15 July
Continuous raining until 5pm. Quite hard winds too. It´s weird, it just occurred to me that this far, I
have had to reef the main just once. The couple of gales I ´ve seen has been spent tied up to a dock.
Ornskoldsvik held the first winter Paralympics Games in 1976. That initiative led to a fine
development curve for these competitions.
In the harbour there are two beautiful cranes. Very old, they look like something built with
'meccano'. Cute, and i got a photo of them.
16 July
Woke up with a bi smile on my face; the Sun is back. A fresh SW breeze let us run out f the bay and
then when we turned port, we got the wind on the beam and made a steady 6-7 knots. After being in
harbours and together with other boats for a while, it was a treat for my soul, to discover a nice and
sheltered anchorage, where I could spend the night in complete solitude.
17 July
The morning swim before breakfast felt great. Warm showers at harbour sure is a great thing, but it
doesn´t beat the morning swim at sea. No long swim though, water temp. Being around 15 degrees
C. But refreshing.
I had an idea of taking the 60 M trip to Vaasa at the Finnish side of the sea of Botnia, but an easterly
wind got me to pstpne that trip. A fresh breeze made us glide along further north at the pace of 5-7
knots all day. More and more clouds gathered and just a few miles south of Umea Town, the wind
died out and it started to rain. Defintely a low pressure system on it´s way and bad weather coming
sooner rather than later. Yup, the forecast at 16pm warned for gale force SW winds and heavy
raining during the night and for tomorrow. I took a decision to go to Umea Sailing Society´s club
harbour at the island of Obbola, just SW of the town. Provides god shelter from all winds except
perhaps E, and a very nice sauna with large windows facing the sea. My frozen limbs got to warm
up quite a while int that sauna, as the rain and wind battered the glass sections. After the sauna, a
short swim in the sea, and then a shower. The better part of the night was spent at the club-house
together with the harbour captain watching football on TV with a bear or two.
18 July
The rain went from permanent to heavy showers, and the wind became gusty. Signs of the center of
the low passing and the barometer starte to rise agian. In the afternoon a had a walk to the nearest
food store 2km away to restock a bit on perishables. Had a chat with a few other sailors in the
evening and read a while onboard.
19 July
I do not feel good today, like I have an infection or something. Decides to stay here another night.
The wind is still fresh to hard and from NW. Occassional showers and low temperature (14 C) does
not lighten me up. Perhaps a couple of aspirins will. I do some reading and in the afternoon I do
some ninor fixes on the boat. Whoever came up with the expression that cruising sailing is the
'equivalent of boat maintenance at exotic places' was right on the spot I guess. Even though I have a
sturdy boat equipped with simplicity as the guiding star, I do get my share of failures.
A battery charger- when at shore power- not more than a year and a half old, and used very
infrequently, apparently gave up n me today. Why is everything boat-related of such poor quality?
The pricing of this kind of stuff does definetely not indicate it.
20 July
I woke up early with a wish to get underway. The restlessness that gets me after a couple of nights
at the same harbour or ancorage.
Cloudy,and not too warm. A very light breeze made sailing possible, and we slowly made way
further north. 3 knots at least, sometimes 4-5. In the afternoon, when we were running dead before
the wind, I made an experiment. Took the main down and hoisted anther light wind genua. With
those two we made decent speed, just a little bit less than under spinnaker. The nice thing with the
ketch rig, is that there are always options. Another great thing about the ketch is how easy it is to
heave to. When I want to literaly ´park´the boat I justr do as follows:
I steer downwind, and then walk up on the foredeck and take the foresail down. By that time the
boat will have rounded up nicely by itself, and I now take the mainsail down and belay it on the
boom. With the mizzen sheeted in the boat just lies there, very comfortably and pointing 45 degrees
to the wind. Great. Haven´t had the possibility to try it in winds over 25 knots yet, but that will
come sooner rather than later.
The harbour for the night is Ratan. In the late 18:th century it was ne of the most important export
harbours for Sweden. They had custom officials, pilots here all due to it´s natural protection against
preailing winds. The harbour is in a narrow sound betwen the mainland and an islet, half a mile
long.
