At this point the fjord is about 3 miles wide, about 10 miles in from the open sea, and with some 25 miles to run to Bergen itself. Annoyingly I can't find a chart of Hjeltefjord which might show shipping lanes or shoal water, but it seems that KNM Helge Ingstad is 'hugging the coast line' in such a way that there's little or no manoeuvring room to starboard ... leaving at least 2 miles of open water to port [depth unknown to me]. OTOH, why was the Sola TS running so close to shore on her way out, thus to an extent preventing an oncoming vessel from passing 'port to port'? Whichever, was it wise, in that scenario, for Helge Ingstad to be forging ahead at 17.4 its in the dark?
It makes me wonder if, as some reports say, the Helge Ingstad was doing navigation training they were trying to increase the pressure on the trainee by increasing the speed? Maybe throw in visual or radar fixing rather than GPS and it would be quite easy to sap their capacity, and if the person supervising hasn't got as firm a grip on the situation as they think...