Norway sailing vacation and charter

Note that all images are actual pictures taken in Norway around the areas of Oslo and of the Lofoten islands

Deep Fjords with 1000m vertical cliffs. Blue glaciers and drinkable ice cold water from the glacier river. Thousands of big and small islands protecting from ocean waves and winds. Good harbors and anchorages always at hand. Not a day without seeing several classic wooden boats of different sizes. These are only a little part of the experience while sailing the magnificent coast of Norway;

The sea to the north of Norway is also special because of the midnight sun during the summer season and the thousands of majestic islands. The "Lofoten" and the "Helgeland" coastline are considered as "the pearls" of Norway.

Northern Norway is also the main area of the great Norwegian fishing industry. Fishing has kept people there alive for thousands of years, and in spite of the fact that there are less fish now than in the old days, it will be difficult not to get a bite if you decide to try fishing yourself. Whales, seals and fishing eagles, puffins are also common sights.

The Northern western coast of Norway is known for its blue iced glaciers coming down in the fjords. In some places the locals can arrange horse cabs to bring you closer to the ice. A lot of the glacier branches have a lake of melting water beneath, and as well as walking around the lake, it is also possible to rent rowing boats.

While cruising in Norway, you can be sure of having more sun and less rain than anywhere else in the Scandinavian region, although we will probably encounter rainy conditions at times, variable wind from light to heavy, and strong currents and tides (see below).

All areas are well marked with buoys, however many sea marks are rusty iron pipes driven directly into the rocks. Inshore sailing in Norway is quite uncomplicated and well marked for day and night sailing. although with the midnight sun this doesn't make much of a difference. Just don't miss a mark! BTW Norway is on IALA A buoyage system.

Weatherfax information comes from Germany or Norway in English twice a day and is easy to interpret, although a call to the closet forecast center is very efficient and quite simple (ref. Weather and communication).

In the areas to the west and the north of the Lofoten islands the midnight sun is visible from 27 May till 17 July. At Værøy and Røst this period is a little shorter. This might means sunglasses and factor 20 at 2300! An advantage of the midnight sun is that making an unfamiliar anchorage or landfall before nightfall is no longer an issue; you just have to be careful you don’t exhaust yourself by staying up all ‘night’. This means also 24 hours of visibility (except for possible fog) and no moon set or rise.

For a skipper planning to sail to western Norway, both British Admiralty charts and United States DMA charts are adequate for route planning and offshore passage-making. It is essential, however, to carry Norwegian charts for all coastal areas visited. Norwegian charts are both detailed and accurate, and the scale of the coastal series is large and readable. Although places and names appear only in Norwegian, the navigational symbols and numbers are easy to understand.

In addition, these charts contain English translations of most important navigational notes and directions.

Norwegian charts are available on special order at many north American chart dealers. Or you may purchase them online directly from Scandinavia’s premier chart dealer, Iver C. Weilbach in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The Norwegian Cruising Guide by John Armitage provides invaluable advice information for over 500 anchorages and harbors. The Norwegian Pilot, Den Norske Los are available in 7 volumes, though 4-6 are not in English. Note that the volumes 4 to 7 cover the Northern part of the coast.

These excellent publications with color aerial photo's and harbor plans cost $40 each. Norwegian Charts cost $15 each and are of superb quality and available in most city bookstores. The 100 series provides terrific coverage at 1:50 000. Electronic Charting proved to be extremely limited and expensive and with coverage limited to the south.

Pilots are not indispensable as Norwegian charts are very complete and approaches are clear, well marked and quite thorough if not always simple.

Navigation You need to take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the Norwegian buoyage system. Towers or cairns, made of stones and rock piles, some containing pointing arms, are the oldest system of navigation aids while beacons, perches, sector lights, cardinal marks and buoys total 13,000 adding to at first possible confusion while sailing in narrow channels. Bridges and power cables are numerous and heights are only noted on the charts.

Moorage You will be amazed at how populated is the coast of Norway. Small harbors with guest pontoons are frequent in even the smallest town while cities have additional facilities. Dockside fees have averaged $10 per night while showers ($2) and laundry ($6 wash and dry) are available with a key deposit. Be warned that washing machines and dryers tend to take 2 hours per session... Things are done well in Norway.

