A small weather system was passing through, with gusts to 45 knots, as we were underway for Erjforden. We found a beautiful and peaceful anchorage at Hattavagen, and ended up spending three nights anchored in the sheltered basin. While there, we explored the area by tender, hiked up 510m Bandasen, and completed a few boat projects during some rainy weather.
Below are trip highlights from July 28th through 30th, 2020. Click any image for a larger view, or click the position to view the location on a map. And a live map of our current route and most recent log entries always is available at mvdirona.com/maps.
7/28/2020
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Ottoysundet
Position: 59°23.67’N, 6°5.64’E
Houses along scenic Ottoysundet as we exit the Saudafjorden area in a downpour.
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44 knots
Position: 59°18.79’N, 6°7.45’E
A small weather system is passing through, and we’re seeing gusts to 45 knots as we’re underway for Erjforden. You can also see the main start alternator (third from left, third row) is 124°F, where it should be charging at full output. The other alternator, above, is running at 265°F. Only one alternator is charging, so we’ll need to replace that start alternator. Given how hard we run them, often up over 250°F, it’s amazing that this is the first failure we’ve experienced in 11,100 hours.
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Measuring Distance
Position: 59°19.60’N, 6°12.07’E
The anchorage at Hattavagen is a little tighter than normal for us, but it was so beautiful and peaceful that we decided to anchor there. We measured carefully and did have enough swing room, but the shore looked awfully close when we pulled back. As an extra test, we verified the distance remaining with the Nikon Forestry Pro Laser Rangefinder that we use to check bridge clearance. The space remaining, 40 yards, was exactly what we expected, but it still looks close for conservative anchorers like us.
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Spitfire
Position: 59°19.59’N, 6°12.05’E
Spitfire also checking the clearance at Hattavagen. He’s always concerned when we’re close to anything, be it another boat or shore.
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Replacing Alternator
Position: 59°19.60’N, 6°12.06’E
Earlier in the day, the main start alternator failed so James has the drive belt off, we’ve got the spare out, and we’re making the change. These high-output alternators are quite expensive so we’ll get this one rebuilt.
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Transmission Temp Sensor
Position: 59°19.60’N, 6°12.07’E
The temperature sensor on the main transmission failed. The sensing system is excessively complicated, where the sensor produces J1939 CANbus output which plugs into the main engine control harness and is converted to NMEA 2000 using a Maretron J2k100 converter. We replaced it with a Maretron temperature sensor that directly connects to a Maretron TMP100 temperature monitor producing NMEA 2000. This is a simpler and more reliable approach. Here James is running a wire from the transmission to the TMP100.
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7/29/2020
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Anchorage View
Position: 59°19.60’N, 6°12.05’E
The view to the anchorage at Hattavagen on a calm morning (clockwise from top left: forward, aft, starboard and port).
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Hattavagen
Position: 59°19.68’N, 6°12.02’E
It’s hard to believe that the anchorage at Hattavagen feels tight, but the swing radius is 75 yards and the depth is 28ft. So with a 4:1 scope (120ft), we have about 100 feet extra. Subtracting off the boat length of 52 feet, that leaves about 50 feet behind us when we are pulled back all the way. (The actual space remaining is a little better using the Pythagorean theorem to calculate our actual swing radius, but the math shows us we could come close to covering the entire area).
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Tender
Position: 59°16.58’N, 6°5.69’E
Our tender moored at Ombo for a hike to Bandasen.
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Trailhead
Position: 59°16.57’N, 6°5.71’E
Sometimes we have to walk a ways to reach the trailhead from the tender, but here we could land right next to it.
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Waterfall
Position: 59°16.44’N, 6°5.62’E
Waterfall on the hike up to Bandasen.
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Summer Cabin
Position: 59°16.60’N, 6°5.37’E
It seems that almost everyone in Norway owns a summer cabin and many that we see are well beyond what we would consider a simple “cabin”. Here’s an example of one of the many that we’d happily call home.
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View
Position: 59°16.68’N, 6°5.31’E
View northeast along the hike to Bandasen. We’re anchored on the other side of the sloping ridge on the left.
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Goal
Position: 59°16.84’N, 6°4.44’E
Our goal of the summit of Bandasen at 510 meters above sea level.
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Stone Path
Position: 59°17.00’N, 6°3.84’E
A stone flagstone path through lush woods along the trail to Bandasen.
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Bandasen
Position: 59°17.33’N, 6°3.24’E
At the summit of Bandasen. The weather was supposed to clear this afternoon, but got worse. Instead of the panoramic view we were looking forward to, we got only a few good glimpses from the top before the clouds descended and we couldn’t see anything below.
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Rain
Position: 59°17.14’N, 6°3.62’E
The weather forecast definitely wasn’t accurate today. Rather than partly sunny skies, our descent was through pouring rain. But we stayed warm if not dry.
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Erfjorden
Position: 59°18.57’N, 6°16.10’E
Lookig south to the end of Erfjorden.
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Bluff
Position: 59°17.93’N, 6°16.31’E
Bluff in Erfjorden. Even the simple scenery in Norway is striking.
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Spitfire
Position: 59°19.60’N, 6°12.07’E
Spitfire usually sleeps on his fleece pad, but occasionally makes a nest out of the pillows in the pilot house berth.
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Kaare Svaboe
Position: 59°19.60’N, 6°12.07’E
Blog reader Kaare Svaboe has a summer cabin in the area and stopped by to say hello and give us some tips on nearby places of interest. He also invited us to visit their private island Lauvholmen. The cabin is about 15 miles to the south, but he covered the ground pretty quickly in his capable Goldfish 23 Tender. 400HP in a light power plant on a well-designed hull can really step out. This boat will do over 60 nautical miles per hour.
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7/30/2020
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Muffins
Position: 59°19.59’N, 6°12.06’E
Freshly baked blueberry muffins for breakfast.
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Speaker
Position: 59°19.59’N, 6°12.05’E
One of the drivers in our loudspeakers has failed and is making a hissing sound. Here James is unwiring the failed one. We contacted the manufacturer, Definitive Audio, and they can send us a replacement to Seattle at a reasonable price.
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Hinge
Position: 59°19.59’N, 6°12.05’E
The console hatch cover cover came off as we were out in the tender yesterday because both hinge pins had worn and vibrated out. We replace the pins with slightly wider roll pins and here are pounding them in with a mallet. These won’t be going anywhere.
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Console Hatch
Position: 59°19.59’N, 6°12.07’E
The tender console hatch is now secure and back to operational again with the hinge pins replaced.
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Click the travel log icon on the left to see these locations on a map, with the complete log of our cruise.
On the map page, clicking on a camera or text icon will display a picture and/or log entry for that location, and clicking on the smaller icons along the route will display latitude, longitude and other navigation data for that location. And a live map of our current route and most recent log entries always is available at mvdirona.com/maps. |
The Hattavegan anchorage us just beautiful.
Your resourcefulness always astonishes me — I would assume very few cruising folks carry hinge pin spares.
Norway is just out of this world beautiful. We just wish the cruising season was longer.
On the hinge pin, we didn’t really have a hinge pin but we did have stainless steel roll pins (also called spring pins). These pins are designed to locate mechanical parts in alignment. For example, the wing and gen engines use roll pins between the engine block and the cylinder head. We were able to adapt a roll pin to server as a hinge pin and, having used it for a while now, it’s seems to work better than the original.