Harwich to Risor, Norway (26th July - 30th July)

Brimble, Captain and crew (comprising dad and family friend Liam O'Mahony) left Shotley Marina, Harwich at 0605 on Saturday 26th July. Our destination was Risor in Norway, where Brimble had arranged to meet her good friend Sumara of Weymouth. Sumara was attending the Risor Wooden Boat Festival with her owner Captain Flint. Small dramas inevitably unfold before departure on long trips and one is perhaps worthy of note.

As with every yacht, ever launched, the heads on GSB has a will of its own. In our case our otherwise entirely reliable toilet back-syphons if left in the 'flush' position. Dad, unfamiliar with this modest but material idiosyncracy left the toilet in this position one evening. The result was that as we slept through Thursday night the GSB was slowly filling up with water! Not a big issue, but it did mean we woke up with a bilge full of water. 5 minutes of pumping and we were all sorted out and a useful lesson learnt!

As we supped our second cup of morning coffee I thought I would check that none of the sea/marina/toilet water that had filled the bilge had migrated into the water tanks which are housed under the bilges in the keel. A worthwhile check as it happened; the water tanks which had been empty were now full of salt water, syphoned out from the marina, through the toilet and into our water tanks ... Dad looked at his empty coffee cup and suggested it had 'tasted surprisingy good'; I had to agree, but that was before I knew what I was drinking! The question in my mind as I sat there feeling faintly sick, was how long it would take for whatever nasties we had just drunk to manifest themselves in my 'system' and quite what the manifestation would be. I also pondered on whether I was now suddenly feeling sick because I'd just drunk a pint of salt water or because I'd just drunk a pint of water from a toilet or because I knew I'd just drunk a pint of water from a toilet and didn't like the idea of it ... probably all of the above. Quite obviously there was only one thing to be done; ignore it; so we cleaned the water tank and left the next day. Liam the second member of the crew was not informed of the issue until our safe arrival in Risor 5 days later ... we thought it best to put the matter to one side in the early days of the passage to avoid confusion.

The trip was superb. Some serious use of the engine for the first day or so and then pretty much perfect weather conditions. Balmy night watches with near perfect visibility, clear skies and more shooting stars than you can shake a large shooting star stick at; all of these were enough to make the passage a memorable one.

We arrived in Risor at 1800 on Wednesday night, 4.5 days after departure, having covered something like 550 nm's; not bad fora 28ft yacht.

Alasdair and Sumara were there to welcome us as, by coincidence, were Selma and Jack ... what a start to our adventure.