Category: Sweden

Winter is coming… Our journey towards Scotland.

October 6, 2022 / fiandadrian

By Fi

So we kinda need to get moving now. There is still hundreds of miles to go for us to get to a good jump off point to cross the North Sea and into Scotland and winter is coming.

So, on one sunny day with enough wind, we were off! Tacking up the Danish coast towards Helsingborg in Sweden.

Although sad to leave Copenhagen, we are exciting to get moving on to new adventures.

We made it the measly 20 miles into Helsingborg safely, although it took us twice as long as it should have as both the wind and tide were conspiring against us.

This is our track from Copenhagen to Helsingborg – tacking most of the way beating into the wind and current. We averaged 2-3 knots so it ended up being a looooong day.

Tied up in Helsingborg. There wasn’t a lot to do here as the town was shutting down for the winter but we did find a good bakery.

Helsingborg was a nice town. We wandered around for a day or so, waiting for the wind to fill in so we could continue north. We are beginning to feel a little rushed these days as the North Sea is notorious and we want to get across it asap before the real wintery weather sets in.

The day we were there, the wind stopped and the sun came out. Delightful Autumn conditions.

Bernie wanted to see too. His first attempt to jump up resulted in him falling off backwards so I picked him up and he ran around on the wall.

We spot this gorgeous Springer and Bernie says hello. She’s 9 months old and watching her owner clean.

We head north, and stop off one night in a lovely little anchorage, and then north again to Varberg, another west coast Swedish town.

Sunset at our anchorage. Its nice to see sunsets again now the seasons are turning.

In Varberg we tie up in the now empty harbour (the season is over) and have some dinner and plan a couple of days exploring. We take a look at the Varberg Fortress which is from the 17th century and is currently used as a museum and cafe, and also local residences. Its current exhibition was the Bocksten Man, a bog body found in a local bog here. He was discovered in June 1936 by a farmers son, fairly well preserved but what was particularly interesting is how well his clothes were preserved. It gave researchers an accurate glimpse into what middle class apparel looked like at that time – believed to be around the 1400s.

Varberg was a pretty industrial town harbour.

The fort area was old, large and impressive. We take Bernie for walks.

The walls are so thick! We have a salad and a piece of carrot cake in the museum cafe.

The town is lovely and we have a couple of meals out. This church (below) has a tendency to ring its bells for about 30 minutes every few hours and there is a plethora of hotted up 90s Volvos driving around town blaring out their music. This doesn’t seem to be limited to the younger generation either, an old mate was driving his Volvo around blaring out Nat King Cole at one point. Perhaps its a Varberg thing.

Onwards we go, perhaps a little tired of the bells and souped up Volvos now. We have to motor the whole way to Gothenburg as there is little wind, and any wind there is is right on our nose, plus it is raining all day and cold, so we put the throttle on, and steer using the autopilot controls from the navigation station inside. We also take this opportunity to have a hot shower while underway, and turn our diesel heater on. Away really is pure luxury.

Here I am steering and navigating from inside with a great view of everything. Bernie to my right, never far away from me when we are underway.

We tie up at the marina which is on the coast, about 40 minutes from the city. Gothenburg had been recommended to us to visit, and we plan to come back as we are cognisant of our timings now and need to continue moving. We had been tied up for an hour or so, and had a visit from some locals who invited us for nibbles and drinks at their house overlooking the marina. We felt so privileged that they welcomed us into their beautiful home! They confessed that they too used to have a Springer Spaniel and one look at Bernie convinced them we must be good people to have visit, but only if we brought him too. He had a lovely time with them as did we and it was great to get some local knowledge of the area.

We can take Bernie on the local trams and so we take this opportunity for him to see the vet and get a tapeworm tablet for his passport records for Norway, and do some provisioning.

We find a great seafood restaurant right next to the marina and they give me all the wine.

