And we're off!

But not to Denmark. As I said, plans change and our plans changed today. We decided to sail up the coast of Norway instead of over to Denmark, the captain's decision made on account of my fear of the weather and his uncertainty about our forsail which had taken a beating and I had just patched.

We spent most of the day preparing for the trip:

- Ran all our clothes down to the boat (nice that you can basically take whatever you want when there are only two of you)

- Provisioning: I had already grilled up some chicken, bought some vegetables and harvested the mint, basil and strawberries from the garden but we needed a few things to go with it. OK, mostly I was buying wine. If you're not from Norway, that is an episode in itself as we actually only sell wine in state-run shops aptly called VINMONOPOLET. Literally, the Wine Monopoly and not a very American concept at all. This might come back into the blog later if we run out of wine and find ourselves out of range of a VINMONOPOL. I try to avoid this, but it can be tricky.

- Mounted the new navigation system

- Connected Mabu Hay to the AIS. You can now go to marinetraffic.com, search for Mabu Hay and see where we are. 

 It's nerdy but nice and most importantly safe and smart.

- Mounted the oven. The electricity is not connected yet. This may or may not be a ploy on Reidar's part to avoid my cooking and eat out at restaurants. I am making him pay for all meals until the electricity is hooked up. We have a kettle, so ramen and couscous are fair game. 

- Moved the thruster control.

- Started replacement of the water pump.



And then we had had enough preparing and just decided to start our vacation at 5 pm. As soon as we cast off, the stillness, the silence and the fresh scent of the sea told us that we were right to do it. Even though the cabin is a complete and total mess with unfinished jobs and tools strewn everywhere, we had a great slow sail to Arendal. The stress of the past four weeks at work melted away.

We are docked in Arendal for the night and heading out early toward Jomfruland tomorrow. We will do a few more jobs tomorrow before we head out. It is good to be on our way.



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