Day 17 19/07/2018
Emma joined us today. Lovely to have new company in the group. We had a good send off from Kristin at the beach, Emma’s mum. Good with a nice easy start so a 1hr 50minute crossing over to Stadlandet it was! Not such a bad crossing, luckily not much boat traffic and light side winds.
After a short break we cross over Hoddevika and landed in Ervika. First beach landing of the trip. I think I clocked 5 knots surfing in and not being so quick to get out ended up with a cockpit full of water.
We sat on the beach for a bit decided to paddle on or not. In the end we got back on the water. Now surf landing are fun, launching into the surf with a fully loaded boat is maybe even more fun. So we all take a different approach. Tobias launches of the sand, Emma gets her boat completely in the water and me somewhat in between.. Having so much stuff in my cockpit ment getting my feet in wasn't as efficient as normal and oh yes who ends up with a boat full of water.. Me! Good for Tobias though; he got some extra training towing me while I pumped out the boat.
The next bit was coming around Stad. Now we have all heard the stories of how dangerous it is and on my map it stands in big red letter ‘Dangerous Waves.’ So we did approach with care. But just approaching slack and nice weather conditions there wasn't anything dangerous to be found. We will have to go back when the weather is worse to find out.
Day 18 20/07/2018
Good start to the day. Light winds and sun. We crossed over from Stadlandet to Kvamsøya, about a two hour crossing; but we were entertained by dolphins along the way. I also had my radio on, in case of any boat traffic. The coastguard was sending out some weather warnings and on channel 16 gave a message to go to the working channel. I listened to the announcement three times and not once did they say what the working channel was. Luckily it all worked out with the weather.
We had a lovely lunch spot on Kvamsøya with sun bathing. There was also a kayak on the beach full of equipment. We heard from some locals it was a French man kayaking along the coast and had also paddled around Stad the day before. Unfortunately we didn't find him to say hello.
After lunch not the most exciting paddling through the fjords, but good company and we found a good campspot where we could watch the sun go down.
Day 19 21/07/2018
Only 40km to Ålesund. Could we do it in one hit. Emma was keen to catch the Hurtigruten that left at 0200 in the morning so we had enough time. A little tired in our bodies but we got our heads down and got paddling.
We managed it. With a few well earned breaks along the way we made it to Ålesund by 2000, in time for Emma to take the ferry home.
We had our last dinner together, we splashed out and got kebab, followed by a more classy beer.
Luckily I had a small trolley with me so we had some fun getting Emma’s kayak from the guest marina to the terminal. It wasn't far. We waved Emma off and Tobias and I got back in our kayaks to find a tent spot.
Not bad for a days paddling.
Great paddling with you guys!
ReplyDelete