Marine / Meet the man who sailed from Norway to Fair Isle using only compass and chart
SAILING from Norway to Fair Isle with just a compass and a chart for navigation – and no sleep for 35 hours – may not be everyone’s cup of tea.
But for intrepid solo sailor Erik Aanderaa, it was just the ticket.
He ditched the modern day equipment and harked back to the “good old days” on his recent voyage from Haugesund on the east coast of Norway to Fair Isle.
It was not without its challenges; his initial routing was more southerly than expected, leading to Aanderaa having to change course.
And with the sailor – whose YouTube channel has nearly 300,000 subscribers and is no stranger to adventure – having to keep regular checks, he did not get to sleep on the 35-hour journey.
He got to Fair Isle safely though, and after a brief stay there he headed up to Lerwick – but this time with the assistance of radar.
Yesterday morning (Friday) he set to sail again back home to Norway.
With an overseas chart in hand, Aanderaa said he “picked my course” on the chart before setting off from Norway.
“I calculated the speed every second hour until I believed I was close to Fair Isle,” he told Shetland News as he reflected on the trip.
Aanderaa, who has been sailing for decades, said he picked the wrong course to start with.
“I went way too far south of my planned line,” he said, “but then I saw some oil rigs in the horizon.”
At this point a guard vessel called Aanderaa’s radio, with the staff giving the sailor his positions which allowed him to change course and make his way to Fair Isle.
He said after 17 hours he thought he had spotted Fair Isle, but as he got closer it turned out to be Sumburgh Head on the Shetland mainland.
“So I turned my hand to the left, and there it was,” Aanderaa said.
He did concede that with no navigation on radar, “I was kind of nervous, and had to look out the window all the time to look for ships”.
At the beginning of the trip, though, Aanderaa did have to carry out a few “sweeps” on the radar after going through a traffic zone off the coast of Norway in heavy fog.
The Norwegian started his No Bullsh*t Just Sailing YouTube channel around ten years ago “just for fun”, with an initial focus on videos in stormy seas.
“It just took off from there, I guess,” Aanderaa added.
Mirroring the name of his project, he said “everything is just about sailing – getting from A to B, and the experience and adventuring in between”.
Although there are also videos of the locations he visits, do not expect too many frills – with the YouTube channel description saying there is “no snorkling, no pina coladas […] just sailing”.
Aanderaa has previously filmed in Shetland, including last year as he stopped off on a trip from Norway to Greenland.
“I’ve been in Lerwick many times in the past 25 years, I think – I’ve lost count how many times I’ve been there,” he said.
His association with sailing can be traced back to when he was a boy, enjoying a small dinghy his father bought him.
“None of my friends were into sailing, so I was kind of alone with the sailing thing,” he said.
“So if I wanted to sail I needed to go by myself.”
He sails in a Contessa 35 called Tessie, which was built in the 1970s but bought by Aanderaa in 2004.
Take a closer look and it features a rather telling slogan on the side – “fear is lack of knowledge”.
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