and swapping sails over pole in pole out all of that sort of good stuff but we got the Ares steering on the back she's steering a good course and then Aja is just out there on the horizon. I'm just trying to keep it a little bit tranquilo this morning so we have one reef in the main and a couple of rolls on the Yankee and I pulled the staysail down but we're still making six and a half knots so yeah still absolutely flying really all things considered but it's nice to be on a reach again it's such a comfortable point of sail versus the sort of downwind sailing that we've had so far a lot less banging a lot less slapping of the sails right now so probably a good time to catch up on some sleep from from last night. So not completely what I was expecting today this is day two out the water and it's absolutely gorgeous out there blue sky and just beautiful conditions this morning was pretty bloody dreadful but uh right now it's gorgeous and the two boats are still sailing company there we got Morgan just off the windward of us with the north sea resembling the deep blue of the pacific ocean both boats surged forward with ease fast and balanced in the idyllic conditions as though the sea itself wanted to make our journey memorable these are the rare days when sailing feels effortless when every knot gained and every mile sailed is pure joy as I film and edit these sailing adventures I often wonder did I catch the right angles did I share enough of the sailing itself or maybe talk too much to the camera each week I look through the comments to see what you the viewers think and I do my best to take that feedback on board while still keeping my own creativity alive sailing and making youtube episodes may never become a full-time job for me but that doesn't mean I don't want to keep sharing this journey with as many people as possible if you enjoy what I create subscribing commenting or even sharing my videos makes a huge difference and helps me reach a wider audience and for those who want to go a step further your support helps keep this adventure afloat so that's the end of day two out on the water uh it's been a great day weather's been nice uh blue skies most of it apart from a bit of nasty rain this morning but that's to be expected in this particular place we've got uh safar just over there trucking along quite nicely the wind is destined to drop though according to the weather forecast and yeah we'll probably end up motoring but I'm just hoping that it'll be just enough just uh keep us ghosting along mindless having to put an engine on unless and if we do it'll end up being hopefully towards the end of the evening well good morning guys we are uh 24 hours away from arriving in Norway and uh the wind did completely dropped out last night so we had to put the engine on um but it was all good I needed to give the batteries a really good charge anyway so uh yeah we've been motoring but the breeze is supposed to fill in now or in the next couple of hours and get quite strong for this final push across uh to Arlesund but yeah thought I'd just uh share the sunrise with you because it is quite pretty those colors are beautiful morning folks welcome to another beautiful day we've just passed the last of the ore platforms that we were going to see way over in the distance uh there we've got Liam off on our port side I think at the moment what he's trying to do is um put up his new storm jib um he rigged off an interforce day when we were in Inverness and I think this might be the first time he's used it in anger we are on our last um leg to Arlesund so we've just come around the top of all the uh uh the oil rigs and that and we're kind of trucking along expecting today to get 25 knots um southerly stuff um building throughout the day uh and into tonight with gusts of up to I think 31 later this evening at the moment we're just seeing kind of 19-ish knots um with gusts of 21-22 and that's chucking us along at a good like six and a half to seven knots so so far it's just doing her thing she's just munching. Seastead is slowly building um we probably will get quite a bit of swell by the time we get all the way to Arlesund because of it being southerly and obviously there's quite a lot of north sea south of us um but yeah I think Morgan's just Morgan's just still asleep not still asleep um it's my watch so he's just getting some weather and rest and yeah we're just living the dream out here well good morning guys day three I think I've already said good morning on my earlier watch but uh yeah I thought I'd just give you a quick tour of the boat this morning just doing my uh deck inspection so we're on a reef janky full staysail and two reefs in the main got around about 25 knots of breeze right now and that's only expected to increase throughout the day uh with some stronger gusts this evening so um yeah we're making making good speed towards Arlesund right now um I don't want to push the boat too much though so I'll be continuing to reef as and when the weather keeps building but yeah just ahead of us you've got Aja so he's got two reefs in his main a reef uh Genoa and then just for fun he's put a storm chip up as well so they copy my staysail but yeah it's actually apart from all the wind right now it's actually not a bad morning it's uh the boat's fairly steady we're not shipping a lot of water over true wind um and the gusts also sounds a little bit more uh powerful than that yeah started off as a quite a well we started off with a beautiful sunrise this morning and motoring and light conditions but it was always given to uh to increase the speed so uh yeah we're doing some decent speeds though we've just had uh 9.5 on the dial speed over the ground and boat speed apparently through the water right now is nine so that's fast enough for a 37 foot boat and that's with uh two reefs in the main and the storm jib up plus the furled head sail seems quite stable which is good cracking along nicely with the wind and swell building we continued to reef down keeping the sails balanced and the boats under control both vessels were being pushed powering forward and making excellent speeds averaging well over seven knots it was fast wet but exhilarating sailing good morning how we going sam we're living the dream we've just i've just had my first cup of coffee in like three or four days um we're on our approach this is all norway it's exciting we're getting chased down by a big old cruise ship behind us and we're chasing liam down ahead of us um and we've got the start of what should be a nice sunrise over there yeah it's going pretty well weather's nice for arrival um by the time we get in there i think it'll be daylight the the kind of speed we're cruising at so yeah it's going well yeah we're doing pretty good it is a little after four in the morning um the wind and the swell have finally dropped as we sort of closed with the shore uh which is a bit of a relief to be honest as it was getting a little bit much out there towards the end um yeah i think the pair of us are both pretty tired and ready to call it a day but yeah it's pretty exciting to see norway on the horizon the bright well i say bright lights it's actually not not so many lights around here but uh certainly a mountainous backdrop as the darkness fades away it marks the end of our north sea passage taking two days and 21 hours to complete arlesund one of norway's most beautiful coastal towns perched where the fjords meet the sea arlesund has always been tied to the water and is one of norway's most important fishing harbors with a rich history that can be viewed at the local museum the town's location is no accident it sits on a chain of islands giving sailors a sheltered port and quick access to the open sea that made it a hub not only for fishing but also the maritime trade in 1904 a devastating fire destroyed almost the entire town but like a ship rebuilt after a storm arlesund rose again if you climb the steps up mount axler the little mountain overlooking the town you'll be rewarded with one of the best views in norway the harbour the islands and the open sea stretching to the horizon today arlesund is still a nautical town at heart it's home to one of norway's largest fishing fleets and the port now attracts super yachts and cruise ships alike so whether you arrive by boat stand at the harbour or look down from axler's viewpoint arlesund is a place where the sea is always close i hope you've enjoyed this week's episode and i'd like to thank everyone that has supported the channel which is allowing me to continue sailing and documenting the adventures of safar