Norway

Life is extraordinary - just two days after coming back from a four day Hurtigruten voyage in February from Tromsø to Kirkenes and back (to see the Aurora), this book arrived for review! That was my first winter visit to the north but I had sailed ten years previously in southern Norway and then from Bergen to Svalbard via Tromsø. I only wish that this book had been available then. Not only would I not have had to buy the seven volume Norwegian Pilot at many times the price but its totally comprehensive contents would have made the voyage even more enjoyable.

Within its 300 pages ‘Norway’ gives every detail needed to cruise this long, beautiful and uncrowded coast. The first chapter gives all the necessary general information including a brief history, then each of the seven chapters into which the coast is divided, starts with a description of that stretch. There are plans of literally everywhere, with anchorages keyed by letter to the text, and innumerable colour photos of the scenery to expect as well as of harbours and marinas. The final chapter on Svalbard must be enticing more yachts to venture to 80°N, and even Jan Mayen, the last page, was visited by Judy Lomax and Cloud Walker in one of the nine summers it took to gather the material for this, her magnum opus.

Would I buy this book? Would I keep it on board? Yes and yes, of course. To think of cruising to or in Norway without it would be absurd but, more than that, buy it, read it, and then try to resist going to Norway!

R H R

Price: £45.00