Leg One - From Jondal to Shetland

Changing a bulb in our navigational light

Heading out Hardangerfjorden was a nice start to our 250nm passage over to Shetland. We had the wind on our bow from the get-go, so we motored outwards. Polar Sector can carry 3500l of diesel, but for this trip we carry 4 barrels of 200l each on deck bumping our capacity up to 4300l. With all tanks filled up we have a range 3700nm. Two of these barrels had diesel in them so we decided to pump them over while there were somewhat calm seas.

Diesel transfer in progress 

Furling out the Jib

A couple of hours before we hit the open ocean around 11pm we went into our watch regime. Bent and Catrine got the first 3 hours, later it emerged that they almost hit a floating fish farm. Around 2am Siri and Atle got on for their 3 hours, still motoring, except for a lot of fog there were nothing to report. Marselius and Lars had the last 3-hour shift during that night. They hoisted the genoa to help with stability and propulsion and by the end of their shift all the sails were up, and we were humming along.

Rounding the Bard Head before entering Lerwick

The hours sailed by, but the increasing seas knocked down one person after another with sea sickness, and left were Bent, Atle and Lars to keep the boat on its course. We downloaded a new weather forecast every 12 hours over the satellite, and the wind were going to change form TWA 120° port to TWA 40° starboard, a few hours before we were a shore, meaning we had to punch into the wind with the waves on our side making for a rocky approach.

Well tied up in Lerwick