Baltic B-Log (the unfortunate demise of Nespresso; Baltic desert islands; and a night crossing)
One thing I forgot to mention about Fårö, is that it was the scene of the accidental and unfortunate Nespresso machine execution! Before this trip Veronica wanted decent coffee in the morning, so we got a Nespresso machine. This of course only works on mains power, as it draws too much current for the inverter. As with all things on a sailing boat, the challenge is where to store them while you are sailing. the Nespresso machine was brilliant and made really good coffee. The other thing that seemed brilliant at the time, was the storage place for it, my idea I have to confess. It fitted perfectly in the microwave wrapped in a dishcloth and that was the perfect solution, since neither the microwave nor the Nespresso machine can be used unless we are on shore power. Well, as we arrived in Lauterhorn and were amazed to find shore power on this tiny fisherman's quay, Tayo plugged in. Seconds after plugging in, I heard the familiar chime of the microwave as it finishes. Somehow the dial was left on or knocked on while sailing to the 5 seconds position. Well..... that seemed to have been enough to terminally nuke the Nespresso machine! We tried taking it apart to see if there was something to fix but to no avail.......Bye, bye Nespresso.
After about 2 hours of motor sailing out of Fårö, the wind perked up to 8 knots and by changing our heading slightly for the southern anchorage, the one that would be sheltered in this wind, we managed to have a gentle sail all the way to Gotska Sandon. As we were approaching I had a message from John Obree, saying that his visa application for Sweden, called for proof of ownership of the boat. The 3G signal faded to nothing so he had to wait 2 days for the photos of the ships papers.
I could wax lyrically about Gotska Sandon..... we were truly blessed with the weather and had a peaceful, natural anchorage with nothing for 30 nM but sea, sky, beach and indigenous forest. We were about 100 m off the most perfect beach. About the only people that are on the island are lighthouse-keeping and nature reserve types but we saw no evidence of either until the next day at the northern anchorage. Overnight there were 4 other boats in the bay but far enough from us to not know whether or not they were clothed or not! That night, Jimmy and Tayo decided to go and camp on the beach so, armed with a beach tent, the sleeping bags and a ground sheet, they rowed off into the sunset at 21h00! They made a driftwood fire and I know this will be one of those moments that forms a lasting memory for them, such are the rewards for the traveller and adventurer. Although the boating lore guide for Sweden says that you can make fires anywhere that is safe and not disturbing others, I did wonder if it was OK here, since the entire island is a nature reserve. Whatever, they buried it afterwards and it was worth the magic moments it delivered.
The next day we decided after looking at the day-old GRIB, that as there was no wind until night time and this was so beautiful, we would spend the day on the island. Early in the morning we ticked another achievement box. Although the water maker was installed back in March, I have never started it. Bad idea to start it in dirty harbour water. This was the perfect place. There were some minor leaks to tighten and I am going to have to rewire it but we drank our first glass of crystal clear fresh water from sea water. The automatic freshwater flush is not working but that is just something that needs to be worked on and we can do the flush manually until we get it sorted.
After the water maker celebration, we motored around to the Northern anchorage and joined only one other boat. We spent the rest of the day paddling the kayak and doing beach walks. The sandy spit that forms the northern most tip of the island was an idyllic beach in these Mediterranean weather conditions.
We were just getting ready for our 19h00 departure (timed so that we arrived on the mainland at first light at about 04h00 and started to navigate through the islands) and an armada of boats started arriving. It was the Baltic ARC. I was glad to be getting out of there as we had had the isolation that portrayed the island in its best light but on the other hand it would have been good to talk to some of those guys. As we sailed off, literally into the sunset, we saw about 20 boats arriving. As seems to be our normal pattern we had about 3 hours of motor-sailing and then the wind reached 7 knots. I trimmed the sails to perfection, with the traveller all the way over and in a flat calm sea we were making 5.3 knots out of 6.5 knots to 7 knots of TWS with the autopilot set to sail to wind at 040 degrees AWA. I was impressed.
Jimmy and I took the 21h00 to midnight watch and the 03h00 to 06h00 watch and Tayo and Veronica did the midnight to 03h00. The conditions were so ideal that we sat in shifts of two at the saloon table and ate a delicious moussaka that Veronica prepared while we were sailing. We saw some shipping but nothing to bother us. During Veronica's watch the wind increased to 10 and the boat made 8 knots SOG. This gave us a slightly earlier arrival between the outer islands than originally planned. Veronica had already dodged the edge of a military practice zone (we later saw the Gotland ferry sail right through it so, so much for that). Jimmy and I came on watch and sailed straight to the waypoint we had created to join the Nynäshamn approach channel, a corridor between many islands. We turned off the wind in the approach channel and after about 2NM took the sails down, as we were only making 3 knots SOG. We arrived in Nynäshamn at about 05h00. In the Marina, it was dead calm and after some poking our nose into a few places, we picked up a stern buoy using our new Swedish stainless steel buoy hooking gizmo. Veronica and Tayo slept through the whole docking process, so although self praise is no recommendation, it must have been good. I had a shower on the boat and went to bed until 09h30.
