I sailed straight into a STORM!

This is a story about how things can go from good to very bad in a couple of hours. So how in the world did i end up in this situation? Let me explain. Over a thousand years ago the vikings crossed the north sea from Norway to the tidal island of Lindisfarne in England. They looted and plundered the local monastery sitting on the island in the most brutal way. This also marked the vikings first landfall in England. The story is as brutal as it is fascinating. To shed some light on this happening i wanted to sail in the wake of the vikings along the same north sea route from Norway to make landfall on this mysterious island. I figured the best way to get to know this story was to sail there myself. But this would show to be easier said than done as the weather gods was about to put me through a serious test during my attempt to reach this island. I had a slight feeling i would get my money's worth on this one. Okay so now i'm ready for Lindisfarne 327 miles away and Cillie are you coming? It's a no. Again it's a no. So Cillie is going to take a plane over to Lindisfarne to Edinburgh and i'm going to meet her there next Saturday. So today is Thursday. So we're going to leave it at that and let's go. See you soon. I prepared Tessie for departure but i had some slight second thoughts about the weather report. Winds were shifting in all directions and changing by the hour. Strong winds up to 30 knots was expected as i entered the open ocean but was supposed to come down shortly after. The uncertainty of the reports made me worried as i know how fast the unpredictable north sea can turn around. Cillie also got worried when she could tell i acted differently than usual. I felt a bit bad leaving her in a state of worry. But i had taken the choice to depart and was prepared for a bumpy ride the first hours offshore. I counted on the weather to take a turn for the better during the evening. Now i'm passing the viking farm here outside Haugesund. So you know this is the epicenter for the viking era a thousand years ago. So it's a good point to start on my voyage to Lindisfarne when the viking ones arrived. So i just want to experience the trip and the sail across the north sea to see how it might have been in a slightly more modern boat. But it's 2025 so things develop. Now we're going south in the Kampsund. Southwards and then we will head westwards when we get offshore. So that's going to be it's going to be interesting to see what the king Neptune has to offer this time. I think it's going to be slightly challenging. Let's see. To be prepared for the possible strong winds ahead I made a staysail ready on deck as standby. Then it's quick to deploy if needed. And the bowsprit is out so I want to retract it. We're gonna have some waves against us. With the bowsprit sticking out the waves will smash up under it when going upwind which again can rip it off its brackets. With all lines tight and secured Tessie was ready for whatever was coming. Managed to find a stainless steel hook to go with the camera so it's safe from falling. Sailing through Kampsund is a long stretch but now we could spot the horizon of the open ocean. So we are getting close to the end of Karmøy over here. So that means we have to hoist our sail soon and set our course as much as we can towards Lindisfarne. But I think we're gonna head westwards because of the strong winds coming from south. So we'll take one step at a time and see how things develop. And I'm slightly nervous. You know this is the worst place to be before everything happens. Your mind starts thinking weird thoughts about how bad it's gonna be. But you can't listen to those thoughts too much you'll go crazy. So one step at a time. So first step is to dress up and get my clothes on and be ready. You feel better when you're properly dressed for the occasion. We had now reached the end point and the ocean waves started washing in. All right I think it's time to hoist the mainsail at least. And find our way slowly westwards. Wind is about 50 knots now so it's picking slowly up. Hoisting the mainsail in rough waves hitting against the boat is a wobbly business. You just have to take your time and make sure to make everything secured on deck. Mainsail halyard. Westwards now. Try that jib sail. Buckle up to go on the bow. I wanted to make sure not to be overpowered if the wind got too strong. I chose to trust the incoming weather reports and rigged the Tessia accordingly. Little did I know that the reports was far away from what was about to develop in the next hours. But what you don't know can't hurt you until it smacks you right in the face. Happily oblivious I continued on westwards into the North Sea. Tessia is moving. Tessia got some speed now 6.2 and I'm soaked. Love it. 