Kjerrgardsosen is a large, sheltered basin north of Bergen, with a nice hike nearby and excellent territory to explore in the tender. We arrived there after a 15nm run from Bergen on a beautiful, clear October day and spent three nights at anchor. We toured the area by tender, enjoyed a hike on the well-maintained trail between Skotnes and Davanger, and completed a few boat projects, including upgrading our raw water washdown pump.

Below are highlights from October 12th through 14th, 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.

10/12/2020

Bryggen Position: 60°23.78’N, 5°19.42’E Looking back the historic Bryggen district as we depart Bergen. We were moored near the green building at the far right of the picture.

Modern Bergen Position: 60°23.81’N, 5°19.32’E Modern office buildings in Bergen on the other side of the harbour from Bryggen.

Trollfjord Position: 60°23.84’N, 5°19.17’E The Hurtigruten ferry Trollfjord moored long-term at Bergen. Normally eleven Hurtigruten ferries are operating along the coast at any given time, making the 12-day voyage from Bergen north to Kirkeness and back. But with infection concerns and reduced travel due to COVID-19, only two are operating right now.

Rig Position: 60°24.40’N, 5°6.98’E Large rig (back on the right) at the Norscrap West recycling yard in Askoy. It’s amazing to see such huge, expensive platforms being torn down for scrap.

HAAVEN Position: 60°25.41’N, 5°6.09’E The four-legged self-elevating accommodation unit HAVEN, in for service at Semco Maritime in Askoy.

Straumsholet Position: 60°26.25’N, 5°5.15’E We were considering taking the channel Straumsholet along the north side of the island of Hauglandsoyna, but it looked just a bit too small for Dirona. We went around the west side of the island instead.

Checking Clearance Position: 60°26.53’N, 5°4.20’E We carry a Nikon Forestry Pro Laser Rangefinder that is easy to use and incredibly accurate to check bridge clearances and distance. Here James is verifying the charted 10m (32.8ft) clearance for the bridge ahead.

10m Clearance Position: 60°26.62’N, 5°4.20’E Our air draft is 30ft, so we have about 3 feet to spare when passing under the 10m (32.8ft) bridge between Hanoyna and Litla Lauvoyna. It looked pretty tight as we passed under.

DOF Ships Position: 60°27.38’N, 5°4.24’E Three anchor handling vessels in the 19-ship DOF fleet moored near Breidvik. From left to right is the Scandi Pacific, Scandi Peregrino and Scandi Saigon.

Langoysundet Position: 60°27.98’N, 5°4.28’E Running through picturesque Langoysundet en route to the anchorage in Kjerrgardsosen.

Lunch Position: 60°29.48’N, 5°5.49’E Lunch in the cockpit on a sunny 55°F (12.8C) afternoon at anchor in Kjerrgardsosen. Pretty nice for mid-October in Norway.

Boathouses Position: 60°30.38’N, 5°5.01’E Brightly-painted boathouses in Fromreidpollen, the basin just north of our anchorage, viewed on a tender tour of the area.

Lisstraumen Position: 60°29.61’N, 5°3.50’E The tender barely fit through the narrow and shallow channel Lisstraumen north of the island Risoyna off Kjerrgardsosen.

Askoy Seilforening Position: 60°27.12’N, 5°6.24’E A proliferation of masts at the Askoy Seilforening (Sailing Association) docks. The club is active in sailboat racing and participates in the elite division of the Norwegian sailing sports league.

Eagle Explorer Position: 60°26.78’N, 5°6.21’E Seabird Exploration’s research vessel Eagle Explorer moored at Askoy. The ship is designed for 2D/3D seismic data acquisition.

Norscrap West Position: 60°26.49’N, 5°6.36’E Old ferry being recycled at the Norscrap West yard in Askoy.

Island Innovator Position: 60°26.46’N, 5°6.04’E The semi-submersible drilling rig Island Innovator at Semco Maritime, having some maintenance work done during a lay-up between contracts.

Platform Position: 60°26.38’N, 5°6.17’E Unusual-looking platform moored at Semco Maritime. It looks like a submersible platform capable of lifting structures or boats out of the water.

Miniature Position: 60°26.47’N, 5°5.08’E Miniature light, keeper’s house and Norwegian flag on an islet in Djuppeskarsundet. The Askoy area, with its many islets, channels, bridges and surprises like this, is a delight to explore in the tender.

Modern Homes Position: 60°26.40’N, 5°4.77’E Beautiful modern houses in the Askoy area.

Happy Hour Position: 60°29.48’N, 5°5.47’E Jennifer wearing her new winter coat, purchased in Bergen, for happy hour in the cockpit at Kjerrgardsosen.

