Sandspollen, Scandinavias best natural harbour

Some people argue that the islands outside of Stockholm are better to cruise than the ones in Oslofjorden. In many ways I think they are correct. But the one thing they can´t beat is some of the gorgeous natural harbours of The Oslofjord. The most beautiful in my opinion is Sandspollen.
On our virgin sleepover trip with our new boat Solrun II, a Weekendcruiser from NorDan (7800 version) we chose to spend the night in Sandspollen.


So far so not so interesting you might think. Hang on, the fun starts now. This weekend was rather hot and humid and the weatherforecast predicted very little rain. But just when we arrived the clouds rejoiced and opened their floodgates. In a massive way. At this point I would like to mention that we were not dressed for heavy rain.


But full of optimism we found a lovely spot, anchored and I used a couple of trees to connect us to land. At that time it sounded like a easy and good idea. Also, the trees would give me some protection from the rain since I had to use the grill since all our food was based on having a barbeque.



In between the first rainshowers I was actually able to dish up some really good food, but then the wrath from above really kicked in. It started with daaark clouds and rolling thunder. Then it looked like Flash Gordon had been to kind to a lot of babysitters based on the numerous flashes over the sky. Please do remember how I connected the boat to land. Via ropes to the nearby trees. ..
And what are the 2 things to avoid in a situation like this?
1. Do not be at sea in small boats
2. Do not sit under trees.

We did both. Off course we listened to the news on the radio with its long antenna (I mean if the first two wouldnt do us harm then a radioantenna clearly couldnt do any lightning damage). The weatherman announced that this was not a good time to be in a boat (You don´t say???) and also talked about the surprising but very fascinating weatherphenomenon that occured right in front of us. You see this was a tropical rainshower. Outside of Oslo, Norway. Tropical!? And some people still say that Al Gore is a liar. Visit Oslo is my reply.
After the fun passed, tropical showers of this kind is brutal but short, the sun actually came back for a short while and gave us some nice photops when we explored the natural surroundings. Nice isn´t it?



So even though the trip didn´t turn out as planned we got some really nice pictures and a good story to tell friends. And the boat? Slept like a baby. Next morning we discovered that the battery didn´t serve enough power to ignite the Wallas cooking stove. Thankfully I had brought a gasheater as well. So we got our morning coffee. Did I mention that in weekends there is a boat delivering fresh bread in Sandspollen. How many places do you know of with floating bakeries?

More boat stories will be published over the summer.

A beautiful outdoor wedding in Iceland

Perhaps outdoor and wedding sounds like a strange combination with Iceland. Include a forest and it might sound like I´m doing advanced storytelling. But it is true and quite possible, and definately beautiful.
My brother in law, Loftur and his now wife, Edda, invited my wife and myself to be part of their wedding. Of course the medal had a flipside, it was named Labour, but to be honest, working a couple of days in a lovely forest to prepare for a wedding under the midnight sun is quite allright by my standards.
Here is how you do it:
Invite some close friends and family to arrive a few days before the actual wedding.
Use all your contacts to get hold of all you need like, aaahh say, a tent, flooring, chairs, heatlamps etc.
Make sure your phone is fully charged in case of urgent help needed.
Invite some more people if it seems that deadline is coming a bit too fast.

Our family has experience in this area. This was the third consecutive successful outdoor wedding we´ve held on the east coast of Iceland. The first two was in a greenhouse so this was different but the work crew was up for tha task.

None of us being experts on putting together a tent to hold several hundred people meant that the first night of montage included a lot of plundering and confused looks. After a couple of phonecalls it all came together quite nicely.




Here are parts of the crew having a short break.


And then we started on the decorations. May I point out that this is from the night before the wedding and at times I believe that more than 20 friends and family were taking part. isn´t that just great? At least I think it is lovely.




Allright, just to show that I have a slightly artistic side. Here is one of my artpictures.



And then they got married under the tree´s. Call me a easily touched but I think that is seriously romantic. Just dont quote me on that...



Out of respect for privacy I´m not publishing photos from the actual party were faces can be seen. If you were attending the wedding and want to see more pictures, send me an email to get access to more pictures.

For everybody else. Pleas make sure you either have a outstanding weddingplanner and a huge amount of cash, or very good friends and family (read a healthy workforce) before you step into this kind of event. In the end it is totally worth it, if ever you should be in doubt. The memories, the memories...