Sail Away From Norway

We’ve been sailing around on different beautiful islands after we got back to the boat. We’ve been to Palmarola island, la Ponza and Ventotene and more. Ventotene was soo beautiful and we took so many pictures there so this post will mostly be about that island, haha. Seriously one of the prettiest and coolest places we’ve been so far! ��We’ve also been trying to get some fish btw, but with no luck lately. We’re not giving up though, we’re all out of tuna now so we really want more, haha. ��Slide 1 & 2 are from Ponza
Slide 3 is from Palmarola �Slide 4-10 are from Ponza
The rest of the slides are from Ventotene 😍

You can see they have houses inside the rocks. From the seaside you sometimes just see some windows or doors in the rocks 😂 Really cool! 👌

So beautiful in Ponza too. We btw met a norwegian sailboat there with Bernhard Engelschiøn & which was really nice to get to know and hang out with! And they had lots of good recommendations for beautiful places 😍

We then went to the volcanic island Ventotene that they really recommeneded and it did noooot disappoint!

All the rest of the pictures and videos are from Ventotene 😍 we might post a part 2 from Ventotene because we took a lot of really nice photos and videoes from there 😍 and it also has a lot of interesting history! 👌 Like the over 2000 years old harbor that is still in use there 🙌 and the little volcanic Santo Stefano island you can see from Ventotene with a big prison built in 1795 🙌

Stay tuned for part 2 about Ventotene 😅🙌 We are now back to mainland Italy🇮🇹 btw and we can shop groceries again without burning cash on expensive imported island groceries 😂

We drove the Stelvio Pass!! 🤩

What an incredibly cool and fun experience to do! We enjoyed it a lot even though almost all the bikes had something to say about driving in this height (2760m) and so slow in long queue in the heat sometimes 😅😂

But it was such amazing views both from the base camps and from the top 😍

We are back at the boat now, but we had so many photos from the Stelvio pass that this post is just dedicated to that, haha 👌

We also tasted some really good Bratwurst hot dog at the top! Really recommend!

There were a loooot of motorbikes and regular bikes and people hiking, cars, rv’s and everything at the top. There is even buses that drives all the way up 😅🙌

We really enjoyed it and it was so fun to see some family and friends again! 😍 Maybe we will do something similar next year? 🤷‍♀️😍

This week me and Frode, my dad, his girlfriend and a friend of us have been riding our bikes in the mountain passes in Italy and enjoying our time a lot! 😍👌

We’ve been driving Passo Giau and Passo Sella and some other fun roads! Today or tomorrow we will drive Passo Stelvio too 🤩❤️

In the meantime, Joakim and his girlfriend has been on the boat and sailing around in Italy and also enjoying their time! 🥰

We are so happy we got the chance to join this with our own bikes! Thank you so much to dad who took our bikes with them all the way to Italy 🥰

Bella and Teddy are also with us which has also been super nice, haha 😍

We will go with train back to Rome and then to the boat again tomorrow and meet Joakim and Tamara and some more friends which we are really looking forward too! ❤️

We arrived in Mainland Italy last saturday morning and we love it here! 🥰

Then we went as soon as we got some wind to Santa Marinella and then to right outside Rome.

Because we are leaving the boat for a week or so and going on land! We are gonna do something really fun: drive our own bikes in the Dolomites!! 😍 We’ve been talking about this for a while and my dad was so super nice to offer to take our bikes all the way from Norway to Italy! Me and frode, my dad and his girlfriend and a friend of us are gonna drive around on our bikes for a week in the Dolomites so that is gonna be a lot of fun! 😍👌

In the meantime, Joakim and Tamara is coming over to the boat today and they will watch over Lady Galina and have fun at the boat for a week while we’re at land 🥰 Very thankful for that too! 🙏 Take good care of her, haha ❤️ Hopefully we can get some updates from them on the boat as well 😁

Besides that we still have some tuna left 😂 so we’ve been eating that in between some taco and pasta etc 🥰 It has also been some really nice sunsets lately 🥹

Yesterday I hoisted Frode up in the mast and then he fixed so that the lazy bag is more open and the main sail is easier to hoist up. All while the sun was going down 👌

It is still pretty warm and even the sea temperature has reached 30 degrees some places!! It’s nice with wind and shadow from our solar panel roof too 🙌 the Dolomites and going up in the mountains where it might be a little cold somewhere will be a big change 😂

We are really excited about it though!!

We went to shore in Palau in Sardinia 🇮🇹 to shop some groceries. It’s always so fun to find new products in new countries. And then also having to look for all the usual products we use and learn the names of them in a new language again 🤪👌

I took some pictures from Palau - it was so colorful and pretty ❤️

After that we moved out of the nature reserve we’ve been checking out for a week. There are lots of yachts around in Sardinia but also lots of sailboats and kite surfers too 🤩 We saw this one Italian sailboat that was heeling like crazy when we passed them 😂

Then we crossed over to Corsica which is a french Island so we had to put up a new flag while we are here. 🇫🇷

We also got to know an italian couple on a sailboat which have been living on their boat for like 9 years! Incredible 🙌 They were super nice (and they also made super good pasta of course 🥹🤤)

We’ve also made lots of good food ourselves. Made pasta carbonara for the first time on the boat and Frode made some reaallllyy good tuna with some homemade japanese marinade 🤤🤤❤️

In Corsica, we also fueled up for the first time since May 😅👌

And early today we started the crossing over to mainland Italy 🇮🇹🤩 We will probably be there tonight or something if we don’t decide to stop on one of the islands before mainland 👌

Todayyyy it’s Frode’s birthday!! Happy happy birthday to him! 🎉🎂🎁🎊🥳❤️❤️❤️

Besides that, we’ve been moving around Sardinia the last week and first felt it was so many boats and almost like traffic jam some places but still so spacious at anchorages that it always felt like we had some space around us at anchor. But that was until we found some smaller bays.

