Oslofjord trip - Husbergøy - "sailwithme"

(All photographs here taken by a crappy cellphone. Sorry ...)

I got inspired by the posts from @hickorymack under the tag #walkwithme. Today I have a day off due to night duties, so I have some free time in the daytime. That's just fantastic - I'm full-time employed, with family and lots of projects, so it's not often I have time for such things as walking around, taking photos, writing posts. Well, I had some missions for the day, and the first one was to take care of my dhingy. I was trying to get downtown with it a week ago, but got pretty much stuck due to sea ice ... and later the dhingy has been stuck where I left it, probably not a very good place to leave a dhingy. Now it has been a bit mild, and the wind is blowing in the "right" direction. I was quite worried when walking towards the place I left it - was it still there? And would it be possible to use it?

Yes! Passing the corner, I could see my dhingy, and I could see that there was no sea ice around it. The dhingy is just some few pixels big, located between the crane and the bigger boat. When arriving there previous week, I thought it would be nice to store it under the quay, I could probably leave it there for weeks without worrying about it. Now at low water and in the daylight, I realize someone else have had the same idea, and apparently it was not such a good idea ... there is another dhingy submerged in the water there.

Here it is ... a Chinese cheap thing, quite poor quality (that ore just broke off some weeks ago) but it works well in the sea, I like it ...

Photographing towards the sun seldom is a good idea, but I think this turned out nicely in some way ...

Oslo, from the sea

Some of the islands in the Oslo fjord is populated by lots of cottages. This one is Bleikøya. Most of those islands are connected by small passenger ferries, and they are reasonably cheap (included in the regular Oslo transportation tickets).

The sail boat below belongs to a Polish crypto enthusiast. He was living on this boat (with no heating ... brr! and using a dhingy + walk + bus to get to town) in the beginning of the winter, but now he went to Poland. Two days before he left, he actually decided that he wanted to put it on land, or at least leave it in a marina, but that just proved to be impossible. He would have needed insurance, and it seems rather impossible for a Polish person without official residence in Norway to get insurance - further, my insurance company said the boat was too old, they didn't want to insure it.

While he was away, the mast fell down. I don't understand how that can have happened. I got help from some of his friends to get the mast secured. It was a hard job, despite being three persons, despite it being a small boat, and despite that the sea was still ... I absolutely wouldn't want to experience something like that when being caught in a storm with few hands on a big boat ...

It was a quite busy day at the sea, with four freight ship coming/leaving the harbour while I was out, plus one military minesweeper ship practicing. However, all my photos was either with a thumb on it, or totally blurry, so skip, skip, skip ...

I decided to stretch my legs a bit ...

This island is called Husbergøya. The facilities are public and free to use (not the kayaks, they are locked ... but the grill place, the shelters, the harbour). The island is property of Oslo municipality, they use it for some childrens activities, though the Island is located outside the Oslo municipality.

Quite many of the islands out here are regulated as "naturreservat" - which basically means that one can be sure there won't be built lots of private cottages here. There are also some rules - and a small part of the island is prohibited to visit during most of the summer, as one shouldn't disturb the birds.

This place even has a handicap-friendly toilet. Which happens to be locked. Nice. Well, not much pretty, but nice that even the wheelchair-bound can get to appreciate some of the nature out here.

I was here at the 1st of January last time - then all footprints on the island was mine and only mine! I even stayed here with the family, but they never bothered leaving our sail boat. This time there were no human foot prints on the island, but apparently someone has been releasing their dog on the island, there were footprints from the dog everywhere.

There are three cottages on the island, all owned by the municipality and used for some children activities. Earlier it was possible to rent one of them, but not anymore. Actually, there was a huge factory on the island in earlier times - but they have completely removed all traces of that, except the quay. The factory foreman was living in one of those houses.

In the summer time, if being lucky, it's possible to wash hands here - but one has to bring drinks from home.

The part below is the island where one shouldn't disturb the birds. Remember I said it was low water - we almost have no tides in the Oslo region, but there is a little bit, so on high water that is a separate island.

We usually honor property rights in Norway - but when being out in the nature and encountering a desert cottage it is quite normal to take a break and eat a sandwich on the private property, like sitting on the stairs or on a bench. When it's windy and sunny (like it was today) it can be comfortably warm sitting with the back towards a dark wall shaded for the wind but with the wall soaking up the heat from the sun. Since this is actually owned by the public, I even wouldn't mind using the grill. However, I had no charcoal, no food to grill, and the wind direction was such that it was impossible to find a place sheltered for the wind and still being in the sun.

A bird spotting tower.

Raised by the NCC (nordic construction company) children construction school, and presented to the municipality of Oslo.

I would totally have sat down here if it wasn't for the cold wind. (The fence is for security, to prevent people from falling down)

After taking those photos, I decided to sit down and try to write the post on the island. However, it was a bit too windy and cold.

I was also quite concerned, my next leg was a bit long, and now it had become quite windy - and wind causes waves. Luckily it was quite a nice ride, probably because of a favorable wave direction.

All photos in full resolution at IPFS QmXgGmLmnEUbmDmUBq6dBcMnckoWpyCk4DxLsW41BmyPjW