Barba and the crew returned safely to Stavanger on Easter Sunday. The trip had been a passionate reunion with mother nature for Barba, following a dormant winter with inshore sailing. The “expedition light” we were due for started off with choppy seas and a diesel spill. As one describingly said it afterwords “I was afraid not to wake up again”, referring to diesel fumes that at some point was a bit over the usual comfort level.
Equipment failure is an inevitable part of sailing, and the diesel leakage, was repaired as soon as we made it to Utvær. Sailing into Utvær in battering seas was one of many highlights from our venture to the North. Especially so since we had the pleasure of meeting the old gentleman who had grown up at this place telling us stories from a Norway so very different from what we experience today. There was no time to play when he was a child, as soon as he was old enough he had been sent out to sea fishing. 60 years later this upbringing would have been met with imprisonment. Back then it was a simple necessity.
The rather flat island of Utvær was followed by the towering island of Alden. It also goes under the name of “The Norwegian Horse” (with a good portion of goodwill, it does look like a horse from afar). At Alden we hiked, dived for scallops and waited for a gale and snow-blizzard to pass. We pushed onwards to the island of Kinn a few days later.
The notorious cliffs of Stadt were visible on the horizon, but with new crew arriving in Florø we headed south again. On the way we wreck dived a Ferndale, spent a night at the coastal town of Fedje and spent a night out in Bergen. When we sailed from Bergen, Ida bicycled back to Stavanger (crazy Swede). The loss was however manageable as we had Shanghaied Glenn and Håvard who both were well known from previous adventures with Barba.
Glenn and Håvard staid with us to yet another fishing village in the outskirts of mainland Norway, Røvær. Barba set out in a gale, but returned to Stavanger in sunshine on a dead calm sea.
Andreas
Martin, Andreas and Nikolai ready to sail North.
The day of our arrival at Utvær.
Utvær! The waves batteling on the horizon.
The dark side of sailing, continuously fixing stuff!
Martin going for a swim, at Utvær.
Barba approaching Alden.
Alden, ready to explore.
At the summit of Alden.
Ida, our very own Swedish migration worker.
Andreas and Nikolai, ready to go wreckdiving in the Krakhelle Sound.
Mojo, Andreas and Nikolai above the WW2 wreck “Ferndale”.
Rest and recovery in port.
At the island of Fedje.
Robinson getting a propoer Barba introduction.
Downtown Bergen.
The dawn after a night out in Bergen.
Moonrise at Røvær.
Robinson, the French baker!