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Download the Saili app and use code ERIKONDERO at checkout. Now let's see what kind of trouble lies ahead in the North Sea. Tess is doing great. We're going straight on the goal of Lindisfarne now but I don't think we should do it because of the strong winds coming tonight. Don't fall for the temptation so I'm gonna head more westwards and then southwards. But I'm still soaking wet so I need to get into the cabin and change some clothes I think. Let's do that. Waves and winds are picking up slamming over Tessie but she's doing good. It's getting cold so I started the Tabasto diesel heater. Every time I don't wear this I think ah the waves are not gonna catch me and then smack they do every time. Let it dry a little bit. We need to get Tiger on watch but he's going up there and it's a little sketchy to stand hailing out over the water like that. Putting him on watch but let's see what we can do. I think Tiger is sitting tight there. You're not going up on the pole tonight. No worries. At this point 80 NM off the coast I started to have some second thoughts about the weather as the sky got darker and wind only increasing. Helicopter for the offshore rigs from Stavanger. I think that's an S92 or something. So I'm downloading the latest weather report so I'm excited to see what's to come. We're hitting 24 knots now with the true wind and I think we're gonna hit 30 in the afternoon evening but that's the exciting part. You don't really know what you're getting yourself into so I took a shot on this one on this weather system and so far so good. But let's see what but let's see what's to come. I let out some of the sail to take off some pressure as Tessy was getting overpowered by the wind. 25 knots. We switch to Hydrowing. The autopilot is struggling so let's see if the Hydrowing can steer. The Hydrowing seemed to do its job. I tied off the wheel again with these pulleys. So I can adjust the course or the trim of the wheel. 28 knots. Now the wind had reached 30 knots which was stated by the weather reports. Looking at the dark sky developing with only increasing winds I had a feeling something much bigger was coming my way. I had to do one last mandatory bow walk to get a cold spray keeping me focused and alert. Big one! I've been out watching the boat for a couple of hours now just seeing that everything works. It's not that I don't trust the boat but I just need to see in these conditions that everything holds up and is good. So I'm just watching the cameras and the chart plotter to watch for AIS signals and stuff and course changes and wind shifts and if needed I'd bounce back up in the cockpit. There's a ship just in front of me now 0.7 miles off. Check it out and the wind is peaking 28 knots now so I think I have to dress up again and go out and take the third deepest reef in the mainsail. It's just to get it done. I now realized I most probably had a tough going ahead. This is the moment I had to focus on staying composed and try not to let the fear get the better of me. We need to come off these waves a little bit we're too close into them. Pounding against the waves on this specific ancient viking route made my thoughts run rough to the past. I can only imagine how the vikings did in their long ships in this weather. Crossing over to Lindisfarne. That's something, that is something. Okay let's reef the sail. I release the mainsail to take out the powers. When crawling forward on deck in this kind of weather I follow a certain climbing route holding on to the same spots every time like the winches and shrouds along the way. With Tessie not being too big there is always something to hold on to within an arm's length compared to a big open deck boat. I pull down the sail until the third and deepest reef reaches the reefing hook on the boom. The back line of the sail gets winched in tight to flatten the sail as much as possible. Once it's done it's straight back to safety. We were now 32 nautical miles off the coast of Norway with weather and waves continuously increasing towards stormy conditions. Now even the jib sail on the bow was too much canvas. It had to come down. As I don't have a top line to pull the sail down there was no way it would slide down by itself. I had to go on the bow myself to secure it. I forgot to bring my sail ties to tie down the sail. Anyway it would have been way too dangerous in such conditions on the bow. I just had to leave the sail unsecured. It's getting a bit crazy here 38 knots now, 34, 36. So I'll just keep heading westwards. I went from southwest to west and we just have to wait it out and see what happens. The wind is supposed to turn late tonight after midnight. So we could start heading southwards. Just have to play along with the weather here. It's getting a bit dangerous. Something happened with the hydrovane as well so I think it's okay. It's just loose. So it's peaking 40 knots here now. That was not reported. It said 27. Waves are picking up as well. So I've adjusted my course north-westwards with the waves and wind. Let's see and let this blow out hopefully in some hours. Maybe I'll change my course back to Norway. But I'm not sure yet. It's not a good place to be near the coast if it's going to be a storm. It's safer out here. The wind and ocean state seemed to only deteriorate. I had to choose between continuing offshore not knowing how bad it was going to be or to turn homewards 40 nautical miles away. After a minute it turned out to be an easy decision. To alter the course back to the coast I had to gybe the mainsail as the wind would come in on the other side of the boat. Tessie rapidly picked up speed and started surfing the following waves. The sheer pressure from the wind and waves even made a triple reefed mainsail overpowering Tessie. I decided to take it down. Lying somewhat still wobbling around I also took a chance to try to secure the staysail before the crashing waves started ripping it apart. So I managed to hoist a flake of the foresail sail and we're doing