Someone else sailing in southern Norway this summer?

[annnim]

Hi!

I am sailing with my bf Antti in the southern Norway this summer with a HR29 S/Y Dolphin Dance. Are there other people sailing around this area at the moment or do you have experience from sailing there? We are planning on exploring the fjords but we also noticed that the southern Norway is extremely beautiful and are now wondering which all destinations you recommend we should visit? There are many interesting places in the sailing guide we already purchased but it would be great to get some advices if you guys knew which places we should not miss!

[knuterikt]

I will start my summer cruise around july 15th.
Starting from Oslo are will probably sail the Swedish west coast and the Norwegian "Sørlandet".
You have already sailed past Sørlandet - how far are you planning to sail?

[annnim]

We are planning to continue until Egersund - or that is our current plan The area after Egersund seems quite dangerous so we are planning to stay for a while in Egersund and rent a car to see more of the fjords. We had thought of sailing to Stavanger but the winds seem to be so strong that probably there is no point in sailing there since there is also so much to explore in the eastern coast of Norway. Or what do you think?

[knuterikt]

How much time do you have?
If you would like to go further north there is an open stretch between Egersund and Stavanger. The trick here is to wait for a favorable weather forecast and put your route far enough offshore to avoid the waves building close to shore.

You have two sources for local weather
- yr.no - Været for Norge og verden fra Meteorologisk institutt og NRK (you can select english as language). Here you can search for locations and also get sea and coats (topic).
- pent.no - værmelding for Norge og Verden

Another useful resource is Havneguiden - SEILmagasinet its available online and also as books

Lots of the inner leads can be navigated under sail - especially with favorable winds.

On the way back there are lots of nice places to go also
-Hidra
-Ny Hellesund
-Area around Kristiansand
-Blindleia (inner route west of Lillesand)
-Grimstad area
-Arendal Area (Merdø on Tromøy)
-Tvedestrand (in the bottom of a fjord)
-Lyngør (Nice natural harbor to SW)
-Risør (city and bommen ++)
-Kragerø area (you can go Kreppa E from Kragerø - by motor)
-Jomfruland
-Svenner (outside the lighthouse)
-At the tip between Sandefjord and Tønsberg - Havnholmen
-Tønsberg

Just some ideas

[annnim]

Thanks Knuterikt, such a long answer and many suggestions!

We are still staying in Egersund because it is raining heavily here. Tomorrow they forecast sunshine so we are probably going to explore this are further. The winds are pretty heavy at the moment so it seams that we won't move in a couple of days from here. We have been looking for information on the places you mentioned and it seems great. Grimstad was already visited when coming to Norway but we are going to visit quite many of these places. Berefrjord and Kirkehamn are now probably our next locations.

And about time - we have 2-3 weeks to spend in Norway but then we should start sailing back towards Finland to get back home by August...

[knuterikt]

Happy to help

I'm following your blog, lots of nice pictures.

[annnim]

Our long journey from Finland to Norway and back to Finland is now over. The season is luckily not quite yet over so we can make a couple of smaller trips, but it feels a little sad to be back at home and to have to start working again... Well anyway, lots of our stories are online in our blog and there are videos coming in later on!

[tdw]

Its good. I certainly enjoyed it. Hope to see you back next year or maybe even we'll get the chance to see what you do on thos shorter end of season trips.