Back to Oslo Day 6 Friday 9 July.

Brusand to Kongshamn på Hidra. 61 km. Start 0940 arrive 2000. Average speed 6.7 km/hr.

As the saying goes: “Sails and crew rot when weatherbound (landligge)”. It ended up with fully three days weatherbound at Brusand. The main beneficiary of that was KPMG… We also got to rest and fatten back up a bit. It probably was a good thing. But Oslo didn’t come an inch closer.

The hosts at Brusand, Kari and her husband, were very welcoming and service minded. And busy. Kari told us she walks about 30 000 steps every day at work… that’s about 23 km. And with covid restrictions their regular summer staff are stuck somewhere in Europe.

Comfortable conditions and splendid hospitality notwithstanding; it was good to get back out on the water.

The weather forecast suggest more weatherbound days ahead so we were intent on making the most of today. And at least get past Hauge-Dalane’s cliffy coastline which Erling remembers with some mixed feelings from six years back. We had one tent site planned at 50 km and an ambition for Kirkehamn at 60 km.

We paddled three hours (20 km) 30 min break, that took us to the end of Eigerøya

Then another 3 hours (20 km) that took us almost to Sogndalhamn. Another 30 min break and we were good to go toward Hidra

The last leg proved to be the most interesting. Wind had picked up a bit and just after Foksteinane we crossed outside the fjord leading out from Åna Sira, after the last days of rain a lot of ice cold fresh water were flowing out of the narrow outlet. It made for some confused waves and water.

All quiet at the infamous cliffs of Hauge Dalane as we approached Åna Sira. We let our guard down a bit early….

That could have been a warning to be a bit conservative for the crossing over to Hidra. But we didn’t heed that warning.

As we got out to exposed waters with breaking following seas Karianne decided to make the crossing a short one an speeded up. Erling had to paddle hard just to keep up while keeping the boat on track…

About ten minutes from the inlet to Kungshamn Karianne’s rudder loosened. That slowed things down a bit:-)

We got in without issue in spite of the loose rudder. This is the first time it has happened to Karianne, but Stein has experienced similar problems back in 2018. So this is a weakness of the smart track rudder system as attached to the P&H Cetuses. We’ll fix tomorrow.

Kirkehamn turned out to be a very well shielded and also welcoming place. We stopped at a mobile home parking with some basic facilities. More people arrived and soon there was five tents sorrounding the small beach.