25 September

Weather forecast said rain all day and variable winds. I woke up to a sunny and crispy morning without any dew at all. I had my cabin heater on all through the night. When I got up on deck it became very clear that it doesn't like being run at low flame at all. Everything on deck was black and sooty! Well, sometimes one has to swab the decks anyway, right? This was the day, apparently.
This kept me busy most part of the morning and I got underway at 1pm. A very light breeze made R�de Orm barely make way south to a cardinal bouy, then I could easen the sheets, turning west. The plan was to move the convenient distance of 12 miles to one of my favourite places around here. Skift�n, just half a mile suth of the well known island of Tj�r�. Nearly as soon as I could easen the sheets turning west, the wind died completely. After 10 minutes, I gave up and fired up the cast iron genny. Then what? Exactly! The wind came back from west, with a couple of rain showers and some fog to keep it company. Great. I considered wether I should turn back, but decided I really wanted to spend a night at Skift�n, since it would definetely be the last time in the foreseeable future. Thus I mtored an hour and a half, then found myself anchored for the night at the much desired spot. An other little mishap to lighten me up was that my radar refused to work when called upon in the showers... will call the supplier tomorrow... Even, when sailing, some days are a bit less great than others... A much more enjoyable incident was my trial of the new dinghy. A pleasure to row, I offloaded all frustrations circumnavigating this island powered by oars!

26 September

We all make mistakes, but a wise man don't repeat the same one twice. I remember once reading this someplace, and I did run the cabin heater for a couple of hours n high flame yeasterday night and turned it off before going to sleep. This payed off, no sooty mess on deck to deal with. A calm and foggy morning it was and I went for a row to shore with Myra the crew dog after breakfast. It came out to be a half a mile trip to Tj�r�, where be both had a nice walk before returning to the mother ship. The rest of the day was spent relaxing in the sun, with a short break to clean the bilge area of the yacht. I am resting for the ride south, since gale force or near gale force NE winds are predicted for tomorrow. This means I will make hull speed at least.