Tuesday 29 July 2014

Ossterschelde en route to Esbjerg

Latest update on the Oosterschelde.  Currently heading south from Bergen on route to Esbjerg.  That's where we pick it up!  If you want to track it yourself go here.

Sunday 27 July 2014

Start of a new adventure



Here we go again!  In 2011 15 intrepid villagers from the tiny hamlet of Chillenden in Kent set out for the holiday of a lifetime touring the vast deserts and plains of Namibia.  In August 2014 a slightly larger group of 17 will set sail from Esbjerg in the Oosterschelde, a three-masted top-sail schooner bound for Bergen in Norway.  The Oosterschelde, built in 1917 as a cargo carrying schooner of the Dutch fleet is 50m long and 7.5m wide and carries 891sq m of sail. There is is a skipper and basic crew on board but we are expected to help with most of the actual "sailing" - so no time for relaxing on the (non existent) sun loungers.  This is no cruise!

Our route will take us north round the tip of Denmark and across the Skagerat to Sweden (time and winds permitting) before we cross north west to the Norwegian coast at Kristiansand.  From there we hope to follow the coast line and strings of islands to Stavanger and then head inland up the Hardanger and Songe fjords, before finishing our journey at Bergen.