If we choose to anchor in one of the many beautiful unspoiled anchorages, it is common to anchor directly bow to the rock or even alongside. For that purpose we will use "rock hooks" and a heavy hammer. A hook is a "L" shaped piece of iron with a ring to tie mooring lines. They are very useful to "hammer" into rock crevices. For most of our moorings by the rocks we will have to use one or two a stern anchors and 2 mooring lines at the bow, tied to trees or rocks.

Provisioning and Fuel Grocery stores contain great supplies at about 25% more than the U.S and diesel at approximately $1.70/liter is available in about everywhere. Note that foreign credit cards are often not accepted at many supermarkets and fueling stations but ATM machines abound.

One of the advice given while planning our Norwegian sailing adventures is to purchase a mobile telephone from Telenor, the Norwegian state telephone company. Telenor, almost always has a promotional deal going on, so the phone itself often only costs the equivalent of a few American dollars. The "calling minutes" are then purchased as you need them at any kiosk or convenience store and loaded electronically into the handset. All calls within Norway (no matter how distant) are considered local and are billed at a few cents a minute, making the entire service (handset and all) quite economical.

The usefulness of the mobile telephone quickly becomes apparent, for as a high frequency, short range radio system, it has all but replaced communication by VHF radio throughout coastal Norway. Telephone numbers for coastal safety organizations, local harbor authorities, marinas, police, and other useful local services are contained in the appropriate sections of the Norwegian coast pilot, Den Norske Los, as well as in Armitage and Brackenbury’s Norwegian Cruising Guide. Here you will also find telephone numbers for the Norwegian Meteorological Society’s regional offices in Tromso, Bergen, and Stavanger. A call to the appropriate office with a polite request for an English-language weather forecast will almost always be met with success. Normally, the caller will be transferred directly to the floor of the forecast center, where a working meteorologist, fluent in English, will often be willing to provide not only current weather information but also to discuss forecast "progs" for several days into the future.

As with all public infrastructure in Norway, the mobile telephone system is state-of-the-art, with nearly total coverage throughout the coastal archipelago (including even the longest fiords). There are also telephone towers situated on several offshore oil platforms, thus effectively extending mobile telephone service to large areas of Norway’s offshore waters. Ref. Cell phone chapter for technical information in the Travel section.

Although almost everyone has heard about fjords. In most cases a fjord is a gorge with high mountains alongside from sea going into land with a dead end. This is not always the case. Sometimes a fjord is a very wide stretch of water between mainland and numerous small and larger islands known in Norway as skjægård (I will leave the pronunciation to your imagination). Sometimes you can sail through a fjord with mountains on both sides to end up at sea again. But some do have a dead-end. A "leia" however, is a waterway, sometimes not much different than fjords, but always running parallel to the coast, starting and ending in open sea. Expect extremely changing winds and currents conditions.

Sailing through fjords is not always an easy task since you often have to navigate with your finger on the chart through intricate however well marked waters of the Norwegian coast. You do not want to trust the GPS too much due to delays, magnetic phenomena and imprecision. Nevertheless, sailing "inside" really will give us the opportunity to explore the best of Norway. GPS are nonetheless useful for anchor watch.

Winds are very variable in direction and force and sudden heavy gusts are to be expected at any times. This imposes to be capable to adjust sails trim and size very quickly. Auto pilot and motors happen to be quick useful tools in these conditions...

In spring the weather can be excellent. It can even be outright warm in the sun. However, even then one might have to stay behind the sprayhood for the wind temperature can get down to 10-12 degrees Celsius (55F) during the day. Mornings can be therefore cold, which made it difficult to get out of a warm sleeping bag, a necessity in this country. Diesel or electric heaters are a must and it can really add to the appreciation of your boat when everything is dry and warm.

Just FYI water temperature in June is about 10 C (53F). We would therefore suggest that you bring a bathing suit for ... the hot tubs and saunas.

