On my own- in the true sense of the word
07 September 2007 | Nyn�shamn
4 September
This harbour was very unpleasant to spend the night in. The swell and wake from passing vessels managed to create a standing wave behind the docks in the basin, causing the yachts to roll violently and to move up and down along the dockside. At 5.30 in the morning the ferry left harbour. Unable was I to get back to sleep after that, and decided to get ready for an early start. Said goodby to Nina and Hans for the second time and sailed south to R�dsk�r. Northerly wind increasing during the day to near gale force in the afternoon. Then slowly decreasing during the night, veering towards West in the morning. This forecast sounded like music to my ears, and I decided to perform the jump back to Sweden. 20 miles to R�dhamn, arrived at 3pm, and then 70 miles mostly South to Sandhamn. Sandhamn is the home of the Royal Sailing Society in Stockholm and the place where many regattas start from, among them Gotland Runt(circumnavigating the island of Gotland) Since I am without crew for the moment, the route via ?-zel, and Latvia and then to the eastern coast of Gotland was left to another year. The route along the swedish coast with it's many archipelagos and nice spots to spend the 'bad weather' days is a much more enjoyable option.
R�de Orm and I left R�dsk�r at 6 pm. I prepared some food for the next 24 hours, and hoisted the radar reflector again and hanked the trysail to it's track at the mast. Just in case.
This overnighter came out to be one of the most enjoyable I have ever made. I left R�dsk�r on course 230 degrees, a broad reach with jib and reefed main in winds of 22-30 knots. Helmer steered perfectly all the way to Sandhamn and the boat speed was 6-7knots until just after midninght, when the wind slowly decreased. I had the whole route programmed in the gps, and changed course 4 times during the night, including two gibes. The sunset was all dressed in red, the moon rised slowly after and the sky was clear and starry all night. There was quite a lot of commercial shipping though, since my route lay along the edge of the shipping lane most of the way. In the latter stages of the night, when the boat speed fell to 4 knots I hoisted the jib again. I took it down at sunset, since it was blanketed behind the reefed main anyway. A while later I shook the reef out and sailed close-hauled the last hour, due to the veering wind. Arrived at L�kholmen (Sandhamn) at 8am and fell asleep for a couple of hours.
5 September
Warm and sunny, the most of the day was spent just enjoying being completely on my own here. In July, there's difficult finding a free space to moor your boat here and now desoleted and quiet. A wonderful day, could be the last one this summer, wam enough to allow me to relax in the sun for a couple of hours. The chores of today consisted of washing a couple of t-shirts and underwear and to move the boat a little more than a mile to a natural harbour. A crusing sailor's life is hard, remember? ;-) Anchored in a protected 'hole' between some islands, under the interesting name of Vildgrytan (Savage Pot) Needless to mention, I hit the bunk early and slept like a dead oxe.
6 September
Lazy morning. Overcast sky. Stayed in bed looong this morning, reading and listening to weather forecasts. SW light breeze veering to NW during night. No hurry then. It seems as Niklas (my nav teacher colleage) will be coming to crew for me in a week or more. I decide to enjoy the solitude until then just slowly cruising south from one sweet spot to the next. But with a steady, favorable breeze I will take some longer jumps.
Yesterday,when grabbing a beer from under the florboard in the forecabin, I noticed that there was milk powder all over the not-so-deep bilge in that area. Thus, the chore today, was to clean this little mess up. I can here proudly announce that so I did.