After a day waiting for strong winds in Egersund, we carried on north again up to Tananger. The wind was forecast to fill in around 11am, but, as the saying goes – “the economy depends about as much on economists as the weather does on weather forecasters” – and sure enough, it didn’t do what was forecast and stayed resolutely light! About an hour and a half out of Tanager the breeze did come up a bit and so we pulled the genoa out and pottered along nicely. We then spotted a boat coming towards us at high speed and simply carried on expecting them to go past us. It turned out to be a patrol boat with police and customs on board who asked if they come aboard and check us out.
I checked with them if they wanted us to slow down or stop, but they came aboard very skilfully while we were sailing. They were very friendly, but also very thorough and a long conversation ensued about why I didn’t have a stamp in my passport for entering Schengen. This is actually because I entered on my Swedish residence permit, but the policeman remained unconvinced. However, he seemed (eventually) to accept this but suggested I ensured that I was stamped next time. They were very friendly and did check all round on board, but the only evidence left is some black boot prints on the deck!
Tanager itself is now an oil town. Historically it has been a deep water port and pilot station and there are still pilot boats moored on the jetty, but this trade is less now than it used to be. The main business now though is oil and there is a constant stream of oil supply ships coming in and out of the main port. This illustrates clearly the contradictions faced by the Norwegian economy. While they are a world leader in renewable energy (hydro-electric power makes up 90% of their energy needs) their economy is also heavily reliant on continued extraction of oil and gas. Critics argue that this fuels (sorry – bad pun!) climate change and undermines their efforts to combat climate change. The Norwegian government continues to licence new oil and gas fields, so it seems unlikely that Tanager will lose its role as an oil supply centre any time soon.