Waiting for favorable winds

BERGEN: We are ready to go again, and we are only waiting for favorable winds before we set sails for Shetland.

The last two weeks we have spent refitting Underveis, and the list of things to do was very long. We have had a new main sail fitted, repaired the genoa, new propeller, and many other things. We have dried out and cleaned the entire ship, that alone took us several days. There are many people we want to thank for speedy and good help. In particular we want to mention Sailmaker Iversen here in Bergen, who made and mended our sails in no time. We have rarely encountered such service and focus on problemsolving as we did there. We give them our most heartfelt recommendations!

But now we are good to go again, and we are only waiting for good weather. The October storms have set in, but according to weather forecasts, we are supposed to have favorable winds and good weather from Tuesday on. We expect to set sails that very morning. We will rather wait and see a little this time, than risk getting a beating similar to the one we had last time. And Bergen is a very hospitable city!

GOOD COMPANY: We had good company as we splayed our equipment out on the quay for visiting yachts in Bergen for an entire day. A famous Norwegian-mariner-turned-war-hero watched over us. Who better than him to acknowledge the tribulations that we had encountered in the North Sea a few days earlier?

We have had a lot of attention from media around Norway, and at least one hundred people have visited us at the quay, cheered us up and encouraged us. We are very grateful for that. As we await our outward passage, we spend time on board Underveis, watching movies, visiting friends, and finding back to the good feeling, the one that is eventually going to take us around the globe.