Day 34: Tuesday 2nd June, 2026. Fjaerland to Leirvik, Hyllestad Duration: 8 hours With rain forecast for most of the day, we decided to do a longer hop to get ourselves back to the mouth of the Songnefjord. In actuality, conditions were predominantly good... ... and the Captain was pleased when there was enough persistent wind to do some proper sailing for a change...experiencing the vagaries of the 'fallvind' with its constant changes in direction, which kept him occupied..

Day 33: Monday 1st of June, 2026. Kvamsey to Mundal, Fjaerland 3.5 hours Heavy rain overnight, but we slept well...Thankfully it dried up for our departure for our short passage inland, continuing up the beautiful Sognefjord....the 'King of the Fjords'... the longest and deepest fjord in Norway - at 1308m deep at its deepest, and 204km long... Deserving of its name...the scale of the mountains were breathtaking - the highest mountains in Northern Europe... (that scale can o

Day 32: Sunday 31st May, 2026. Dingja to Kvamsoy Duration: 8hrs 45min Wildlife seen: 5 porpoises (the first we have seen in Norway) and 2 heron A very peaceful night and a leisurely breakfast, and then off we motored, having enjoyed our stop at Dingja. Rain was forecast - which made the wide and dramatic vistas of the Sognefjord very atmospheric...especially with the calm waters... As we progressed up the fjord, the few little enclaves of houses got even more sparse... ...a

Day 31: Saturday 30th May, 2026. Feste to Dingja, (at the mouth of Sognefjord) Duration 4.5 hours After a good night's sleep we were awoken at 7am by the first Ferry's wash hitting the jetty. Warm, but a tad misty...we cast off and headed North once more... ...initially following the route we had taken by bike yesterday...and then through Lurefjord, crossing Fensfjord, and up Brandangersund...toward our final destination for today the mouth of Sognefjord... ...Initial clear

Day 30: Friday 29th May, 2026. Bergen to Feste (Radsund) Duration: 3.5 hours. Wildlife seen: White tipped Sea Eagle. Heron. The warmest day so far at a balmly 19 degrees, but overcast. Engine checks done, and fresh bread bought (it's really good bread here!), we motored out of the Marina using the 10am opening of the swing bridge and bid farewell to beautiful Bergen for now... ...and headed North along the calm waters of the inner leads of the fjiords - Buyfjord, Osterfjord,

Day 29: Thursday 28 May, 2026. Bergen Awoke to the rare occurence of blue and sunny skies - a perfect day for another hike...so over the bridge to pick up a picnic lunch ... ...and then off we went to ascend Floyen, another of the seven surrounding mountains of Bergen. Around 400m high, it has lots of fantastic walking trails to choose from, and lots of lovely views to be had... We chose to walk up, and when we reached the funicular and its cafes, we came upon crowds and some

Day 28: Wednesday, 27th May, 2026. Bergen. A rare dry day.... with some sunshine to boot! ...So a spot more sightseeing was in order...first stop - Bergenhus Fortress, down at the harbour. The Fortress itself contains buildings that date back to the early 1240's, and also has more modern buildings erected during World War II. Of the Medieval buildings only two remain - Haakon's Hall (built during King Haakon Hakonsson's reign 1217-1263) which in it's day, was the largest bu

Day 27: Tuesday 26th May, 2026. Bergen Woke to an overcast but dry day, which felt perfect for our first Norwegian mountain hike. Bergen is surrounded by seven mountains - the highest of which, Ulriken, has a cable-car that takes you to the summit... ...but we decided to stretch our legs and zig-zag our way up the 642 metre stoney path... ...with a few wrong turns... ...and some atmospheric views... ...we climbed higher and higher... ...admiring the wood anemones, and unfurle

Day 26: Monday 25th May, 2026. Bergen, Norway A leisurely breakfast of Norwegian buns and coffee, that had been foraged by Cal and Cesca... ....and then alighted the lightrail to the airport, to get our passports stamped ... ...which took a bit longer than expected...so just enough time to grab a spot of late lunch at Olivia's Italian, and giggle at some signage... ...before donning our swimwear and spending our afternoon in Heit Marineholmen, a fantastic floating wood-fired

Days 24 & 25 : Saturday 23rd May through to Sunday 24th May, 2026. Lerwick, Shetland to Bergen, Norway. Duration 31.5 hours : Wildlife seen - puffins, fulmars, razorbills, gannets Up a little earlier than planned (6am) due to an impressive, but noisy, tall ship being pushed into the the dock by a pilot boat right next to us.... ...so showered and breakfasted, and then full of anticipation, we took the boat round to fill up on fuel and water.... ...where the new crew, practi