At this time people were aware of the fact that the water appeared to withdraw from the sea each
year. (Today, we know that the land is still rising, as an effect of the latest ice period that ended
10000 years ago.) Anyway they constructed some smart equipment to make regular measurements
of the 'water loss'. This occupied among others the two top scientists of the country at the time.
Anders Celsius and Carl Linnéus (later von Linné). They believed that the seas were slowly
evaporating.
Here at Ratan at 1809, the most blood-shedding battle on Swedish soil took place. Over 3500
thousand men met there death here when Swedish navy, infantry and artillery fought their Russian
counterparts. This battle, despite the fact that Sweden 'won' marked and end of the superpower
ambitions of the country, and at the piece treaty we lost Finland and Aland to Russia. A few years
before, all swedish-controled land in Poland and Germany was lost. France and Russia were nw the
dominants of Europe.
Strangely enough I cannot recall that we learnt anything of this at school. Even though I was born in
the North, I have never heard this interesting history of Ratan.
22 July
Stayed here at Ratan, after a bad night with fever and stomach problems. Decided it was time to do
the laundry. A chore, rarely done during shorter sailing vacations. Naturally, shower every hour or
so made me busy hanging the laundry to dry in the rigging, and then taking it down etc. repeated a
few times.
23 July
Today a historical event took place. First i crossed the 64-th degree north for the first time on my
own keel,then the vessel log passed 1000 miles since I took off June 4. The distance however, if I
had gone the shortest way here, would not have been more than around 650 miles.
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1-4 July
We made the last 5 miles to Engesberg, the harbour of the Sailing Society of Gefle(Gavle).
Sanna left for work again. She will rejoin in another three weeks. I spent this time with my parents,
only sleeping on board.
5 July
Jan W, an old friend of mine, came on board to crew for a few days. He crewed with me during four
weeks exactly 25 years ago, so we figured it´s about time to celebrate a Jubilee.
N to NE winds predicted for the next few days, and we had a NE 8-22 knots today. Since we are
heading north along this quite unsheltered stretch of coastline, we had to beat the wind today. Jan,
who hasn´t been to sea much during the last few years, went seasick a soon as we came out on the
open sea, and the swell throw us around for a while. Short tack to east, then a long tack to the north.
This way we made some 30-35 miles to a sheltered island called Kusoekalv, where we anchored for
the night.
6 July
New wheather forecast for the next few days. Gale force Northerly winds, accompanied by rain and
dropping temperatures. A low pressure system SE of us makes this little scenario come true.
Hooray!
My bad luck with the Wind Gods seems never to change on this trip. We decided to go to the
nearest harbour to let Jan catch a bus and then a train back to Stockholm. As everyone knows,
staying on shore is a very efficient way of avoiding seasickness. We motored to Axmar Brygga in
the afternon. A neat little trip of 2,5 miles. The good part of this is that there is a very good
restaurant here, specialized in fish. The bad part is that this fact, seriously weakens my cruising
kitty. Anyway, we enjoyed the dinner.
7-9 July
Hard northerly winds, accompanied by heavy rain, kept me at the dock at Axmar. Read two books,
400 + 200 pages, did some writing and made good friends with the crew of s/v Sissela from
Skelleftea further north. They were on their way home from Stockholm and we had some good talks
over a cup of coffee, exchanging tips of harbours and we also had a sauna together a couple of
times.
10-11 July
At last! Not much sailing during the last week. NW changing over W to S predicted for today.
Untied the docking lines at 9 pm and got underway. He wind actually turned out to be E and in the
10-17 knts range. Lovely sailing, clouds disappearing during the day. I had 20 hours of perfect
sailing at open sea, 5-6,5 knots SOG, course around 020 degrees all the way, and Helmer (my Aries
wind vane) steering happily. I just kept going, to take advantage of the wind as long as possible.
After some 100 miles with 12 more to go to the town of Harnosand, the good time was over though.
