Sue had departed from Oslo, leaving me a couple of days to do some boat jobs and to prepare Spellbinder for her final leg of this season’s cruise. I had fine weather and got the jobs and the shopping done in good time. The shopping was disconcertingly expensive – coming home to UK things seem cheap by comparison.

With a day spare, I hopped on a ferry and visited two of the three museums which are on a small peninsula in Oslo fjord. The Maritime Museum was of some interest, but nothing compared to the the Fram Museum, dedicated to the history of Norwegian polar exploration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Roald Amundsen features heavily, and the ship in which most of the exploration was done and launched from, the Fram, is centre stage.

Crew for this final leg were Jonty, Alan (veteran of the 2019 Bermuda to Azores crossing, amongst other trips) and Rupert, who all arrived with precious resupplies of duty free. We had a slightly soggy sail out of Oslo fjord, before finding a bit of wind and heading west along the coast, putting in at a little village called Kjerringvik.

The following morning we progressed along the coast, enjoying some good sailing but getting caught out by a squall which sadly put a rip in the cruising chute. We just didn’t see it coming, and the wind rose from 11-13 knots to 26, causing us to broach. It was all over very quickly, and these things happen, but it was a timely reminder to keep an eye out behind. We put into Lillesand after an otherwise great sail, filling up with fuel, doing some last minute shopping and listening to Norwegian partygoers in a local bar until 0200 in the morning.

Slightly jaded, we headed out into the North Sea the next morning, finding some decent wind which propelled us south along the west Danish coast. I deployed the Hydrovane self-steering gear, to re-acquaint myself on it and to save wear on the electronic autopilot. We had a good crossing south, taking 3 days to reach Den Helder, where we made it in time to have dinner in the rather smart naval club there.

We left early the next morning to catch the tide, hoping to miss the rain. We thought we had, but were treated to a couple of hours of breezy, squally downpours and seas which got up into moderate to rough conditions. We found that the gas locker drain had blocked, causing gas bottles to rise to the top and float around – all a bit disconcerting.

We made it down and into Scheveningen, where I had stopped last year. The weather window to head back down to UK was a couple of days away though, so we enjoyed The Hague, visiting museums, beaches and generally enjoying the place.

At my request we were visited by two Dutch immigration police, who stamped our passports to allow us to leave Schengen. It was a very pleasant experience, and they were both very amiable.

The next morning we awoke to fog, which had been forecast. With AIS and radar it is not too much of a problem in known waters, as you can see hazards coming and we were following a previous track. With the forecast for it to lift, we headed out and had a good sail down the continental coast, reaching Calais during the night and heading at right angles to the Traffic Separation Scheme and coming into Dover.

Rupert left us in Dover to meet family commitments, and after a few hours of recuperation Jonty, Alan and myself headed out into a fabulous and consistent NE breeze, which allowed us to sail all the way to Portsmouth without recourse to motor. It was an excellent way to finish the cruise, and was made more so by Saharan sand in the atmosphere, making for some fine sunsets and sunrises.

Thank you to Alan, Jonty and Rupert for making this part of the summer cruise so enjoyable. It was full of variety, incident, culture and gastronomy, with some excellent sailing.

And so the 2023 cruise has come to an end. I can’t quite believe I started in Lisbon in April and since then have taken Spellbinder to Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki and Oslo. We seem to have logged 4500 miles. Once I have had time to reflect on what has been a memorable summer, I’ll try and sum it all up. But I could not have done it without my friends and family – to them, a very big thank you.