I don’t know if you realised it, but even though we had already been travelling for almost three months, we had never sailed overnight!

But that was about to change.

After leaving Kristiansund, we made two more stops: one at anchor, where we caught some more fish and enjoyed a beautiful sunset, and another in Veiholmen, a little fishing island with a small harbour in the centre.

This was where our first overnight sail would begin.

We left in the morning after breakfast, with the plan to make it as far north as possible, depending on how things went and how we - especially me and the cats - would feel. After having to use the engine for the first few hours, we were finally able to hoist the sails and cruise north at a good speed, annoyingly with some big following seas coming from diagonally behind us.

For the passage, we decided to go with a three-hour shift system. One of us would be on watch for three hours, sitting in the cockpit, monitoring the navigation computer, keeping an eye on the sail trim and adjusting the course or sails whenever necessary. During that time, the other person had three hours off to sleep, relax or simply do whatever they felt like.

During mealtimes, the person on break was responsible for cooking and feeding the cats. After three hours, we would switch roles, and that was how we worked our way through both day and night.

It worked very well for us. Having clearly defined roles was actually really helpful, even during the day. Knowing that you were officially "off watch" meant you could relax without feeling guilty for not doing anything.

On the first day, I felt completely fine. I was able to sleep during my breaks and even cooked pasta with pesto for dinner - this sounds easier than it is, considering we had about 3 m waves that moved the boat around while handling boiling water.

The night watch also went very well. Since we were so far north already, it never even got really dark during the night. Of course, we knew that, and that was also our intention: to practise sailing at night when it wouldn’t really be dark, just to get a slow and easy start.

But after my three-hour break during the night, I started feeling a little seasick from the rolling waves, and Fortuna wasn't exactly happy either.

When I went back on my morning watch, things got worse and I ended up throwing up. We had already made good progress, though, so we decided to turn towards the coast and head for Vega, an island we wanted to explore anyway. It seemed like a good opportunity to stop there.

It still took us another twelve hours to get to the island, but fortunately, I felt better when we came closer to the shore and the waves got smaller. I wouldn’t say I was completely seasick, just a bit uncomfortable, and probably eating little snacks instead of proper food obviously wasn’t helping. It was already evening by the time we arrived in the harbour, so after a quick dinner and a walk with the cats, we were more than ready for bed.

All in all, we considered it a successful first overnight sail. We had been underway for about 32 hours and covered 191 nautical miles. Apart from me getting seasick, we had no other incidents, no technical problems and no dangerous manoeuvres. During one of my night watches, I even spotted a whale! It was pretty far away, but seeing it in the middle of the ocean was still an incredible moment.

Safely moored in Nordøya on the island of Vega, we took a day off and had a great time. We rented two bikes and cycled to Vegatrappa, a spectacular staircase leading up to Ravnfloget. The trail climbs around 350 metres above sea level and consists of roughly 1,400–2,000 steps, depending on how they are counted. From the top, you can normally enjoy an incredible view across the Vega Archipelago and towards the island of Søla — but unfortunately, the weather had other plans for us.

There were so many clouds and fog that we couldn't rally see anything from the viewpoint. Still, climbing all those stairs was a fun challenge and a welcome change from our usual day-to-day boat life.

In the evening, we cooked a homemade fish soup using the fish we had caught a few days earlier and enjoyed a quiet night safely moored to the pontoon.

The next day finally brought us some sunshine, at least for a while. We had a calm sail to a nearby anchorage, where we were able to fish again. And this time, I finally caught my first fish!

We turned our catch into delicious fish burgers for dinner and enjoyed a peaceful evening at a remote anchorage.

After our first overnight sail, a little seasickness, a whale sighting and my first ever fish, we were slowly getting closer and closer to the Lofoten Islands.

Don’t miss our next blog post about our journey to get there!

Day 91: Kristiansund NO - Oterholman NO