A sudden 180 wind shift, waked me up and made me go on deck at 3 am, to sort out the sheeting.
Back to bed. Another shift saw me repeat the process. Then the wind died out completely and we
were there, with flogging sails in the swell. Not fun, and certainly not cmfortable, as everyone
knows, who has been trying it out. Then some wind, some hope, and the whole process over and
over again. Around 10, after having breakfast, I gave up and motored 3 hours to get to Vagnoe a
few miles E of Harnosand. Beautiful, sheltered islet, with the military having the opposite island as
a playing ground. Actually, my father spent the most part of his military sevice here 50 years ago.
Now it is the club harbour for Harnosand Sailing Society, with a club house, a sauna and nice
people all around.
The next few days, I want to spend a little bit further north, at Hoega Kusten,(high coast) one of the
supposedly most beautiful stretches along the swedish eastern coastline. Deep fjords, high islands
(Mjaltoen, the highest with a peak at 236 meters) and old fisherman villages at sheltered spots along
the way. Approximately 35 miles long,it´s lying there for me to explore.
12-13 July
Sailed some 10-20 miles a day, in the afternoon breeze. Just to get to another sheltered little
anchorage, and to see another picturesque fisherman's village at the seaside. Met some nice people
from Ornskoldsvik ( where Peter Forsberg, the icehockey star, came from) and we spent 3 hours(!)
in the evening taking a sauna together, chatting over a couple of beers. After heating up real good in
that sauna we took a swim in the sea. 10 pm and still light as mid day.
Before that sauna, the crew dog and myself walked/climbed up the top of theMountain at Mjaltoen.
14 July
This morning, really warm and sunny by the way, saw me waking up very slowly. I must admit to
being very tired after that walk, and especially, the loooong sauna. I probably didn´t drink enough
beer yesterday to compensate for all the sweating.
After a slow breakfast, with extra rations of coffee, and a couple of lazy hours on deck in the sun, I
left the ancorage at 2 pm to do some ¨sight-seeing¨ cruising. Just a few miles to the east in the
narrow passage between N and S Ulvoen (wolf island) lies an incredibly picturesque little village,
with all it´s red wooden cottages, and the boat houses stretching out over the water.
From there, I runned wing-wing at 6 knots SOG to the next village, Trysunda, perhaps even more
beautiful. Who can judge between them. However at a Saturday, in the middle of the vacation
month, the tiny harbur was filled up with yachts already. I decided then to go for the Marina in the
town center of Ornskldsvik. A first class marina, with all facilities, including internet. Tied up at
the jetty at 8 pm and had a beer at the nearest bar before dinner. An interesting contrast to the old
villages, large, modern buildings of glass and concrete, restaurants, bars and lts of tourists. Cars and
land-born peopleI haven´t seen in quite a while now.
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15 June
A light breeze from SE to E had me comfortably and effortlessly cruising northbound. Chose to go
out on the open sea due to the light air. Passed Landsort firehouse in the early afternoon. This marks
the southern entrance to the Stockholm Archipelago. My plan was to anchor around 9-10 pm at
Ornoe but today on a Friday night there was boats at every nice spot, and I still felt like being in my
marine hermitage. It´s very deep water even close to land here, thus making it difficult to find a
good anchorage. I tried at one place, but after two attempts my temper ran out and I decided to keep
going.
The breeze was favourable until 10 or so at night and I went on motoring three more hours after
that. Managed to manoeuver the boat into a quite crowded, but well protected anchorage just north
of Kymmendoe, an island most known because the author August Strindberg once spent some time
there, in a tiny cottage he is said to have built for himself.
16 June
When I awoke,most other boats were gone. Tomorrow I will pick up Sanna, my woman companion
who will cruise with me for two weeks, so I spent half an hour shaving and cleaning myself and the
boat to make the reunion a happy one.
Guess what; the wind had piped up to 20-25 knots again and -yes- it was NE, which happened to be
the preferred course for the day. I had just some 15 miles left to Runmaroe, where I should meet up
with a sister boat, and Sanna, my girlfriend. An old friend of mine by the name Hakan also was to
join forces with us for a party onboard tomorrow night.