The Lofoten Maelstrom, (Moskstraumen), is one of the world’s strongest tidal currents. It is located between the Lofoten Point and the island Værøy southwest of the main chain of the Lofoten Islands. Moskenstraumen is about 4 kilometers across and 40 to 60 meters deep, and is considerably shallower than the surrounding sea. The tide fills up the Vestfjord (inside Moskenstraumen) twice a lunar day (about 24 hours and 50 minutes), and a strong sea level gradient occurs. This sea level gradient drives the current around Lofotodden and the other strong tidal currents in the narrow sounds between the Lofoten Islands further east. The current is said to run with speed up to 10-12 knots, but there are no current records available that can be used for estimates of current extremes. We will avoid this area during flood or ebb.

The Lofoten islands have a classic diurnal tidal cycle and the highest tides are 7 to 8 feet above the mean average.

Please read the weather and climate section. We are not going sailing in the Caribbean or Tahiti... Sailing conditions can be much rougher and colder. Please schedule gear and equipment appropriately. This list is only indicative.

In addition to regular clothing required for any sailing trip we would recommend the followings:

Heavy Water proof marine jacket, pants, sea-boots, gloves and hat (foul weather gear)

Note. If you need Sea sickness medication - consult your doctor. The most effective medications, such as the Scopolamine patch, are prescription. Over the Counter medications such as Dramamine and Bonine can also be effective, but usually cause drowsiness and are not suitable for this sailing trip. Therefore consult your doctor or reconsider for a more quiet trip.

Bring your foul weather gear, gloves, woolly hat and plenty of thermals... bring Tevas and shorts too,” has warned Herman the owner of the boats that we are going to charter. Although we will be there almost in summer, it seems a sound advice because we are indeed heading well within the Arctic Circle, at more than 68°N.

We would be closer to the North Pole than Iceland and Alaska and several hundred miles north of the southern tip of Greenland. As a Norwegian cruising guide puts it: ‘There is a feeling of being on the edge of the world: at the frontier.’

I have been warned that strange things happen north of the Arctic Circle. Getting used to the land of the midnight sun is one of them. Another is that quite often a high pressure system establish itself as a buffer to lows tracking east further south. Therefore we might find ourselves under sunny cloudless skies and light winds in full day light for the entirety of this voyage. At times in summer it feels like the Mediterranean in the Lofoten according to Herman.

Another possibility is mixed rain/sun and winds from 10 to 35 KTS with an average temperature of about 55-60F in the shade.

Another interesting fact I gleaned from the pilot (Norwegian Cruising Guide, Armitage and Brackenbury, Adlard Coles Nautical) is that if you connect Norway’s mainland coastline, which runs from Sweden to Russia, with those of all its offshore islands it would stretch around the African continent four and three-quarter times.

I guess this is only one of the reasons why according Yachting World the Lofoten islands is one of the world’s most dramatic cruising grounds.

The "season" for Orca is generally from October to December, but we might encounter some of them. Sperm whales are also quick common, as are seals, otters and other marine mammals. We will go on site on one of their feeding grounds to try to watch this fantastic spectacle.

Lofoten has an abundant selection of birds. We will encounter birds from the forest, moors, highlands, sea and ocean, and many species which migrate past Lofoten every spring and autumn. The white-tailed eagle flourishes in Lofoten, and the area has one of the world's largest stocks. Most sea bird species are found in this region: razorbill, guillemot, cormorant, kittiwake and the characteristic puffin, just to mention a few. Especially the farthest islands of Værøy and Røst are renowned for their bird colonies and bird rocks. Hundreds of thousands of puffins and other sea birds can be heard and seen there, joining in a colorful orchestra.

They are almost too many to count: Sildpollen, a nearly circular bowl of rock soaring skyward a thousand feet and more on every side; Gullvika, a landlocked pool with ringbolts in the rock and a mountain stream filled with mussel beds; Henningsvaer, a traditional fishing village with racks of cod split and drying in the long summer twilight; Aesoy, a nearly perfect gunkhole nestled between deserted islands; Reine, a village lost under the loom of craggy, snow-covered peaks, overshadowed by its own spectacular scenery.

General Tips in Lofoten

Local Customs in Lofoten

Hotels in Lofoten

Things To Do in Lofoten

Restaurants in Lofoten

Nightlife in Lofoten

Transportation in Lofoten

Shopping in Lofoten