Nautor Swan, Finland to Bergen, Norway 2024

After two years of planning, launching the new Feelin' Good on 03-June and almost a month of sea trials we we are finally off on our first passage with our new Nautor Swan 58. Now we were ready to really test her out on an initial passage of 30 hours or so that would get us across the Baltic Sea from northern Finland to Sweden and our first anchorage in Grasso. Our maximum speed on this passage was 10.8 kts. Not too shabby! Lots more sailing and long passages ahead until we reach our destination in the Mediterranean, the island of Palma de Mallorca.

After a well deserved rest overnight we headed out early for another day of sailing this time not as far, just about 55 nm but the day was filled with nice winds and sunny skies and we got to see a little more about how this new Nautor Swan 58 would perform. We tried the main at the second reef point along with the full jib and at an AWA of 35° and 19 kts TWS we had 9.0 kts SOG. The helm was light and responsive, this yacht likes upwind sailing!

We started out the next day with great sailing conditions and continued to explore the limits of the various sail configurations moving in particular working with the staysail deployment and rigging. This came in handy as about 40 nm north of Visby we hit some intense rain and wind and the combination of the reefed main and staysail worked really well. However, being the crazy guy I am, I stood out in the elements hand helming for a couple of hours and getting totally soaked for my efforts. But, I did get a really good feel for the yacht in adverse conditions which builds confidence for when we find ourselves in weather like this again.

We spent a few days at the Visby Gästhamn then topped off with fuel and water before we left for our passage back across the Baltic Sea to an anchorage we picked out in Vallö. While Visby is a popular tourist destination with great ferry service from the mainland, it was too touristy and expensive for me and didn't represent what the real Sweden is for sailors.

We had calm flat water for our passage most of the way across then picked up a nice breeze allowing us to put out the jib and main for a nice 9.5 kt speed the rest of the way. Sunshine and great sailing!

From our anchorage in Vallö we mostly motored to Kalmar as it was a tight channel between an island and the mainland all the way down. The scenery along what way was beautiful but there was quite a lot of traffic and some of them large freighters all choosing to take this inside passage instead of on the east side on the long island in the Baltic Sea.

Once we got to the Kalmar Guest Harbor it was a really tight fit we were the largest yacht there. It was a nice place to be for a few days and we really enjoyed visiting the Kalmar Castle and learning about the history of this area. Great town, great food and shopping including our first real ships chandler!

We had to wait several days in Kalmar for the winds to become more favorable (i.e. not fiercely on the nose!) and it seemed everyone in the marina had the same idea as we all left at the same time on the same day once the weather improved. Our passage to Copenhagen was really interesting as we had good winds and smooth seas for most of the way. The approach into Copenhagen was a choice between going under a bridge or over a car tunnel. We chose the tunnel as did most of the bigger freighters.

The Tuborg Havn Marina we stayed at was the site of the old Turborg Brewery and was an excellent facility with a great restaurant at the Royal Danish Yacht Club. We picked up our friend Eve i and headed off for the long passage all the way to Norway.

Others who take this route might have planned to stop somewhere on the west coast of Sweden or at the very tip of Denmark in Skagen. These were in the back of our mind in case weather or mechanical issues caused us to make changes. As Skagen is well protected from the typical North Sea wind and waves it is a very popular stop-over and as we passed in the middle of the night we saw about 50 AIS signals from that area. Good thing we didn't have to stop!

For our passage the weather and sea state were perfect and we sailed most of the way using the motor a bit at the end and arriving after 30 hours in sunny skies and light winds. We had a great berth for a few days at the Kristiansand Gjestehavn and were walking distance from wonderful fish restaurants and markets to provision at. It was the height of Norwegian summer and the weather was fantastic. What a lovely place Kristiansand was, don't miss it if your are in Norway.

Norway was our official destination as, once we launched in Finland, we exited the EU and had to proceed directly to a non-EU country (of which Norway is). Once there, we notified Nautor Swan who coordinated with Finish Customs to clear us out officially so we were free of the need to pay any EU VAT. Now, we could explore places at our leisure and we were really looking forward to seeing some of Norway!

