Øye, Norway

Solving a docking problem

I was standing at the dock.  At my feet was one dockline tied to the circular cleat with the for-once perfectly-executed bowline. At the other end of the rope was Traversay III with Larry and our friend (and my former student Wendy Lewis) aboard. The boat was executing a series of swoops towards and then away from the dock in the gusty (up to 40 knots) winds. Boats are strange creatures and the pointy front end is thin and light. It veers away in a coquettish fashion whenever it's courted by a big powerful wind. Our 65HP engine exerted all reasonable force and seemed to be winning. But at the last minute, Trav always yielded to the wind's seduction and skittered away from me and the dock.  I wondered why I hadn't had the foresight to put a $20 US bill in the pocket of my sailing jacket and why-o-why I hadn't memorized our Sat-phone number (something any school-child learns to do).

Wendy Lewis

Finally Larry's brainpower conquered the boat and the wind. He tied a  secondary rope to my rope with a rolling hitch - this yielded enough slack so he could use the high-powered anchor windlass to winch the reluctant Traversay up to the dock.

Union Hotel

After this ordeal, we went for tea and apple cake to the 150-yr old Union Hotel. We took photos and had a look at the Kaiser Wilhelm, Arthur Conan Doyle and Princess Victoria (later Queen Victoria) rooms - all named after guests. Larry went for a walk and took stunning pictures with his mobile phone - camera left behind as it was pouring rain. Wendy told us a little more about the geological features (her profession - piano studies having been abandoned long ago!)

River above Øye

In an hour we'll leave after spending a day of intermittent gusty winds and rain in this (now sunny and beautiful) spot.