Onwards north again one rainy morning we go, this time we want to stop off at a couple of anchorages. We mostly don’t have a solid idea of where we will anchor, rather we aim for an area, and look for good anchorages as we travel. There are literally thousands of places to stop, so we don’t worry.

There are so many pots that I get the binoculars out to spot them coming with as much notice as possible. They can be hard to see, tiny styrofoam balls or little sticks with black flags.

Spotting crab pots in the wind and cold might sound like its not much fun, but it beats working any day,

After dodging hundreds of crab pots, we stop in a nice bay just south of a town called Skärhamn, protected by a rock wall, cook some dinner and turn in for the night. We want to move on again the next day.

So more crab pot dodging for us the next morning, and we get some really good sailing in this day. The wind is strong, we are reefed and we travel nice and fast to another gorgeous anchorage just east of a town called Kungshamn. Upon arrival, we note the need for little Bernie to have some land time (we’ve been boat bound for the best part of 2 days) so we dingy in to shore and happily are able to pick up an apple, some oysters and some berries which I discovered later are European Cranberries and they taste absolutely gross. Ah – lesson learned! The oysters are pacific oysters and were totally delicious. They are a pest in these parts.

Away anchored in this very protected bay. We hid from the breezy overnight conditions here.

Love foraging for seafood. I’ve happily found an oyster and looking for more.

The oysters were great, the apple was full of pectin and so a little tasteless but good for cooking, and the berries, although they look juicy and delicious, are gross. Every day is school on Away.

Our next leg would be the very next day. The wind was forecast to be on the beam at 20 knots gusting to 28 which is ideal for Away. We leave early, dodge more crab pots, and get the sails up. Soon we are scooting along at 8-9 knots consistently. We keep up this speed for the best part of 8 hours, reaching a top speed of 10.5 knots at one stage. We are crossing the Skagerrak, an area of water on the south coast of Norway. We want to do 70 miles so going fast is key.

Bernie and I keeping watch. It was rolly and he felt safest here.

The water was rushing over the decks all day. This was the wettest day from seawater that we have had.

Whilst this wasn’t the most comfortable passage we have ever had, we were fast and could arrive before the wind got even stronger at our destination in Norway called Risør. It is our first port in Norway and did not disappoint! Upon dropping the sails, we motored in through the islands and the town opened up before us. Risør is home to heritage listed houses all painted white and it is beautiful to see. The town is surrounded by cliffs and the changing colours of the seasons.

Just opposite the town are some beautiful islands where you can tie up and swim in the summer. Its a little cold now.

The sun set colours are stunning as we dock the boat.

We tie up here on the protected side of the dock as we will need to wait out a gale or two before moving along.

Away tied up nice and safely on the north side of this solid wall, safe from the southerly gales.

From Copenhagen in the south, to Risør, our first Norwegian port.

We cannot see a window to Scotland yet. We are starting to become very concerned that in actual fact we will not make it to Scotland. We don’t want to scare ourselves on the north sea so much or risk our safety. In Risør we sit out our first winter gale, and watch the weather patterns roll over the north sea – 40 knot winds and 4m waves roll over and over the sea with only 1 days break in between, and we become increasingly more nervous. We need at least 2.5 days to cross.

Stockholm to Copenhagen in a week

September 16, 2022 / fiandadrian

By Adrian

On a beautiful summers day we left Stockholm and retraced our steps south through the archipelago. A police launch accompanied us accosting jet skis and other over enthusiastic boats ignoring the speed limits.

Bernie guided us through the narrow bits.

With the sails hoisted we weaved our way through the islands and found an appropriate bay for the night. There was a sauna but only for club members, so we stayed aboard and kept moving the next morning. By afternoon we were tacking our way towards the edge of the archipelago. Fi spotted a sheltered anchorage with shallow access and a very narrow entrance channel which are often less crowded.

The channel was dredged to 2.2m, although we saw 1.4m on the way in. No Hallberg Rassy’s in here. In fact no boats at all.