Thus, those 15 miles took me some four hours of short tacking. Honestly, tacking is not Rode Orm
´s favourite sport, nor mine by the way, but we did arrive at hour destination.
Here my my time on my own was to end, and so it did in a special way. 25 boats, who had
participated in a 12 hour single-handed friendly race during the day, came to anchor in the same
little bay. Out went the fenders, and everyone enjoyed the night in good mood.
17-19 June
Reunion and Party!
Gone were the summer weather. Heavy rain and hard NE wind gusting to 35 knots. I had to motor
across a strait, just a couple of miles, to pick up Sanna and Hakan in the afternoon. The boat heeled
15 degrées with bare ples, and the visibiliy was approx. 200 meters in the rain. Everything went
well though, bunkered fuel and water at the dock and since Hakan came by car,he kindly drove us
to a food store to provision.
Then came Zappolina, a Laurin 28, a little sister ship with Nina and Hans aboard to party with us
and we had a wonderful night with food and wine and, just kept talking into the night hours.
In the morning the rain had gone, and we all took a morning swim before breakfast. Freezing cold;
approx. 14-15 degrees C in the water. It´s deep here. Anyhow, that really washes any sleepiness
away.
Unfortunately the disappearing rain took the wind away too, and we had to motor a few hours in the
afternoon to make it further north to Inra Hamnskaer in the Soederarm skaergard. A nice spot for
taking the little jump of 35 miles to Aaland tomorrow.
20 June
Clear blue sky again, although a bit chilly. Course 061 degrees to Aaland and 6-20 knots on the
beam. Great sail. We went in at Roedhamn, one of the outposts on southern Aaland. Tomorrow we
´ll continue the 10 miles to Mariehamn, the ¨capital¨ of Aaland.
Aaland is a part of Finland, but they speak only swedish. It has 27000 inhabitants, and 10000 of
them live in Mariehamn. Aaland consists of more than 6000 islands and islets and is about 40 miles
across. Thus, many of these islands are inhabitated, and needless to say, navigation can be really
tricky here in anything but good weather. Very beutiful though and also very friendly.
21 June
Very light air made us barely reach for Mariehamn, where we moored in the eastern harbour. The
town is built upon a peninsula half a mile wide, and has a harbour on the western side too. There,
the huge ferries that goes from Stockholm via Mariehamn to Turku and Helsinki in Finland stops,
but the yacht harbour is very picturesque anyway. Especially so the clubhouse (w restaurant) of
Aalands sailing society. The eastern harbour is large, very modern, and has everything a boater
could ask for. It is run by Mariehamn sailing club by the way.
In the evening we had a walk to an area just a few hundred meters from the harbour, where lots of
wooden boats are moored, including a couple of schooners and one galeas. A boat building yard,
lots of art and handicraft and the lovely smell of tar and varnish over it all. Great time!
22 June - Midsummer eve
We had a walk across town to the western harbour, to visit the museum ship ¨Pommern¨..
A four-masted steel barque, built in Scotland in 1903, she sailed the wheat trade between England
and Australia under the Aaland shipowner Gustaf Eriksson until WW 2 made an end to it. Eriksson
owned the largest flottilla of sailing ships in the world at that time. After his death, his children
donated Pommern to Mariehamn, where she is lying at her dock, well maintained with a very
interesting exhibition onboard that really shows how life were those days for the crew. She did not
carry any auxiliary motor, but a steam engine for her winches. Those were mainly used for lading
and unloading the ship. She carried 4000 tonnes of wheat and had a crew of 24 brave men.
If anyone wonder, I think we are way better off onbard Rode Orm. Life was really hard for sailors
those days.
Midsummer is the major party day in the whole year in the nordic cuntries. It goes all the way back
to our pagan days, and it seems like the christian church never could make it fade out.
Everybody is eating herring and fresh potatoes. Strawberries after that and beer and booze keep
streaming all night. Thus it was not a quiet night at the dock, and the morning after was as a result a
bit more quiet than usual.
