Day 1

Clearly we’ve upset a Norse god somewhere. After two weeks of perfect sunshine, calm seas and light winds the weather gods have their fun with a northerly gale sweeping down the Norway coast on the planned day of our departure. It wasn’t a particularly difficult decision to delay departure to let the worst of the weather blow through before heading out into the North Sea. In reality, one more night at home for me was a godsend and a chance to say goodbye to the family properly after months of ceaseless gathering, testing and packing endless kit for sailing and crossing the ice. There was always a problem to be solved a bit of specialist kit to source or a stakeholder to brief, reassure or pay. Sometimes the family had taken a back seat and an extra few hours to focus on them made all the difference.

The compromise was a late morning departure the following day (Sat 18th July) with a crew shake out and some sail training. It was the first real opportunity for Charlie and Kris to get to know Kev and Cormac who would be sailing with us to Iceland. Nothing like a little bouncing around in a 40ft boat to break down any barriers. Our destination for the night was Skudeneshaven on the northern entrance to the Stavanger Fjord system and the last safe haven before the Shetlands over 200nm away.

A lovely little inner harbour called for a bit delicate driving from Cormac to back into a tight mooring about 6ft away from the nearest restaurant…… admittedly a slightly surreal way to start an expedition across the North Atlantic but very welcome never-the-less. After an all too close encounter with a ‘determined German ‘dodgem driver’ and some defensive repositioning, we headed out for a crew dinner and a couple of beers contemplating what the morning had in store for us.