Another overnight stay and we were headed down the coast to one of our favourite areas from the way north. We found an anchorage in a deep bay in the middle of an island. As we approached I noticed a high powered RIB with black suited people approaching. This time a couple of them came aboard, asked their questions and even checked our passports. Bernie was very excited. All the while we were sailing towards our destination.

The long bay led to a sheltered anchorage in the centre of the island. The same black rib came in the next day checking out the boats, but we are known to them now so no problems.

There was plenty of space with only five or six other boats. Beautiful walks on the island, and a small settlement as well. Tonnes of Nordic blueberries everywhere.

Bernie thought we should have bought him a cinnamon scroll

An English couple in motor boat who were also members of the Cruising Association blew their horn and held up a sign ‘Beer?’. We obliged and learned that they had had come from the Netherlands over a number of years, doing a section of the trip each year and storing the boat over winter. We enjoyed a chat with them, and had them over to Away as well the following evening.

After a couple of nights in this idyllic spot, we decided to leave again and get going on our first overnight passages on Away. Snacks prepared, dinner and breakfasts ready, we headed out of the anchorage at a reasonable time in the morning. We are aiming for south Sweden and the area near Karlskrona.

The winds were light but we made good progress with the big red sail.

The sun set as we passed the northern end of Oland Island (the long thin island on the east coast of Sweden). We stayed to the east of the island to avoid the narrow channel around Kalmar and hopefully get better winds overnight.

As the sun went down a small yacht cut across our bow and headed west. We took the opportunity to test the radar. It works very well for larger boats, those with radar reflectors and smaller boats that are a mile or two away. For small crunchy fiberglass boats within a mile we are not sure we would pick them out from the noise.

During the night we heard the Swedish navy requesting a boat doing 8 knots to the south east of us to contact them. We didn’t hear the boat reply so we are not sure of the outcome. So much intrigue during the night…

By morning we were turning West and heading for Karlskrona. We sailed most of the day and decided to find a stopover for the night rather than keep going for a second night.

Karlskrona is a Swedish navy centre. This boat passed us and then stopped . As we sailed along the coast it didn’t move, but never got any further away. At dusk we noticed it in the distance checking up on us in our anchorage. The next morning it was waiting for us as we headed out to sea again.

Fi found another nice little spot tucked out of most of the wind, and we decided to have a mini impromptu picnic on the rocks on shore to have sundowners and watch the sun set. Bernie took the opportunity to sniff everything, run away, and also get in the water.

Bernie was very happy to be off the boat and enjoyed a long swim.

The next morning we left in comfortable time as we didn’t need to get in Copenhagen too early the following day. Again we were prepped for another overnight sail. The wind was in the mid twenties and but forecast to die out overnight. There were two swells from half behind us which every now and then conspired to roll the stern and cause the autopilot to complain that it needed bigger rudders.

We heard ‘Warship A’ talking to ‘Warship B’ on channel 16 with broad American accents. These anonymous vessels later passed to our stern. Perhaps they were using the standard shipping radio channels to make sure everyone knew they were there…

By 9:30pm we were able to make a small heading change to get the swell behind us for a more comfortable evening. Container ships kept us company during the night in the nearby shipping channel and the ferry traffic from Ystad crossed our path from time to time. Otherwise the wind remained consistent, and we were happy with our sail plan. We take alternating watches, and each of us sleep when we can.

Bernie is never far from Fi when we are at sea.

Never ever far… Fi has some other kind of doggie level patience.

The wind and swell dropped in the early hours and the big red sail came out for the final leg north into Copenhagen. We almost made it under sail, but as the wind dropped to 4-5 knots the lure of hamburgers and beer was just too strong and we motored the last hour.

Ahhh, our favourite market Reffen, and some excellent food and drink.

Its great to be back in Copenhagen with its world class food and atmosphere.

