A pause for Josin in Lillesand while I took a trip by train, bus and car, to Kongsberg, Oslo and Sandefjord, specially to help celebrate Odd Are’s 60th birthday, in “Vallhall” a suitable meeting location outside Sandefjord. A splendid party, theme moustache, (bart in Norwegian), so it was a Barty. Ida and Hanne had done a splendid organising job, managing to keep it a surprise for Odd Are up to the day before. 40-ish guests, all with either a family or friendly connection from over the years. Odd Are welcomed each and every one in his speech. Well done!
I had hoped for some sightseeing enjoying the train ride from Kristiansand to Kongsberg, but the weather was not clement both ways, so the view was mostly of low cloud, rain and trees. Friend Svein Tangen, also a Ballad owner, in Lillesand, was most helpful in finding Josin a berth and also ferrying me around. Also two succulent dinners with him and his partner Hilde. So although a bit hectic, a successful interlude off the water.
So today it was back to ‘sailing’, well, motorsailing, from Lillesand to Finnøy, where Risør Seilforening has its facility. Too little wind to make fast enough progress without help from the engine, but it was a lovely day to be enjoyed on the water, even though it was remarkably bumpy. Strong currents competing with waves and rollers. Very easy to spill the coffee. Josin consumes about one and a half liters of diesel an hour, and I consume about one and a half deci-liters of un-spilled coffee an hour.
I need a quick visit to Risør tomorrow morning, to find something suitable for fixing the transducer for the echosounder, which came loose this morning, which resulted in no depth signal just in the tricky, shallow bit of course. Having fixed that, then further on in the direction of home port. Forecast is for south west winds, which should be great, except that they may be a bit strong for lazy sailing later in the day. No worries.
All’s well.
Josin's 2025 cruise 