Tuesday June 27, 2017

Photo: Night Watch is a Sparkman & Stephens Aluminum Yawl built in 1967 in Germany by Abeking & Rasmussen. She is 16.7 meters (56 feet) in length, beam 4.1 meters and draft of 2.5 meters. Her owner David Tunnick has sailed her multiple times transatlantic including singled-handed trips. She is the third boat from the left in the photo. Dark blue hull.

We departed under power for our 17-mile trip at 1031 following 4 other cruise boats lead by Penelope. We went though the Sotekanalen, a narrow canal that was built in 1935 allowing boats to avoid the sometimes more dangerous waters outside around Sote Huvud. It has impressive cliffs in places and farmland in other sections. There is also a swing bridge allowing car traffic to travel between the mainland and the island of Orst.

We made a stop at Smogen, a very old fishing village that is now much developed with summer cottages, restaurants and tourist shops. On advice from Stefan, we had a wonderful typical Swedish open-faced sandwich with mayonnaise and hardboiled egg at a restaurant overlooking the narrow harbor.

We sailed for the last part of the trip with just the jib arriving at Lysekil at 1630. Dale and I found some party favors (paper horns, balloons and sparklers) at the local grocery store. As we arrived at the party we all blew the horns and were then followed by Penelope’s and Golden Eye’s skippers playing ‘Happy Birthday” on their bugle and trumpet. Both could use some lessons but that might make it less hysterical. The sparklers stayed in their box – the sails and wooden docks couldn’t be risked.

After dinner Doug, Dale and Paul and I walked to a beautiful park across from the grocery store. Stunning flowers beds and a beautiful circular fountain. There is a large, beautiful church up on a hill – it was closed for the day. We also saw two architecturally very interesting homes at the marina. Lysekil was founded in 1850 and was a popular summer city for city people. Today the population of 7,600 is engaged in the petroleum and fishing industries.