23 June
Falling barometer and 23 knots of easterly wind had us change our plans a bit. Since the easterly
shall stay with us for a couple of days according to the meteorologists, we will go clockwise around
the main island instead. The plan is to spend most part of the coming week here, and then head NW
for the city of Gavle in Sweden, where Sanna is to leave for work again, and I will visit my parents
for a couple of days, before continuing north.
24 June
After a rainy night, the sun came back perfectly syncronized with us awakening. Due to new ideas
from the weather forecasting people, we changed plans. A light breeze from SW had us make a few
tacks to the south before we could turn east and slacken the sheets accordingly. We passed by the
islands of Sottunga and Degeroe, before we anchored for the night in a sheltered spot between a few
small islets. We had a short walk at the island with the inspiring name Skattskaer (Treasure Islet).
Unfortunately the only treasure we found was the immense beauty of the landscape. No signs of
civilisation here, except for the huge ferry boats between Stockholm and Turku, Finland, that
passed just north of the next island, causing a bit of swell.
25 June
This morning offered gray skies and rather chilly air. No swim. Darned cold in the water out her,
around 14 degrees C. We got under sail and the sun did not dissapoint us today either. Light air
inspired the skipper to show his more ambitious side and start some manoeuvers to hoist the
spinnaker. At this point, however, my old companion, CapnClumsycame onboard and took
command. Thus, just about anything that possibly could go wrong, went wrong. After half an hour
or so i managed to heave the m-xxxxx-r over board, (CapnClumsy that is) and soon after, I went
tired of battling that huge nylon bag. SE was the direction for the day, and thanks to the mild temper
of my female companion, Rode Orm steadily moved in that direction.
At 7 pm we tied up to the jetty at Hamnoe, Koekar. Koekar is the farthest to SE of the archipelago.
Hamnoe has never been habitaded according to files. But since it has a natural harbour it has been
in use at least since the 13-th century, and was a part of King Valdemar´s sailing route to Tallinn,
Estonia alng the the swedish east coast, via Aland and Turku skaergard to Tallinn.
Here at Hamnoe, during medieval times, a monastery of the S:t Francisco monks was very lively.
They even had the right to taxate the fishermen who periodically lived and worked with Hamnoe as
their base. After Sweden was reformed to protestantism, in the 16-th century, the monastery started
to decline. The ruin is well taken care of and today constitutes a very nice museum and is, together
with the beautiful chapel built in 1784 well worth a visit.
Since most of these islands are uninhabited, these signs of history and culture provides an extra
dimension to our cruise.
26 June
A large low pressure system is coming this way from the British Isles via the North Sea. Gale
winds, even storm strength in the southern Baltic Sea and heavy rain is forecasted. Around here we
are expected to be at a safe distance north of it´s centre however. Winds up to 23 knots and some
rain during the night.
The morning was very warm and only light airs. We spent it having a longed for shower and
chatting with a few other sailors here. We spent a while sorting out that huge multi-colored nyln
bag too of course. After lunch we set sail and headed north. First, back the same way we came
yesterday and then to NE, to Seglinge, where we anchored in a bay that seemed to provide very
good protection for NE winds during the night. The bay proved to be very shallow, however.
This came to our knowledge since I had spent some time contemplating the strange fact that the flag
pointed 60 degrees to SB, and the boat never adjusted. Unnoticed she had parked on the clay sea
bed. Suddenly we were in a hurry to winch the anchor in and move a bit further out in the bay. This
went well, and we still had perfect shelter from the seas, even if the rowing with the dinghy to shore
turned out to be quite long. The night was relatively calm, winds like 12-20 knots at most, and Rode
Orm rode calmly at her anchor as always. There is nothing that beats a full keel and a heavy
displacement boat when it comes to comfortable motion in my humble opinion.
27 June
At 9 in the morning, when I had to undertake the task of rowing the crew dog to shore, the rain
showed some really bad taste, and choosed to hit with it´s full potential.