Around 10 am and until the evening the bays are getting packed up with soo many sailboats and smaller boats and yachts and everything. Then in the evening almost everybody leaves. Kinda wondering where everyone is going sometimes? Are really so many of them charters? Or just moving to another place in the evening, hmm 🤷‍♀️ 😂

We’ve also spotted several NORWEGIAN sailboats here 🇳🇴 Probably the most sailboats with a Norwegian flag we’ve seen since we got out of Norway. 😂 Maybe Sardinia is the place all the Norwegian sailors hang 😂🙌

We also hung out with some norwegian sailors who invited us over for a beer! 👌😁 Familien Havstad
It was super nice!

We’ve been looking so much forward to Italian food (and ice cream 😇) that when we first went to land on last Friday, we went out for pizza for lunch then later pasta dinner with which was super nice! And then ice cream!! Perfect day!! Italian food and ice cream, all in Italy! 😂🙏

We’re moving a little from bay to bay as we paid for a week at this nature reserve so we’re trying to check out many places here before the week ends 👌

One of the bays had such shallow sea that we were down in 0m at depth because of some seagrass reaching up to the boat 😅 We had that spot for ourselves you can say 😂😂 But everything went fine and we got out completely fine too. I was just sitting in front watching for potential rocks etc ✌️

Another bay actually had a lot of bees. We had like 4 that got in to our sailboat at the same time. Not too fun 😂 But Frode managed to get them out 😅🙏

Maybe later this week we will head over to mainland and there we have a lot of exciting things planned! 😍🙌

After over 4000 nm, we have reached a new country which is the 10th country for Lady Galina: Italy! 🇮🇹

Time and nautical miles flies! We are now in Sardinia in Italy!! 🥹😍

We were so lucky to have our Spanish friend Alex with us from Menorca to Sardinia. We had some waves over to Sardinia. Bigger than what the forecast said, but we had a really nice sail reaching 9 knots! Until the wind died completely and then we ended up mostly motoring the rest. 🥲 We even saw two turtles in the middle of the crossing just floating at the top of the sea! 🐢 😍

Sardinia is beautiful and biig! There’s lots of boats everywhere here, but it hasn’t felt to crowded anywhere yet. 👌

The first day sailing here was s**t 😂 The wind was so bad, but then yesterday we had some really good wind and a beautiful sail! 🥰 We tacked a lot but at least we sailed almost all the time yesterday. 🙌 Alex has definitely gotten a lot of different experiences! 👌 It was so much fun having him here! We just drove him to land not that long ago. Super thankful for meeting people like him and for making some many new friends on these trips! 😍🥰

Menorca is super nice! We first stopped at Cala Binibequer where we met a norwegian living there in his sailboat. 🙌 Bergenser out of all things (not so far from where we live in Norway)

We then went to Punta Prima that many people recommended us. It was REALLY clear water there 😍 Maybe the clearest we’ve seen so far 😅👌 It was also a really nice anchor place 👌 Here we also made some new Spanish friends 👌

Then we sailed to this little bay, Cala Teulera which is right outside the city Mao. This is a really well protected bay with almost no wind so it was also really really hot there right now 😂👌 We picked up a package in Mao and shopped groceries there. Mao is really pretty with lots of beautiful views, and they have a dinghy dock almost right in the city which is really nice 👌👌

And now we are on the move again. 🙌 Not long until we go to Sardinia now 🥰👌 Soon new country!

We are in Menorca for the first time! 🥰🤗 It’s beautiful here, but last two days we’ve had wind gusts up in 40+ knots 😅

We’ve gone out a few times just to fish before we decided to go to Menorca. And we got fish!! Looks like we’re starting to have success with fishing now! 😁👌

We were also anchored outside Pollenca marina which is a super nice place and a obviously a very popular anchor place with lots of sailboats anchored there. Looks like a fairytale with all the mountains in the background 🥰

We also played spikeball for the first time ever with some new German friends! It was super fun 😍🙌

Besides that we’ve also had some nice lunch/dinners and just enjoyed our time in Mallorca before we left to Menorca. ❤️ Frode also repaired the dinghy and we got to empty some water that had come inside the tube so now the dinghy is much lighter again 😂🙌 We’ve also been swimming a lot as it’s been really warm lately. 30+ degrees out at sea and even more at land 😅👌

We haven’t been to land yet here in Menorca because of the wind, but we’ll definitely go check it out soon! We also heard that there might be some more marine life here so we’re hoping to see some cool marine life and find some nice places to dive 😍

We’ve been going little by little almost every day now, moving around the island 🥰 On saturday we also had a new Spanish friend over which was super nice! 👌

There are soo many beautiful beaches all over Mallorca. We just keep seeing more and more 😍 With turquoise sea stretching faar out from the beach 😍

The sea temperature is also just getting better and better! Reached almost 28 degrees on the most now! In the sea!! 😍👌 Besides that it’s been really hot on land too. Like 30 + degrees almost every day. 🥰

Then we also bought some new fishing gear! We are super happy about it because after two days of trying to get a fish we finally got not just one, but two fish!! 🎣😍👌 One that is apparently called «greater amberjack» and one tuna finally again! 🙌😁 The tuna was almost 12 kg!

We’ve also did a lot of tacking when we sailed this week. Always funny to look back at the chart then 😂 And used both the Spinnakers many times 😍 The speed is incredible compared to how little wind it has been 😅👌