30 June 2009, Oslo, Norway.

For the guests the cruise schedule for the day in Oslo was prefect. A mid morning arrival and a midnight departure. Thus no need to get up very early in the morning to see the Oslo fjord and also having the chance to see the same fjord by night. (Well, by dusk, as it never got really dark) Thus I approached the pilot station at the beginning of the Oslofjord at 0600 hrs. and then sailed with the sedate speed of 16 knots up the fjord towards Oslo. The first part are wide open waters and not that impressive and navigationally not that challenging. However the pilot was concerned about the ferries crossing the Fjord from East to West and vice versa and did not want to race through. Fine by me as long as I was docked on time, at 10 am. all would be well with the world.

The fjord gets more and more narrow around about 25 miles before Oslo itself and thus the guests were alerted by the voice of the Travel guide onboard, starting his narration of the fjord. This is where a group of islands almost block the whole width of the Fjord near the town of Drobak. Two passages, deep but small give the only access to the rest of the fjord and to Oslo. As a logical consequence the Norwegians built a big fortification on the biggest and central island. In April 1940 the German Heavy Cruiser Blucher was sunk here as it tried to gain access to Oslo. It sunk just past the fort and until this day there is oil seeping out of the wreck, although it is getting less. When I sailed by her in 2001, there was still a steady sheen on the water; this time just a few blobs. The funny thing is that everywhere else the world is up in arms about the most minor fuel spill, but here it is considered a tourist attraction. I wonder what they will do, when the wreck runs out of oil???????

As it was a bright sunny day, the hills on either side of the fjord really showed off the green lush colors of the pine trees and it was a very beautiful approach. We were the only cruise ship in today and thus we had the prime berth, under the Castle, with the nose right in the old harbor. No shuttle bus needed here, the town was only a few steps away. Since 2001, there is of course the compulsory gate around the pier. But somehow here in Oslo they managed to make it not to look to foreboding. It just seemed to be correct to have one here. Apart from the castle, it is the town hall that dominates the sky line of the Oslo downtown area. It is a bit of a stark building built in dark brown stone and I can understand that there was a lot of controversy over it when it was built. But so did the Opera House in Sydney and so still does the Gherkin in London.

Akerhus Castle with our dock in front of it.

We had a near windless day in Oslo and that made it that there were hardly any sailing yachts out and about when we sailed away just before midnight. Now with it being dusk, all the navigation lights were very clearly visible and that gave the guests the chance to figure out how the pilots do it and did it, when not using Radar. Apart from some leading lights (two lights in line give a safe course), most lights in the Oslo Fjord are sector lights. This means that it is a fixed light (not flashing or blinking) and the light shines part red, part green and part white as pieces of a pie in a circle. The red part covers dangers, the white is in between and green is the safe area. Thus by sailing from white sector to white sector, leaning on the green, you are always in deep waters. Now with the lights so clear it was easy to see what the pilot was doing.

It was a warm and windless night and a lot of guests stayed up for most of the return passage and it was as if we were sailing on a silver lake. We were back at the pilot station at 03.30 am in the morning and then headed towards the Thames. I am aiming at a pilot time there of 17:30 in the afternoon for the day after tomorrow, as we have to catch the incoming tide, otherwise there are patches in the river without enough water.

England is supposed to have a heat wave in the coming days, so that should mean more sunny and warm weather. However also Wimbledon is going on and that means almost certainly also some rain.