Next time we hit the bright lights of Paris and London.

Stockholm again

September 13, 2022 / fiandadrian

We had a few days in Stockholm before Tara flew out on the next leg of her European jaunt. Fi was not going to miss the opportunity of an accomplice on the rollercoasters. Its not that I don’t like paying money to be sick and scared out of my brain, but I do prefer a quiet dog walk.

So the designer thought that this might be fun?

To torture people who don’t like heights?

Was this really the most glamorous dog water bowl we had seen…Bernie seemed to think so

The Vasa was perhaps the least successful warship ever made. It was made between 1626 and 1628 and sank roughly 1300m into its maiden voyage when a puff of wind blew it over. In software engineering circles its held up as an example of why you don’t blindly accept all the requirements from the customer or you can end up with a failure. Further reading suggests this was not the case with the Vasa, but the story persists. It was just poor design.

The Vasa sat at the bottom of Stockholm harbour until she was raised in the 1950s

Not like todays bland warships. These carvings would have sent chills down the spine of any would be attacker.

To my great amusement, models of arguably the worst designed boat in history are very popular.

Time in Stockholm was running short, so we soaked up some more culture and the young people to donned their glad rags and went clubbing.

Fi and Tara had a look at another local gallery in between dancing and rollercoasters.

The old town…why make a straight road when you can make a cute one?

We make so many new friends on this adventure!

Whoo! Dancing the night away with more fantastic new friends who we will catch up with next time in this fantastic city!

Next time, we pump out the black water and sail through the night.

Big City Stockholm

August 24, 2022 / fiandadrian

By Fi

When we last left you, we had just moored up in the convenient Wasahamnen marina in Stockholm, which funnily enough had the rollercoasters of Gröna Lund right next door, complete with 10am-10pm screams every day of the week. To be fair, hearing thousands of people having so much fun simply added to the atmosphere of the place, and made me desperate to ride on the rollercoasters. BUT – first stop was the ABBA museum! Big city life!

The museum is a short walk (past the rollercoasters) from the marina and we decided to not waste a minute, and went straight down there after docking the boat and giving Bernie a bit of a sniff around.

These were exceptional wax statues of the band.

My favourite Frida and Agnetha costumes.

There was a large area with a number of their original costumes behind glass being preserved.

These puppets were used in an advertisement. They are Jim Henson’s designs.

One of the biggest reasons we are in Stockholm is because we are picking up our first visitor from Australia who is flying in to Stockholm to spend some time with us. Tara is Adrian’s daughter and Adrian met her at the airport for her first sailing holiday!

The best way to get over jet lag is to keep moving while there is day light. Or in this case, because its day light till midnight, just keep moving until you stop. We wandered around to keep Tara moving and saw this cool old tram.

Nordica museum close to the marina was a spectacular building.

I’m certain that Bernie thinks he looks similar to this

Our plan from Stockholm is to sail to the Åland islands, which is an autonomous part of Finland, so we needed to do a little provisioning, get Bernie vaccinated, and make a sail plan. We also had friends in another Garcia Exploration 45 that we wanted to meet up with too. So unfortunately, not a lot of jet lag recovery time for Tara or much big city exploring for us yet, as we were on the move again. I didn’t get to do the rollercoasters this time but we plan to be back in Stockholm in a few weeks.

Until next time you crazy rollercoasters with all your screaming fans.

We left Stockholm on a sunny afternoon and navigated through the archipelago mostly successfully. We only had to navigate through about a dozen fast moving ferries, plus the gigantic passenger liners that frequent the area, and only got beeped once by a chain ferry who popped out at the last minute (those things are pretty scary), but otherwise an uneventful passage to a beautiful anchorage where our friends on Anemis were waiting for us!

As we crept around the corner we saw Anemis who already had their drone out to record the rare spotting of two Garcia Exploration 45s in an anchorage.

