Racing a GALE Across the North Sea Sailing Florence Ep 227

With our visas running out, we feel compelled to take a less than ideal weather window and find ourselves in a race against a gale across the North Sea. Should we turn back to the safety of Norway and risk our visas running out or push Florence hard to reach Scotland before the gale cuts us off? We are Amy and Matt. This season we set off on one of our biggest adventures yet and sailed our 37-foot sailboat Florence all the way north to the high arctic. But getting there wasn't the only challenge. Now we have to get back across the North Sea and the weather has other ideas. Florence is now back alongside the dock in Ålesund which is where we started our Norwegian adventure from. This is where we checked in when we sailed across the North Sea from Scotland before we sailed up north to Svalbard and now we've got a new challenge and that is trying to get us and Florence back home to the UK before the winter storms come in and before the end of our Schengen visas and that's the real problem here. Normally we would wait for as long as it took for a good weather window to come to make it an easy passage back to the UK but because we're coming to the end of our Schengen visas we're being pushed to go out into some weather which is not ideal. It's not something we'd normally go out on. The problem is there's a lot of southwesterly and southerly winds blowing up the North Sea and they're quite strong. We've had some just go through earlier today which were gusting 46 knots measured on a weather station just offshore so we're going to wait for that to go through. We're going to try and jump out behind it and then between that strong wind and the next strong wind that's coming into the Shetland Islands we're going to try and get all the way across the Shetland Islands which is going to take just over two days but the timing of us getting to the Shetlands is quite close with the time of another strong wind system coming in battering the Orkneys and the southern end of the Shetlands with gusts of 42 knots. So it's a little bit of a nervous time choosing to take this weather window but there's nothing in the forecast that looks any better for the next 10 days and then our visas will have run out. Because the gap in the weather is so short we are sailing to the closest possible safe harbour that we can in UK waters which is in the Shetland Islands but the weather is changing really quickly and so there is a chance that the system which is due to arrive in Shetland at the end of the passage might come in sooner and it might be stronger so there is a chance that we are going to have to change our plans and sail back to Norway but we really don't want that to happen so our first plan is to sail as quickly as possible to Shetland and that if that means motoring it's not something that we would normally choose to do but that is what we'll do we'll probably sail with a little bit more sail than we normally would and make it as fast a passage as possible. Sat here in the harbour of Ålesund the wind seems deceptively calm but there are a lot of weather stations on the coast of Norway and also on the offshore oil platforms and they can all be monitored via the Norwegian Barents Watch website for free. Those weather stations are showing that there are still very strong headwinds blowing just offshore. We're keeping a constant watch on the live feed to see when the wind speed starts to decrease and shift around to a more advantageous direction. As the sun started to set the live wind data showed the wind beginning to decrease and shift as we were hoping so it was time to set sail into the night. Started out as a grey morning this morning dawn dawn kind of happened behind the clouds we've been motor sailing a lot through the night trying to keep the speed up we had like nine knots of wind which Florence could normally sail at about four knots in that freeze and this sort of choppy sea state which slows us down a little bit but we really need to do more than four knots to get to Shetland before that big wind comes in so we've been motor sailing at five and a half knots instead. Don't like having the engine on but it does make a big difference generates a little bit more apparent wind Florence still heels over but it just the combination of the of the engine and the sails really helps us to make much better progress but there's only a few points that we were motoring and the rest of time we've actually been able to sail and right now we're sailing at six knots charging along the breeze has just picked up the moment I think we would make it we're spending all of our time staring at the speed and the distance to go and the ETA which is bouncing around all over the place as the speed bounces around on the waves to see if we're going to make it in before that that bad wind so we'll check the forecast again this morning and and make another decision on whether or not we carry on or whether we turn around at the moment things are going well well here we are on an absolutely beautiful day for sailing out on the North Sea beautiful calm seas we've got nine knots of wind just glorious sunny skies perfect sailing but we are motoring and the reason for that is unfortunately the wind is coming from exactly where we need to go and although in nine knots of wind Florence would quite happily sail along at four knots going into the wind we'd have to tack and zigzag up which would mean our bmg our best speed actually towards our goal would only be about two and a half three knots so that's not good enough unfortunately to get us to Shetland before the gale that's approaching gets there it would beat us to it so