I cannot claim us to be in any way encouraged by it´s presence. Thus, we spent the rest of the day in
the bunk having a good day of reading and writing.
S winds and occassional showers predicted for tomorrow. We´ll be back then in top shape!
28 June
After 26 hours uninterrupted heavy rain accompanied by winds in the 20-30 knot range, the sun
suddenly came to our rescue this morning. A very light breeze admitted our slow progress to the
NW 'cape' on Aland. We stayed in a sheltered bay doing the afternoon to swim and explore on shore
as the breze died out completely.
Then at 7 pm the breeze came back and during a couple of hours, it allowed us to make it those last
miles to the NW.
29 June
Saw us resting in our anchorage, since the wind pointed towards us.
30 June
After a few glasses too much of red wine yesterday, I woke up before 6 am. A beautiful, sunny
morning with a SW breeze made me row the crew dog onshore and while she did what she had to
on 'terra firma', I worked out in the morning sun on the mountain slope.
At 7 I winched the anchor on board and set sail. An hour later, Sanna woke up and served me
breakfast in the cockpit. Paradise on earth. Course 340 past the outer marks north of Getoe, then
285 straight to Gavle/ mainland Sweden.
We went out with the max genua and had a really nice ride, 8-12 knots on the beam and sunny.
The day went on, Sanna and I took our 3-hour watches and enjoyed the sail.
During my afternoon watch, though, the wind had piped up to 20-25 knots and Helmer, my Aries
wind vane found it too much work to steer. Rode Orm wanted to round up in the gusts. Clearly, we
were overcanvassed by now. After considering whether to wake Sanna or not, I decided to not do
so. Firstly, I took the mizzen sail down, and that sort of fixed the situation for half an hour or so.
Then Helmer 'told´ me I had to do something again. I took the genny down, to later hoist the jib,
and took a reef in the main too. Back into the cockpit I just enjoyed the sail for a little while before
hoisting the jib. To my surprise, the boat balanced perfectly and made a steady 5,5 knots under the
reefed main only, so I decided to spare myself the work, and on we went.
In the evening the wind strength decreased again, and we could hoist first the genny and then the
mizzen again. At midnight we took a mooring on the southern side of Eggegrund, the Light House
right at the entry of Gavle. 85 miles in 17 hours. Perfect sailing.
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The day after the Day, when midsummer was held, uhrm, partied, celebrated or whatever...
Everyone around here takes this quite seriously, lots of herring, strawberries, and of course booze. So it´s rather quiet around here this morning.
Our plan is to daysail around this archipelago for a week or so and then head north for the city of Gavle, where my parents live. I like to spend a few days with them, before continuing even furthwer north. In a few days time we will pass 60 degrees North.
I´ll be back as soon as I come around a wifi again.
Fair winds
Magnus
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5-7 June take-off
Here we go,at last. All this planning and longing for the adventure to come true.A high pressure system has literary parked just west of
Norway. This provides us with fantastic summer weather at the moment.
However it also results in very light winds, if any at all. I am eager to be able to take part in a meeting at Runmaroe, an Island in the
Stockholm Archipelago this upcoming Saturday. 260 miles in 2-3 days would be manageable provided some fair winds.
Sadly, this was not meant to be. The meeting, for the owners of Laurin kosterboats, was very entertaining last year in the end of August
when Rode Orm attended for the first time under my ownership.
The wind was very light, and furthermore NE, which meant beating the wind all the way. After 36 hours, I realized that I had to let go of
that meeting. Instead I had gone into the Kalmar Strait.If proceeding to Stockholm, I would have chosen the route between Oland and
Gotland which are the two largest swedish islands of the baltic Sea.
In the Kalmar Strait (between the mainland and Oland) I was completely becalmed for a few hours, then the headwind returned for my
prolonged amusement. I had no wishes of going social this evening, and so decided to take a nights rest at a tiny island called
¨Stora Hatten¨, where the Sailing Society of Kalmar, Vikingarna (the Vikings)possess a club house.
