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.
24 July
A light SE breeze and mostly sunny. Relaxed sail in speeds between 3,5 and 5 knots. Course 40
degrees. Went to Skelleftehamn, 16 km east of the town of Skelleftea. Industrial area and a large
commercial harbour. A smallish but very nice and sheltered club harbour at Kurjoviken. I was the
only guest boat here tonight. A very nice attribute here is that they are lending bicycles to guesting
sailors. A tried out a trike and had a ride to nearest grocery store to stok up on perishables. A sauna
in the evening with a tremedous view at the fjord outside the club-house.
25 July
Warm and sunny and a light NE breeze, brought out the laziness in my personality and made me
stay here a day more. Did a few small jobs n the boat and chatted a while with an English couple
who were on there second year cruising the Baltic. They had laid the boat up for winter in Sweden
and then continued the trip next spring. The local people, sailors and others, were very nice as
usual. The further north, the nicer people.
26 July
Sunny today too. Dead calm in the morning. A light breeze was seen on the fjord at 10 am though,
and I got busy getting under way. Motored for half an hour before the breeze filled the sails and
gave me a decent reach for Pite Ronnskaer. This is an old pilot-and light-house and fishermanvillage.
Pite Ronnskaer is also the island of this archipelago that faces south. A low windswept,
sandy island. Charming red, small fisherman's cottages from the past, now used as summer houses
and a beautiful light-house in steel, constructed by the famous Gustav von Heidenstam makes this
island a very special place to arrive to on yur own keel.
Evert Anderssn, the old light-house master(!) showed us around and afterwards he and his wife
offered a cup of coffee in there well-kept cottage. I met Arne, on another sailing yacht in this tiny
harbour. He built his 37' ferrocement yacht himself during five years. Now he is a full time
livaaboard, cruising the Baltic from May til October and spending the winters at port not far from
where I live.
27 July
A few minutes after I left Pite Ronnskaer, the fog came seeping in. I have not seen much fog before
during this trip, but now I got a good opportunity to practice radar navigation for about an hour,
before the fog lightened. A quite long day sail, winding among the islands led me to the town of
Lulea. Lulea is known for a steel mill, the harbour to serve it and a technical university. A large
guest harbour with all facilities and accomodations for seafarers of all kinds. Tomorrow, my loved
one, Sanna will come here by train to join me for the next couple of weeks.
28 July
Rain showers all day. Sanna and I had lunch at a Thai restaurant down town, and then we did some
sight-seing.
29 July
Rainy and cold. Headwind. In the afternoon we motored for three hours to Kluntarna SE of Lulea.
Among other things to explore is 'Kluntgubben' (Klunt Man) a rock naturally formed as a man's
head as seen from the side.
30 July
We had a long walk around the island to see the 'old man' and the fishing village at the other end of
it. Labyrints made by people here 3000 years ago fascinates us today. Were they used for religious
purposes, or were they the 'dance halls' of their time?
In the afternoon we had a few hours sail to next island f our choice, Fjuksoen.
31 July
Another low pressure system with lots of rain and quite hard winds gusting at 30 knots from NE
made us bide our time in the cabin most of the day. In the afternoon, when the wind lightened for a
while, we moved a couple of miles to the next island. Just to get a new 'view' from hour 'window'. I
tinker with the generator and it's related gear. I am not satisfied with the charging current on the
house batteries.
1 August
Lets face it. This summer will not go to history as one of the best to remember. Weather-wise that
is. I will definetely remember it as very special. Being able to sail for four months in a row is a
luxury, and it's just great!
Heavy rain, and hardly any wind at all. Five hours of motoring north in the fjord leading to the tiny
town of Toere. Toere is the most northerly place you can go to with a keel boat in the Gulf f Botnia.
A big, yellow steel bouy says 65 degrees 54 minutes North. If you go to this bouy, you can put a
paper with your name and adress and the name of the boat into a letter box (!) on the bouy. The boat
club of Toere will then send you a diploma showing yu were here.
So this we did, and then, as magic, the wind came from W and we had a beautiful sail during the
rest of the day. We sailed S through the fjord again and then took E to get to see Haparanda
Archpelago before heading back south. Anchored for the night E of Halsoe.
2 August
I woke up at 6. Sunny. Went back to sleep. At eight clouds were taking over. We motored a couple
of hours to charge the batteries (yes, I did it!) to Seskaroe, a quite large island with a bridge to the
mainland and a big saw-mill at the waterfront. Do I need to say that it was raining heavy? We saw
a Finnish yacht that had grounded on a marked ground just outside the route to Seskaroe. We
slowly manouvered to get close enough to ask them if we could be of any assistance. They told us
they had phoned for a rescue boat, and it came just a few minutes later. Later, when they too,
moored in Seskaroe, they came buy to say thanks for our offer. We don't see many yachts r
commercial vessels around here, so it seems very obvious to try and help eachother out. The skipper
later told me the were busy talking with eachother onboard for a few minutes and steered
completely wrong as a result.
A new front passage with winds up to the 30 knot range predicted for the night. But then, cross my
fingers, a high is predicted. Temperatures reaching well over 20 degrees C and sunny weather for
the weekend. That could definetely be nice for a change. In the evening we fired up our diesel
heater to try and dry out all wet clothes and other gear.