that is why we are motoring straight into the wind it's been pretty good day other than that though we were sailing for most of the day it's just the wind suddenly shifted to going on the nose the latest forecast we saw did say the wind was going to be more on the nose today and it was going to be very light winds so we probably got this through until about five o'clock in the morning when the wind hopefully will then shift round to allow us to start absolutely blast reaching into Shetland hopefully over six knots and get there in plenty of time before that gale comes in so just got to suck it up put up with having the motor on when it's ideal sailing conditions really and make sure that we get there before the gale we do have a backup plan if it looks like we're not going to get to the Lerwick area of Shetland in time before the gale comes in then we will alter course and sail to Borough Firth which is an anchorage we went to last year when we sailed around Britain right on the northern tip of Shetland it's the most northern anchorage I think in the British Isles and it's about 30 miles closer than the area around Lerwick that we're currently planning to go to so that would save us about six hours so if the next forecast that comes through says that the gale is coming through sooner then I think that's our best option is to alter course for that because looking at the forecast this morning again there is still no better weather window in the forecast if we turned around went back to Norway the next 10 days it's just awful really gusty winds big waves in the North Sea and then we'd run out of Schengen days and be really stuck just as the sun's going down we've got some breeze back sailing again neighbors turn the engine off we've got a whole bunch of North Sea oil rigs on the horizon just start seeing them gonna have to go through them in the dark but it's calm night so that shouldn't be too much of a problem the gaps are quite big between them I'm not sure how long this breeze is gonna last I'm pretty sure we have to turn the engine on again but yeah it's lovely when we can say I'll turn that engine off in beautiful conditions download the weather forecast when it updates just after it gets dark make our final decision and then cross our fingers and sail as fast as possible towards Shetland just downloaded the latest weather forecast and models updated looks like the strong wind the gale that's going hit Shetland is still due to do that Sunday morning Sunday midday and it looks like we should be able to get hopefully in around midnight Saturday night so we should get in ahead of it so we've made a decision that we're going to carry on we're going to try and get to as close to Lerwick as we can in Shetland we've still got the backup plan of going to a slightly closer anchorage if things slow down or the weather comes in sooner but yeah hopefully we'll be able to get close to Lerwick find an anchorage which we can get into safely with Florence ready for the gale that's coming other than the gale that's on the way it's actually been a really straightforward passage neither of us particularly like motoring but it's definitely easier than trying to sail like we would normally do in the fickle winds we'd normally be tacking back and forth and um yeah doing a lot of sail changes so it's actually been more straightforward apart from the fact that we are now approaching the oil rigs and they are all popping up on AIS so we can see that some of them are towing I think that might mean that they're towing a rig or something so I think it's going to be a fairly eventful night before the breeze picks up tomorrow morning in order to keep Florence sailing fast to beat the gale we are reefing later than usual normally we sail her at just over six knots but for once we're letting her have her head and sail over seven knots it's not just about having as much sail up as possible though as that can make us slower too much sail causes Florence to lean over too much and that creates drag so even though we are pushing harder than normal careful balance is required to maintain optimum speed we've been making really good progress all afternoon it's actually been a really nice afternoon out here the sun's been shining and we've got really good breeze for sailing we've had more sail area up than we would normally do so pushing Florence a little bit harder but she's been absolutely flying along and yeah looks like now we might be arriving about sunset this evening by the time we get into the anchorage if we're really lucky we might still have just enough light to see and the wind that's due to come in the latest forecast also says that that has moderated so yeah all really positive this afternoon lovely day for sailing we've got several hours left to go but we are making great progress Matt's just getting up he's been asleep pretty much all afternoon well hopefully and I slept pretty much all of this morning so yeah we should hopefully both be feeling fresh for going into anchor we're just approaching Shetland now approaching where we're going to go and anchor for the next couple of days to wait out this gale we're hearing the gale warning on the VHF radio as we approach but Florence has absolutely smashed the target out the park we were hoping to get here by midnight and it's half past eight in the evening now so we're well ahead of schedule which means that we've had beautiful conditions all day we're getting here before the strong winds she's been absolutely flying at seven knots in fact we're still doing seven knots right now towards our anchorage so it's been a beautiful day sailing once we realized that we were going to make it safely in well