At 10.30 PM it had gotten quite dark, which gave me an opportunity to practise my night navigation skills among this shallow and rocky
part of the water. Guess what! To step up the challenge a bit, the temp. alarm on the engine started, and I was quite fast in turning
the engine off to avoid serious damage on it, caused by overheating. The situation suddenly had became a bit tricky. On my BB side a
couple of really nasty reefs. Ahead, a few rocks and some more of the same just showing above the surface. As an extra spice , the
shipping lane was right at my SB side.
Depth, 12 meters on the spot. In no time, my good old CQR went down, and was closely followed by the major part of my 40 meters of chain.
Now the good news. The anchor dug in nicely at first attempt, which was handy, since taking it up, setting sail and then going all over
again was not high on my list for Santa Claus...
Anyway, now, with the boat parked in a safe spot, and an alarm set on the GPS in case of a dragging anchor,I could have a look at the
engine. Needless to say, the engine room was hot like a good sauna. I have no idea of your preferences, but for me, sauna is great. In
the winter, when feeling cold. Not when I am already sweating. Some things in life comes without choice, and the examination of the
mechanical parts of the vessel had to be undertaken, regardless of such irrelevant circumstances as my sauna preferences. What strikes
me as most weird in all this, was my good mood. Normally, I should be screaming and cursing by now, but after 36 hours of solosailing, I
was in the best of moods. Didn´t know that euphoria was some sort of bug that could hit you without notice.
The problem with the water pump was as simple as a nut come loose, and thus making the drive belt slip. This was an easy fix, and since my
hands were greasy and dirty by now, I thought I could aswell take the opportunity to check up on the engine oil, and tension of the
generator belt while I was at it. Still surprised over my good mood, I kept tinkering with the machine, even though I perfrmed a complete
maintenance n it a couple of weeks ago. When this manouver was luckily ended, the engine run for a few minutes to cool off, and my hands
thoroughly washed, it came to my knowledge that it was 1.30 AM. A bit late to start manouvering the boat, tongue-in-cheek, among the rocks
and reefs. Furthermore I felt that the Chief Mechanic was worthy of a bear and I good single malt whisky as a reward. Apparently the anchor
had set really good and so I lit an anchor light and got to sleep. An unusual passage, and 140 miles in 36 or so hours.
After a goo d night´s sleep I wake up to a wind of 14-16 knots. The boat was hobby-horsing quite a bit in the typically short and steep seas of
Kalmar strait. After breakfast, I had a real work-out winching those 40 meters of anchor chain back on board. Did I mention that the wind came
from NNE now too?! A short trip with the iron genny working lead me to a bouy at St Hatten.
The rest of the day I spent here, taking a swim, and polishing the topsides of my little ship.
8 June
The weather forecast is just as good, but also just as dissapointing in terms of winds. Very light northerly winds... I must admit to getting
a bit restless at noon and decided to take a little step further north, despite the headwind. Needless to say, the wind died out completely
30 minutes after my setting sail. Iron genny touring is not much fun, but sometimes does come in handy. Exactly like last summer, I motored by the town of Kalmar and under the Oland Bridge. The photo is of Kalmar Castle. During all those wars between Sweden and Denmark, Kalmar
was a proud part of the swedish line of defence, and strongly armoured. According to the history books of the schools here, that is. According
to a danish admiral of the time; the swedish mariners was nothing but farmer boys, dipped in sea water. Who knows... the same admiral was then
punished badly by the british admiral lord Nelson and the British Navy just in front of Copenhagen. History is always written by the winners, right?
As for myself, I seek no battles at sea, except those against heat and calms. Well, the adventorous little trip of the day, ended in a sheltered little
¨lagoon¨ among a series of islets, where I have decided to endure tomorrow´s calm, warm summer weather with a good book in my newly installed hammock
on foredeck, interrupted only by regular meals, and an occassional swim to freshen up.
Vacation? you bet!
There´s more to come...