10/13/2020

Washdown Pump Position: 60°29.48’N, 5°5.47’E We use a Shurflo ProBlaster II to spray mud off the chain and anchor with saltwater. We’ve replaced it once or twice over the past decade, but generally it has done well. It recently started to pump with less pressure than normal, so we decided to replace it with a spare. The pump, pictured, is located in a difficult-to-access location in the starboard side engine room alcove after of the generator behind where we store our oil. To access it, we need to detach and pull out the six five-gallon pails of engine and hydrualic oil, plus a few other items stowed there.

Install Problem Position: 60°29.49’N, 5°5.49’E While installing the spare raw water pump, James broke the output port by inadvertently tightening down a hose adapter until it bottomed out and fractured the pump housing. That leaves us with two faulty pumps. James took the pumps apart to build one functioning spare, but during the job though,t “why not use the spare freshwater pump?” Our freshwater pump is a Headhunter X-Calibur 24V DC pump. It produces prodigious pressure and could do a much better job of spaying off the decks and would avoid James having to rebuild a functioning raw water pump from the two inoperative pumps we currently have on the boat.

Headhunter X-Calibur Position: 60°29.49’N, 5°5.48’E While attempting to rebuild a single functioning pump from the two inoperative ShurFlow ProBlaster II pumps we had on board, James thought the spare freshwater pump might be much more effective. We have a spare Headhunter X-Calibur XRS-124 which is saltwater rated so a candidate to be used as a replacement for our raw water wash system. And since the pump is capable of 67 PSI, it might be much more effective at cleaning the anchor rode on retrieval. The Headhunter pump is far larger and requires different adapters to plumb into the raw water pump system so it’s a bigger task to install this pump but we do have the parts on board so we decided to do it. Wow, that’s a washdown pump!

Dusk Position: 60°29.48’N, 5°5.47’E Dusk from the sheltered anchorage at Kjerrgardsosen.

10/14/2020

Remote Control Position: 60°29.49’N, 5°5.47’E We use a 16-channel wireless remote to control heating, air conditioning, the water heater, defroster, generator manual start, setting generator run times, turn on the 240V inverter, raise the TV lift, controls the music throughout the boat, and displays a variety of boat monitoring data on a LCD panel. The wireless remote signals a base station that is monitored through a Raspberry Pi I2C (Inter-Integrated Circuit) bus (4-wire communications bus). The system has been working well for years now, but started sending spurious commands today. James found one of the I2C communications wires had failed due to vibration. We changed the 4 wires and the system is back to operating normally.

Kjerrgardsosen Position: 60°29.46’N, 5°5.47’E Dirona moored at Kjerrgardsosen on another sunny October day in Norway.

Skotnes Position: 60°29.18’N, 5°4.75’E The tender moored at Skotnes for a short hike to Davanger.

Lindebotnen Position: 60°28.79’N, 5°5.22’E Looking north along the saltwater inlet Lindebotnen from our hike. The sheltered waterway looks to be a popular summer destination.

Boardwalk Position: 60°28.75’N, 5°5.31’E Boardwalk on the well-maintained trail between Skotnes and Davanger.

Garden Position: 60°28.71’N, 5°5.34’E We spoke with a young couple collecting root vegetables from this healthy-looking garden along the trail between Skotnes and Davanger.

Lille Stoltzen Position: 60°28.74’N, 5°5.31’E Climbing the stairs up the small hill Lille Stoltzen on our return to Skotnes from Davanger. We quite enjoyed our first winter hike in Norway—it was a relaxing and easy compared to others we’ve done here. As the days get shorter and the weather cools, we’ll be doing more lower-altitude hikes like this one.

Derailleur Hanger Position: 60°29.48’N, 5°5.50’E The derailleur hanger we’d picked up in Bergen matched the broken one in every way except the screw holes. After we cut new holes with countersinks, it’s now a perfect match. You can see the original part to the right of the new part we’re modifying.

Replacing Bicycle Chain Position: 60°29.48’N, 5°5.49’E Here James is removing the appropriate number of links from the spare bicycle chain we’ve had on the boat since we bought the bikes back in 2009. The old chain broke on a steep hill at Odda, setting off a nasty chain reaction. In this failure, the chain link parted on one side under the high load of hill climbing, then bent badly before breaking off the other side of the link, this bent chain met the rear derailleur less than a second later, jammed in it, and then twisted off the derailleur , breaking the aluminum derailleur hanger. All this happened in less than a second, and then the rear derailleur jammed between the spokes and the bike frame, bending the wheel.

Dusk Position: 60°29.48’N, 5°5.47’E Another beautiful disk from the sheltered anchorage at Kjerrgardsosen (clockwise from top left corner is the view forward, aft, starboard, and port). We arrived planning to spend one night, and ended up staying for three.

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.