2011  South from Stavanger

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Heading South from Stavanger, and round Lindesnes, the Southern tip of Norway.

Stavanger is a major port.  We stopped for a couple of days in the downtown yacht harbour.  Pleasant spot, but not particularly attractive since most of the old buildings have been replaced by modern ones.  Cruise ships and oil industry service ships come and go frequently, as do ferries to the relatively few islands that still lack bridges.

We enjoyed the oil industry museum (nothing older than about 30 years)  with loads of well presented interesting exhibits on the very successful Norwegian oil industry.  It made it obvious that Alberta is not charging oil companies nearly enough for their oil.

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After leaving Stavanger area we worked out way South, stopping here and there.  Scenery is less interesting than to the North, but we liked the small island town of Kirkehamn.
We spent a couple of days there, biking around the island and climbing one of the hills. 

The very complex passages between the Norwegian islands are very well marked, with numerous buoys and small lighthouses like this one.

Today with GPS navigation is quite easy, but prior to that, these markers would have been essential to have any chance of avoiding all the rocks, or even finding your desired port. 
We has mostly light winds, so had fun trying to get the most out of our sails.

In this photo, Michael is up the mast trying to adjust the sail batten tension.

One day we left Stokken, near Kristiansand, heading up the East Coast of Norway, but the wind was good for Sweden, so we made the overnight passage, in very pleasant weather to Smogen
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