9-11 June
The ¨Doldrums in the Kalmar Strait¨ seems like the concept of the day. Completely becalmed and with temperatures well over 30 degrees Celsius, it's not too hard for me to get an idea of how it must feel to be in the tropical doldrums. Sadly to say, I spent a couple of days, in my hammock, taking swims to freshen up and doing smaller jobs on the boat. The largest of these small ones, was to battle the barnacles on the propeller and shaft. All through-hulls had their fair share of them too. This was a task performed with a cyclope and an old dull knife to scrape those little buggars off with. Kind of refreshed my over-heated brain as a fringe benefit.
Anyway, at noon the 10:th, a sweet breeze came from SE. Just 2-5 knots, but who´s going to make a complaint? Up went the drifter and the mizzen staysail and away we were at 2-5 knots boat speed. Yeehaaa! How sweet to be underway again.
Soon the island of ¨Blaa Jungfrun¨ ( Blue Virgin) was sighted. She lays there in the northern Kalmar Strait, always appearing to be blue at a distance, and always as mystical. It´s not adviceable to anchor there albeit in very calm weather, and the rocky bottom has kept many a good anchor for good. According to the legend, All witches gather on this island the Thursday of the Holy Week, and who really knows.
I decided to keep sailing through the night, it was so energizing to get some wind at last, so on it went.
As soon as it got dark at 10.30 pm, the wind faded ut, and then came back from the north. First with a real gust for 15-30 minutes, that made me change to the jib and then it blew with a steady 3-6 knots all night. Dead ahead again, and pretty week to. Kept beating and tacking all through the night and in the late morning hours I got my reward. The wind changed direction clockwise, enough to let me stear a straight course. Went from the sea and back into the world of islands at Idoe Stangskaer where I took the shipping route towards the town of Vaestervik. In the evening I anchored at Torroe, an old pilot outlook from King Valdemars Sailing Route (13:th century) and til 1882.
12 June
Was spent sleeping and resting mostly. Winds still weak and from NE so no big deal...
This morning wasn´t the best f them all.. first I found out that the water in my steel vacuum thermos was cold! Had to wait some five extra minutes here for my morning coffee. That´s bad, especially when waking up with a ¨hang-over¨ from all those hours awaken. What can go wrong with a steel thermos? I just don´t get it... It looks OK, but it´s warm on the outside, indicating that the warmth creeps out of it somehow. That´s life I guess, it has served me willingly for a few years, so, I´ll have to buy a new one at next town I ´ll enter.
This was one of those days when ´Capn Clumsy´ was at command. Last time he had a watch, he sailed three hours with the anchor hanging a couple of feet down in the wet. This time, guess what? Don´t know how he managed to di this, but he somehow clogged the head, (sailor talk for toilet) and so I had to spend the better part of the late morning closely examining the reminiscense of yesterdays main menu from inside the pump and hoses. Great way of entertaining one´s vacation, right? Problem solved: over and out.
The evening was a lt more entertaining. Had a long nice walk around the island and it´s historical places, dating back to the days of King Valdemar. Needless to say, I enjoyed the fresh air after the ¨clogged head problem shooting¨ earlier today.
13 June
Had a quite nice sail today, got me some 25 miles north. To an island called Harstena,where I enjoyed a meal of really fresh fish. The evening saw heavy clouds and a short shower. Temperature nw is down to 20 degrees and gone are the tropics... for the time being.
14 June
Gale warning towards the afternoon and the night. I took north, out on the open sea and had a marvelous six hour/ 35 mile trip. Running wing and wing in winds from 12-30 knots. The wind speed increasing through the day. Roller-coaster sailing... At 5 pm I had the boat riding at her anchor in a sweet spot in a labyrinth of islets that gave real good protection from the seas and the wind. The trees on the island were waving to me in the gusts while I enjoyed tuna salad and a glass of red for dinner. Refreshing day. After a week and a half without going shopping (provisioning)I am beginning to feel like going to town tomorrow, or the day after... except for the fact that my fresh fruit and grocerys are running out, and I am suffering from a slight miss the web-itis, civilization is not that tempting right now. We´ll see...
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