The next day, we wanted to get to Finland, so we left in reasonable time, said goodbye to our new friends, and began the journey north east.

Next up we have come adventures in the beautiful Åland Islands

Don’t worry Stockholm! We’ll be back for more fun.

We crash into the rocks

August 8, 2022 / fiandadrian

We left you on a particularly rolly morning at Bornholm Island. We were still protected from the wind, but the swells were bending round the headland and across the bay. It must have been bad to get us underway at 5:30am.

North of us was a stretch of open water leading to the Swedish coast around Karlskrona. As we approached the coast we passed the small island and harbour of Utklippan. We considered stopping for the night, but over 10 masts in a small surgy harbour put us off.

Utklippan has a large seal colony, a disused lighthouse and a small restaurant.

North of Utklippan is the area where the cold war ‘Whiskey on the Rocks’ incident occurred. One morning in 1981 a fisherman noticed a Soviet whiskey class submarine parked on the rocks where there wasn’t usually one. The soviets claimed it was parked there due to a navigation error. We weren’t sure if we should be proud or concerned that our navigation was more accurate than a nuclear submarine.

The anchorage we had chosen had several boats tied up to the rocks and enough room for us to anchor in deeper water. The next day after all the other boats had gone and no one was watching, we practiced mooring up to the rocks. This involves throwing a spare anchor off the back as you approach the rocks, driving the bow towards the rocks and stopping 10cm before impact so the person on the bow can run along the bowsprit and launch themselves onto the rocks with hammer, peg and a bow line in hand. They quickly hammer a peg in a rock fissure and secure the bow. Then you tug on the stern anchor line, which is hopefully not caught on the propeller, and secure the boat far enough from the rocks that its not touching, but close enough that one can step onto the rock, with BBQ in one hand and esky in the other.

After 3 attempts we were happy with our first rock berth. Most Baltic boats have an overhanging bow to make this a little easier.

The forecast for the next day was for solid travelling winds on the beam. We followed the narrow channel out to the coast and headed north towards Kalmar. There were plenty of other boats with the same plan and we avoided most of the traffic a bit further off the coast.

Away sped along enjoying the gusty conditions.

They’ve built a nice castle to welcome you into Kalmar

We had booked a berth in the marina and a RIB came out to meet us and show us in. It had been gusting over 30 knots on the sail in to Kalmar so it was quite exciting to be led through ever narrowing channels until there was barely a boat length to turn into our berth!

The castle had been here a long time and now housed a museum.

Fi found this new frock but wasn’t convinced it would work on the boat. Wrong colour?

The castle even had some recipes from days gone by. We particularly liked this one and tried unsuccessfully to track down a suitable duck in the moat.

We were now in the land of Volvos and took the opportunity for a quick engine service before moving on up the coast. This area of coast has so many islands that its not hard to find a beautiful place to stop.

We left Kalmar in big red sail weather, but the winds filled in as the day progressed.

The anchorage we had picked was jam packed full with two other boats, so we continued on to look for somewhere quieter. We had been warned it could be busy in July and August.

We found this cool little bay. The depth sounder showed just 1.2m as we entered the bay, so it wasn’t too crowded. Did we say we love our lifting center board?

Next day was another sailing day to the southern end of the Stockholm archipelago. Fi had picked out a secret anchorage with a hidden shallow entrance that we hoped might deter less intrepid sailors.

The entrance to the anchorage is a narrow channel behind the trees.

The anchorage was empty, sheltered and with good holding. We decided to stay a while.

Fi spotted an abundance of wild blueberries growing on the islands.

We managed to stay up late enough to see the sun set.

Some of us braved the refreshing waters.

After a relaxing few days we started the final journey into Stockholm. Unlike the approach to most ports, Stockholm is surrounded by a complex archipelago with many low bridges and narrow channels. We reached the outer islands and discovered our chosen anchorage had 50 boats in it! Fortunately the surrounding bays provided some quieter anchorages.