Søre Bjørnsund to Røstøya
This morning’s voyage was through what is called the Hustadvika. This is another ‘coastal danger area’ where shallow shoaling waters, contrary winds and strange tides make for dangerous waves. One can take the inside route, which takes very careful and detailed navigation with rocks everywhere, or the outside route, which has fewer rocks but more wave action.
Similar to Statt, we double-checked the weather forecasts and predictions for ‘bølgevarsel’ and ‘kryssende bølger’, and decided to take the outside route as it looked to be relatively calm. The forecast for Hustadvika is so detailed that we could plan the 30 nm trip to the hour, to minimise undesirable wave action along the way.
Screenshot showing the incredible detail in wave predictions for Hustadvika (2 June)
We had following winds and hoped that we’d be able to sail through it but, even though we had only 2.5m swells and little current, the water was simply too rough to be able hold the light wind in the sails. So, again, we motored pushing through until we once again could get into the protection of the skerries sufficiently to break the swell and let the sails fill.
What followed was a long downwind sail under heady alone that went on for hours as we crossed fjords and entered the Trondheimsleia, a long lead that eventually enters the Trondheimsfjord and ultimately gets to…yep, Trondheim. It was easy and fast sailing in increasing thick misty rain and with cold winds in the mid-teens.
Eventually we had to make a call about whether to keep sailing through the night to take advantage of the conditions or to anchor up somewhere quiet for a good night’s sleep. The forecast for the wind to pick up in the dog watch (night watch) ultimately made that an easy call and we headed into a sheltered bay for a quiet night.
In the end we did 73nm today! Not bad at all.
