Bodø, Norway, 31. August 2008

Long time since last update? If you have been watching the rest of this site you might have figured out that we arrived home in Bodø more than a month ago, on 27. July. Now, more than three months have passed since our last update from Dublin. Anyway, the rest of our trip from Dublin to Bodø went like a dream with lots of beautiful places (and of course all kinds of weather including snow on Ben Nevis, but quite a lot of good summer days too). Now we have been sleeping in our soft bed at home for a while and long since been accustomed to walking on a level floor again. Everyday life is haunting us as we were afraid would happen. Nursery, school, work and leisure activities makes the calendar more than full. Surprisingly, we also realized that our house (which appeared so huge in our minds out there) is too small for a big family. The house is already sold and we are looking for something bigger. Or should we buy a larger boat instead and set sail again?? Tempting, but I guess not. We will probably spend quite a few years here in Bodø before we sail out again. But that day will come, for sure!

Jan Erik, Marthe, Martine, Viljar & Sunniva 

Dublin, Ireland, 17. May 2008 (Norway's national day)

We have moved a lot since last update, only four weeks ago. We spent some relaxing days in warm Cascais with many social evenings together with other norwegians. On 2. May we headed north and sailed non-stop to La Coruna in northern Spain. There we rested for a few days before we set off for the bay of Biscay. Four days at sea in variable conditions brought us to Milford Haven in Wales. From there we crossed the Irish Sea to Dublin during a night of strong headwind, rough sea and strong currents. Not much sleep that night! That gives a total of almost 1000 nautical miles in twelve days. We were pretty exhausted when we arrived in Dun Laoghaire Marina here in Dublin on 14. May. Now our batteries are filled up again and we feel ready to sail further north tomorrow. But at a much slower pace this time. In three weeks we plan to start on the Caledonian Canal and it's only 200 miles up there.

Cascais, Portugal, 22. April 2008

The past months have been a very turbulent and hard time for us. The tragic death of both Marthe's brother and Jan Erik's mother in February has has been an unimaginable sorrow for us and has changed this year and this trip into something very different from what we expected. In a hurry we left the boat in La Graciosa with no idea of when we would return. After five weeks home in Norway we decided to continue the journey, as it seemed as the only right thing to do. Now we have sailed from La Graciosa in the Canaries to Morocco, then to Lagos in the Algarve and now to Cascais. West Africa was a very different and exotic experience. Everyone who gets the chance should go! We spent a week in Mohammedia and Marrakech, but could easily have spent more time there. We have to be back home for work and everyday life in August, which means we simply have to move on. After a week "stuck" in beautiful Lagos because of bad weather we are now back in Cascais where we left for Madeira almost seven months ago. It also starts to feel as continuing the trip was right. The plan forward is to sail north to Bayona in North Spain from where we hope to sail directly to Ireland around mid-May.

Puerto Rico, Gran Canaria, 9. January 2008

 Happy New Year! We are now in Puerto Rico for a haul out to fix a problem with rust on the keel and for a fresh coat of anti-fouling. Marthe and the kids are in Bodø for 10 days while Jan Erik stays here to work (and relax...). When they return Marthe's father and sister is joining us for a week, before we set sail for the eastern Canary Islands and later Africa.

Las Galletas, Tenerife, 10. December 2007

Since last update we have been cruising the Canary Islands, all exept from Lanzarote and Fuerteventura. That will come later. Magnificent islands, especially El Hierro, La Palma and La Gomera. Currently we are lying in Las Galletas on the southern tip of Tenerife. Here we will stay, more or less, until January when we start to move slowly back home.

We have lazy days here, enjoying nice climbing, swimming and surfing, regaining strenght and spirit before the long (and cold) return trip. And hopefully Santa Claus is coming to Tenerife too. 

Puerto de Mogán, Gran Canaria, 25. October 2007

We regret, but as usual it has been a long time since last info in english. Since then we have crossed the Bay of Biscay in rough to calm conditions, slowly cruised the Atlantic coasts of Spain and Portugal, explored Madeira and Ihlas Selvagens, before we finally arrived in the Canary Islands. This will be the southernmost point of our trip, and here we are staying for a few months while exploring all the islands. Sometime in early spring next year we will set off north again, either to Morocco or westward to Madeira and the Azores.

Benodet, France, 15. august 2007

Nearly two months have passed since we left Bodø so we are a bit late with our English update. We shall try to give more frequent updates onwards. During these weeks we have sailed the Norwegian coast south to Ålesund, crossed the North Sea to Fair Isle and the Orkneys, along the west coast of Scotland and the east coast of Ireland over to Cornwall, and finally across the English Channel to Bretagne in France (as you probably have realised from the map and image gallery). Here, in Benodet, we are waiting out some foul weather which is expected in the following days before we set off across the Bay of Biscay to the Atlantic coasts of Spain and Portugal.

It has been some busy weeks with fairly long sailing legs almost every day, because we should cross the Bay of Biscay before mid-August when the weather usually starts to deteriorate. In 19 days we covered the 780 nautical miles from Fair Isle to Newlyn/Penzance. We shall admit that we should have started a month earlier from Bodø, because there were so many interesting and beautiful places we could have spent more time in. But we still had a great time in the UK and Ireland. Especially from Skye to the Kintyre peninsula were we also had fair weather (it should be said that this summer must have been one of the worst ever in Britain). Also Fair Isle and the Orkneys, where we managed to climb a few sea-cliffs, were fantastic.

To live in a small sailboat is starting to become a habit now. It’s interesting to see how little space five to six persons actually can live and thrive in, compared to our big house at home. Because of the intensive sailing there has not been too much time for Sunniva, Viljar and Martine to make friends ashore. Martine is still speaks fairly good English and has no problem with getting in touch with other girls. But Viljar misses his friends much and is often asking when we are going to meet other Norwegian sailboats.

Next letter will hopefully be written in a few weeks after cruising in Spain and Portugal.

S/Y Runddans around the North Atlantic 2007/2008

In one year, starting from Bodø in June 2007, we plan to circumnavigate the North Atlantic along the "milk route" (see map on the left). Our boat is a 36 feet Jeanneau Sun Fast, built in 1994 and fully equipped for blue water cruising. Permanent crew are Sunniva (3), Viljar (8), Martine (10), Jan Erik (32) and Marthe (33). On the longer offshore legs and ocean passages we will include one or two additional crewmembers (Do you want to join? Send an email to runddans@gmail.com).

Updates will follow when we start the voyage.