Day 23: Friday 22nd May, 2026 Lerwick Awoke to a grey but brightening skies. Whilst the Captain took a trip to the chandlers and picked up the hire car, I took a stroll along Commercial Street.. ...and took a peek at Fort Charlotte - a large artillery fort that was first constructed in 1665 during the Anglo/Dutch wars, and then rebuilt over a century later during the American War of Independence. It is now still a base for an Army Reserve Unit...the 212 Highland Reserve Batt

Day 22: Thursday 21st May, 2026. Lerwick Awoke, to a bright day and the delights of Lerwick beckoning....so after a leisurely breakfast, we took a donder along the pleasing paved streets.. ... it's narrow wee closes... ...and pretty wee gardens.. ...and on the way to do the laundry at Lerwick Sailing Club, we came upon some of the locations for the t.v. show 'Shetland'... ...and made sure to be on the look out for any boy racer Shetland snails... ...before heading off to C

Day 21: Wednesday, 20th May 2026. Stronsay, Orkney to Fair Isle to Lerwick, Shetland Duration - forevvvvver! (12.5hrs) The gale force winds had dissipated by 5am, so we were up at 5.30 for a 6am departure, to catch the favourable tide to Fair Isle. Because of the preceding winds the seas were pretty rolly with waves around two metres - definitely not my favourite sailing conditions, but just before midday Fair Isle came into view.... ...Feeling relieved the passage was over,

Day 20: Tuesday, 19th May, 2026. Stronsay After a wild and windy night, we knew it would be an aboard day, catching up on some sorting and passage planning and weather watching...which was just all like this... and this....with winds of over 30 knots ... ahhh, the joys of Scottish Summer!!

Day 19: Monday 18th May, 2026. Deer Sound, Mainland Orkney to Stronsay Duration: 3 hours A treat of two excursions ashore for my land loving legs today...the first was to explore the shore at Deer Sound .... ...and the old 19th century farm buildings that sit on the old site of a 12th Century drinking hall - the Hall of Tankerness ... ...and then on, and past Tankerness Loch...and its resident cows and waterwheels... A quick stop at Sheila Fleet's jewelry shop and chapel caf

Day 18: Sunday 17th May, 2026 Wick to Deer Sound , eastern side 'Mainland' Orkney Duration: 6 hours 50mins : Wildlife seen - dolphin, arctic terns, gullimots, puffins, fulmar, shags The beguiling skies of last night had dissipated, and turned into grey rainy ones, so with waterproofs donned we headed up to the supermarket to stock up on foodstuffs since we would be anchoring for the next wee while....bustling past the old fog cannon and back aboard just before the heavens rea

Day 17: Saturday 16th May 2026. Fortrose to Wick, Caithness Duration 10 hours: Wildlife seen: bottlenose dolphins, common dolphins, gannets, guilimots and fulmars After a fairly peaceful night, we were up early to raise the anchor and bid farewell to Fortrose ...and were briefly escorted past the impressive Fort George, by the resident bottlenosed dolphins of Chanonry Point... ...and then further north, off the coast of Brora, a small pod of Common dolphins displayed their b

Day 16: Friday 15th May 2026. Seaport Marina, Inverness to Fortrose Duration: 1.5hours Still a little gusty and cool, but a forecast of diminishing winds ahead, so once the dinghy had been re-inflated and attached to the davits.. and the fuel tank filled up... ..it was time to finally exit the last two remaining locks...'Works Lock'... ...and then Clachnaharry Sea Lock ... ...and then our happy, but slow, Caledonian Canal chapter was finally done, and we were feeling the wave

Days 13 - 15 : Tuesday 12th May to Thursday 14th May 2026 Dochgarroch; Dochgarroch to Seaport Marina, Inverness. Day 13: Tuesday 12th May 2026 Awoke to yet more forecasts of strong cold gusty winds for the next few days, so we are in no hurry to exit the Canal. Today we took a 20km walk along the canal and explored Inverness and had another night at Dochgarroch. Day 14: Wednesday 13th May 2026. Dochgarroch to Seaport Marina, Inverness. Duration: 1.5 hrs Awoke to a bleak forec

Day 12 : Monday 11th May 2026. Fort Augustus to Loch Dochgarroch Duration: 4 hrs 45 min After a good sleep, we were up and ready to take the first opportunity to go down the 5 locks... and leave touristy Fort Augustus behind... Then it was a long motor through Loch Ness, all 37 kms of her, which, because of its great depth contains more water than all the lakes in England and Wales combined.. ...passing the dramatic 13th Century Medieval ruin of Urquhart Castle.... before ent