before the strong winds and the anxiety and worry about that just dissipated but we've still been letting Florence have her head giving her a little bit more sail area than we normally let her have and so she's been flying it's been exhilarating sailing in champagne sailing conditions really all day and yeah it's a mixture of relief and real enjoyment at sailing her like that very happy to be here and hopefully we'll find a really nice safe secluded and protected anchorage for the next couple of days to wait out the strong winds and then we'll see what happens where we can explore on from there well here we are in Shetland we've chosen to come into an anchorage in Galesvoe rather than go down round to Lerwick because of the gale that's going to be blowing through today it has been blowing through today we find it's much easier on the boat to be at anchor so we swing to the wind rather than being on a dock where we're held by the lines possibly across the wind and this is a very calm location the wind is coming straight over a hill in front of us and hopefully going carrying on straight across and over the hill behind us and there's not really much wind getting down into the voe where we're anchored and just occasionally we get a gust that spins us around a little bit but also the water is completely flat none of the waves can get in here so it's proven to be a very good choice for the weather that's coming there's not a lot here though just us the sheep there's a mussel farm just next to us hardly any phone reception even we had to put the phone up at the top of the mast in a dry bag to try and get any signal to download a forecast and unfortunately that forecast we managed to download says that the weather that's coming as far as the forecast goes is strong winds from the south or southwest with very short gaps that aren't big enough for us to get away from Shetland to the mainland in so it looks like we're going to be here in Shetland for at least a week so with strong winds that we're so i think we'll weather out the gale this current gale here we'll probably head around into Lerwick where we can pick up some fresh provisions maybe a sim card which allows us to get a better data connection in the islands here and work out what our next steps are and just wait for an opportunity to get south because because we don't really want to be out there sailing at this this would be quite a lot of hard work and not very good on Florence well what a difference a day makes it howled like yesterday and it absolutely howled through the rigging last night but this morning it all started to calm down and in the last hour it's literally the wind switched off switched around to a different direction the drizzly rain has stopped the sun's coming out so we're gonna venture out of our very shouted anchorage head around to Lerwick see if we can get some uh more reasonably priced British food after being on Norwegian supermarkets so long we're looking forward we're gonna go buy steak and have steak for dinner i think and uh yeah have a look at the weather forecast see what it's like to going further on make a bit of a plan but yeah beautiful sunny weather coming up at least for a day Lerwick Port Control Lerwick Port Control Sailing Yacht Florence Sailing Yacht Florence over Lerwick Port Control this is Sailing Yacht Florence approaching port from the north just requesting a berth in the small boat harbour for the night please over yes that's cool problem if you want to make your way down to the small boat harbour um there is a dredger just in the in the entrance there at the north entrance that you just want to give them a way to get out of understood we'll give the dredger a wide berth and make our way to the small boat harbour thank you very much I remember this cat from last year and I think it remembers me or maybe it just gets every sucker to sit on the doorstep so it can sit their lap it tied alongside in the small boat harbour in Lerwick and it's very different this on this visit than it was when we came in here last summer there are three docks here and last summer every single one of them was absolutely jam-packed with boats so it's like three deep in places but as you can see it's pretty quiet now and that's because we've really here come to the end of the sailing season we're in the start of September and so you obviously get potentially a lot of autumn storms at this time of year and the Shetland Islands are incredibly exposed signified by the fact there's really very few trees uh here at all so yeah it's going to make our lives a little bit more difficult um getting south um but it obviously means that it's very quiet in the town at the moment it's a really lovely town here it's the kind of place where you pass somebody in the street and they'll smile and say hello so my favourite kind of place and it's also been great because we've been able to sort all of the practical things that we needed to do so are we giving Florence a wash we've had a wash ourselves um we've been able to do the laundry stock up on provisions and get that sim card that we needed to find the weather window to head south but we've got some beautiful unusually unseasonal uh sunshine at the moment so we're going to try and head out to one of the nearby islands and to enjoy it whilst it lasts and wait for a potential weather window to sail south next time we have more exhilarating sailing as we push Florence to make passages down the North Sea in some very tight weather windows for extra updates in between these bi-weekly videos and to find out what we're up to in real time head over to Patreon and join the crew. 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