In civilisation and a very nice marina and town. Tayo and Jimmy head off for a night in Stockholm tomorrow and then home. Marc and Amanda join us on Saturday. The crew are voting for staying here for a while to catch up on some earthly things, like shopping, yoga classes and doing the tax while there is WiFi. Until the next blog...........
After about 2 hours of motor sailing out of Fårö, the wind perked up to 8 knots and by changing our heading slightly for the southern anchorage, the one that would be sheltered in this wind, we managed to have a gentle sail all the way to Gotska Sandon. As we were approaching I had a message from John Obree, saying that his visa application for Sweden, called for proof of ownership of the boat. The 3G signal faded to nothing so he had to wait 2 days for the photos of the ships papers.
I could wax lyrically about Gotska Sandon..... we were truly blessed with the weather and had a peaceful, natural anchorage with nothing for 30 nM but sea, sky, beach and indigenous forest. We were about 100 m off the most perfect beach. About the only people that are on the island are lighthouse-keeping and nature reserve types but we saw no evidence of either until the next day at the northern anchorage. Overnight there were 4 other boats in the bay but far enough from us to not know whether or not they were clothed or not! That night, Jimmy and Tayo decided to go and camp on the beach so, armed with a beach tent, the sleeping bags and a ground sheet, they rowed off into the sunset at 21h00! They made a driftwood fire and I know this will be one of those moments that forms a lasting memory for them, such are the rewards for the traveller and adventurer. Although the boating lore guide for Sweden says that you can make fires anywhere that is safe and not disturbing others, I did wonder if it was OK here, since the entire island is a nature reserve. Whatever, they buried it afterwards and it was worth the magic moments it delivered.
The next day we decided after looking at the day-old GRIB, that as there was no wind until night time and this was so beautiful, we would spend the day on the island. Early in the morning we ticked another achievement box. Although the water maker was installed back in March, I have never started it. Bad idea to start it in dirty harbour water. This was the perfect place. There were some minor leaks to tighten and I am going to have to rewire it but we drank our first glass of crystal clear fresh water from sea water. The automatic freshwater flush is not working but that is just something that needs to be worked on and we can do the flush manually until we get it sorted.
After the water maker celebration, we motored around to the Northern anchorage and joined only one other boat. We spent the rest of the day paddling the kayak and doing beach walks. The sandy spit that forms the northern most tip of the island was an idyllic beach in these Mediterranean weather conditions.
We were just getting ready for our 19h00 departure (timed so that we arrived on the mainland at first light at about 04h00 and started to navigate through the islands) and an armada of boats started arriving. It was the Baltic ARC. I was glad to be getting out of there as we had had the isolation that portrayed the island in its best light but on the other hand it would have been good to talk to some of those guys. As we sailed off, literally into the sunset, we saw about 20 boats arriving. As seems to be our normal pattern we had about 3 hours of motor-sailing and then the wind reached 7 knots. I trimmed the sails to perfection, with the traveller all the way over and in a flat calm sea we were making 5.3 knots out of 6.5 knots to 7 knots of TWS with the autopilot set to sail to wind at 040 degrees AWA. I was impressed.
Jimmy and I took the 21h00 to midnight watch and the 03h00 to 06h00 watch and Tayo and Veronica did the midnight to 03h00. The conditions were so ideal that we sat in shifts of two at the saloon table and ate a delicious moussaka that Veronica prepared while we were sailing. We saw some shipping but nothing to bother us. During Veronica's watch the wind increased to 10 and the boat made 8 knots SOG. This gave us a slightly earlier arrival between the outer islands than originally planned. Veronica had already dodged the edge of a military practice zone (we later saw the Gotland ferry sail right through it so, so much for that). Jimmy and I came on watch and sailed straight to the waypoint we had created to join the Nynäshamn approach channel, a corridor between many islands. We turned off the wind in the approach channel and after about 2NM took the sails down, as we were only making 3 knots SOG. We arrived in Nynäshamn at about 05h00. In the Marina, it was dead calm and after some poking our nose into a few places, we picked up a stern buoy using our new Swedish stainless steel buoy hooking gizmo. Veronica and Tayo slept through the whole docking process, so although self praise is no recommendation, it must have been good. I had a shower on the boat and went to bed until 09h30.
In civilisation and a very nice marina and town. Tayo and Jimmy head off for a night in Stockholm tomorrow and then home. Marc and Amanda join us on Saturday. The crew are voting for staying here for a while to catch up on some earthly things, like shopping, yoga classes and doing the tax while there is WiFi. Until the next blog...........
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