seven knots towards Utsira just outside Haugesund. So it's about 29 nautical miles. So that's, I don't know, some hours. But the orthopilot can steer now so it seems to be okay. Conditions had now reached storm force with winds gusting 50 knots. Intense rain showers felt like being hit by hail into my face and eyes. The waves came crashing in one after the other over and over. Being engulfed by nature powers like this with nowhere to run feels both terrifying and mesmerizing. We have no other choice than to endure it and to make sure to make the correct calls in order to survive. Okay, that's a little storm. I've sent message to Silje telling her that I'm having a turn back home and it's 29 miles to Utsira and that's about four hours. We are really plounging here. Everything seems good. Tessie is strong and yeah, I'm just taking step by step there. This is the safest place to stay. It's a phenomenal experience staying inside, listening to the wind and feel how the waves tosses Tessie around like a wine cork. Once in a while I had to get out to see what was actually going on. It's a flabbergasting experience being entrapped in the middle of the chaos of mother nature. Usually one should avoid this but sailing across oceans as much as I do there is a fair chance you'll end up in an unpredicted storm at one point. I'm glad to be accompanied by Roa Lamundsen and our king and queen. I need their support tonight. You might as well enjoy it and take lessons from it. Time is now 20.29 and we have about 19 nautical miles to go to Utsira. And still 40 to 45 knots and it's mayhem outside. Nothing has happened, nothing. I lost a couple of battens in the mainsail. That was it because of it was flabbering in the mast up being too slack. But other than that so far so good. Crazy, crazy. So about two and a half, three hours to go. Tessie was both surfing, twisting and crashing into the waves reaching three to five meters. Doing seven to eight knots by only a couple of square meters of the Genoa witnessed how powerful the wind was. Every now and then I just had to get into the cockpit for a reality check. Live life at the fullest they say. Being out here right now in this moment I couldn't agree more. I knew things were about to get serious. Nevertheless I had to take part in this as much as possible. I wanted to be exposed of the powers just for a brief moment. To end up in a situation just like this luckily doesn't occur very often. With Valhalla calling briefly on the radio I had no plans to go there yet. It's tiring, it's a good training. Constantly using your muscles to hold fast every second. And I can't believe what's going on outside. Just one and a half meter out here. Nightfall was creeping in and I knew I had to enter Utsira in complete dark. 13 miles to go to Utsira, getting close. I was starting to feel the fatigue after sailing straight for 12 hours without any rest. All right, seems like we are going to enter Utsira in dark. So let's head out and check and see how far we have gotten. And this is Utsira over here. I have to say I look forward to take a nap in a calm, cozy port on an island outside Haugesund. Can't be, nothing can beat that after a storm. Indeed nothing is better after fighting a storm for hours than the feeling of reaching calmer waters with the wind slowly loosening its iron grip. Well within the breakwaters I could lower my shoulders and set foot on solid land. Well good morning, that was one hell of a ride. So it was nice to come into Utsira in dead calm and quiet. It was crazy out there. So now the plan is to check the sail. I ripped a couple of battens out of the top of the main sail. So this batten is gone, slide it out and it broke off here. But that's not too bad and I have to tidy up and clean up Tessie a little bit. I'll go back to Haugesund to do that and then I will look at the weather reports again and see if there's another weather window to get over to Lindisfarne. I have a lecture in Aberdor next Saturday and today is Friday so still time. So I guess that is it for this video. I hope you learned something. I sure did in these huge waves. It's dangerous and crazy but it's an interesting way to develop. That's the only way forward to challenge yourself. So if you like the video, thumbs up, give it a comment, subscribe and I'll see you in the next one on my second attempt getting to Lindisfarne. So long! There is no plan B. Follow along for next chapter where I set off again the next day crossing the North Sea to reach Lindisfarne in England. This time also with fresh winds but there is one setback. It was headwinds all the way, all the 327 nautical miles. Just got to take what's coming in the North Sea here. 100 miles to go now. It did not stop there. As I got tangled up in some damn lobster pods in pitch darkness as I was approaching Lindisfarne. I'm gonna admit that I have no idea what I'm doing. I thought dropping anchor in Lindisfarne would be a breeze. This is a weird phenomenon. Boy was I wrong. Follow me on Facebook and Instagram for news and updates. Support my future expeditions on Patreon or PayPal. Get your NBJS merchandise following the link in the video description. And get your NBJS birdie by ordering one at my website at nbjs.no or just send me an email to post at nbjs.no I also travel around Europe with my lecture about how I ended up living off my sailing. Check my website for details. See you soon! Erik