After a lovely few days in Kristiansand, we headed out for our first Norwegian anchorage in Hellesund (also known as Olafsund) and what a place it was! It had a very narrow entrance (but deep) and we squeezed through with about 2 meters on each side. Once inside, this bay was very popular but we found a good anchorage. The legend is that this was a place that King Olav hid out while his enemies search for him. The coastline of Norway is filled with little hidden bays like this and you could spend an entire summer trying out all of them. For the most part these hidden bays are very well protected from the North sea and are deep enough for almost any yacht but the entrances will restrict who can fit.

A fews days of testing our our new tender and Yamaha 15 hp engine and relaxing in the Norwegian sunshine was enough and we headed to the next anchorage at Langenes Vesevägen. Once again, it was a tight squeeze through a narrow (but deep) channel to get into this bay. There were lots of summer cottages around the bay and a number of locals wanted to offer advice on where we should anchor. We chose the middle of the bay in about 12 m of water and lots of swinging space.

After a good night sleep we headed out again continuing on our way up the coast toward Stavanger but first another stop at a fantastic little anchorage at Midbrødvägen. This beautiful bay was inside another narrow entrance guarded by Eigerøy Lighthouse. The lighthouse was about 150 years old and made of cast iron. We took a wonderful walk around the bay and could see our yacht anchored in the middle all by itself. What a cool place!

A couple days later we pushed on for Stavanger where we thought we could stay at a marina close to the downtown however the place turned out to be pretty shallow and we all felt uncomfortable staying there. We tied up to a dock for a few hours to do some provisioning then then headed out to anchor at a nice location further north at Mannholmen. We did have a Battery Protect System module burn up and we bypassed it (per Swans's directions). They will send us a replacement to Bergen.

The next day was a HUGE day for us as we had seen so many photos of sailing yachts with their bow close to a waterfall in a fjord and we wanted to go there. Well, today was the day to visit the Lysefjord. It was clear blue skies, no wind and we were all alone in the fjord. I sent out the drone to video us passing under a bridge and also when we reached the Hengjanefossen Waterfall. Way up on the top of the surrounding cliffs was a another famous location called Preikestolen (The Pulpit Rock). It sits 604 meters about the fjord and it totally flat on top. People hike for hours to get there for a selfie photo. After a full day exploring the fjord, we headed over to Trodalsvågen bay where we could anchor for the night (the fjord was too deep to anchor).

Starting out with some nice winds, we had the jib up (no main) and downwind sailed for about 5 hours to reach Bukkøya bay where we anchored and explored Avaldsnes (The Viking Farm) which was a fascinating place to see how the Vikings lived.

Unfortunately, the winds came up rather strongly and we decided to move to a better location. However our new Volvo D3 150 decided it was time to misbehave and went into 'Safety Mode' where we were restricted to 1200 rpm. We didn't know what was wrong but were able to get to another location anchor for the night. The next morning I called a Volvo service center about 25 nm away from us and he helped us diagnose the issue. It was the fuel pressure sensor. He orded one and we slowly motored (no wind of course...) at about 4-5 kts all the way to his location. We did get a little wind at the end which helped. After waiting a few days for the part to arrive, he installed it and all checked out so off we went back the way we came from as we were heading toward Bergen.

While in Norway, we had to see another fjord and waterfall so we took a deviation off to visit Furebergsfossen waterfall which is at the junction of Maurangerfjord and Hardangerfjord. While we couldn't get as close to this waterfall as Hengejanefossen, we did get some beautiful drone videos of Feelin' Good in this fantastic location.

Oh, and on the way there we passed a really weird and famous 3-star Michelin 'Iris' restaurant and a museum, called 'Salmon Eye' before we got to the waterfall. After some time in exploring the rest of the fjord, we headed off to anchor in a nice place called Låtrevika Bay.

The next day we headed off toward Bergen stopping for the night in Latreka bay which, unfortunately, was under the approach path for the airport so we headed a bit further to a lovely anchorage at Avløpollen which was under the other approach path to the airport but was a lot more quiet.

The next day we went the short distance into the center of Bergen and found a wonderful berth alongside the main street in Bryggen and spent an amazing four nights there enjoying being in the heart of Bergen. So many wonderful restaurants and fish markets. Bergen was one of the highlights of the entire passage to the Med. Be sure to go see this incredible town.

Note: I have mentioned a number of issues that came up while sailing from the shipyard and wanted to make sure the readers know that a yacht is an extremely complex piece of machinery and it is not unusual at all to experience initial problems with getting it all working properly. In retrospect, this yacht from Nautor Swan, had a lot fewer serious problems than the both the previous two yachts we had.