Author: captain

Saturday 26 June 2010
Senoren SXK buoy
56*07,74 N 016* 02,49 E

On our way at 0935 UTC. Nice weather, Winds W-SW 5-7 ms
We sail out past Torhamn and Långören into the Baltic Sea. After about 1 and a half hour sailing we are in the open sea. From here we set course toward our favourite harbour, Bergkvara on the Kalmar coast. We pass the entrance to the nice picturesque village of Konstantinopel, with a popular harbour and the site of constant historic battles between the Swedish and Danish Crowns.

After a smooth and pleasant tour we end up in the harbour of Bergkvara at 1640 UTC, in time for dinner. Everything is in ship-shape and functioning well today. Yipppie!
Turning in early for an early start tomorrow. Goodnight.

Position Bergkvara harbour 56*24,032 N 016*05,407 E (todays distance 30.7 NM)

25 June 2010
Senoren SXK buoy.

Getting Isabell ready for the trip to Stockholm. This evening Christina is taking the train down and she will accompany the skipper on the trip (at least for part of the way). It is nice weather and the Karlskrona Archipelago is shrouded in Spring colours. Beautiful.
In the afternoon the mooring is cast off and I take a trip in to Karlskrona to pick up new water, more diesel and Christina, who is to arrive in the evening by train. A lot of people are out in boats. Nice.

The train is late, but finally we are on our way. Since it got so late we decide to go back to the SXK mooring buouy at Senoren and ly there over night. When there we enjoy a beautiful sunset. Now we are all set to go. Stockholm here we come!

Good night.

On the 30 April 2010 Isabell is going back into the water at Bredavik Marina, Sturkö. Here she has rested and had a major facelift (see story about underwater body work winter 2009-10) done. On the dockside her sister ship Akela (Monsun #222) is still under cover. But Isabell is going to Stockholm soon.

After sailing into Tallebryggans Marina in Karlskrona with Ronja and Daniel and Christina to help raise the mast, I filled up the drinking water tank and dieseltank. Raising the mast went smooth, and only took a short while. To celebrate we ate pizza before we sailed home to Mocklo.

Then I left back for Stockholm and the other crew-members went back to Växjö.
On the 24 of June I travelled back to get Isabell sailed up north to Stockholm. In the evening I arrived by train and bus. Rowed the dinghy out to the mooring where she lay anchored. As I got on board I did not notice anything strange. But when I took off my shoes to start getting ready to go to sleep I felt that the carpet was soaking wet. Lifting it up, I saw that the whole floor was covered with water. What happened? Was there a leak? I started to look everywhere. After a while I found the culprit. The drinking water holding tank was leaking in one of the pump fittings and all of the drinking water had run out. So I fixed the leak with a new rubber fitting ring and then had to be without drinking water until the next day. But it could have been worse, at least no through the hull fitting was leaking.

All that happened was that my soxks got wet and I had to get new drinking water in Karlskrona (4 NM away). Bummer.

Tomorrow the big trip to Stockholm was going to start. Exciting.

The start of the season will be the 2nd of May. Looking forward to it.
Right now it is still WINTER… Brrrrr.

Sunday 26 July 2009
position Burgsvik 57*02.13 N 018*15.49 E
at 0800 UTC we are off and shall try to sail in a straight bearing toward the island Öland. The wind is W-NW and we start with a 10 ms in the morning. We have both sails up, good speed through the water but the current against. We run barely 3 knots SOG.
Most of the way it goes well. As we close in on Öland, a thunderstorm on the northern tip of that island makes the wind become very uneven and the waves are nearly 2.5 m high. But Isabell is made for much worse and she sits nicely in the sea. Smooth as a babies skin!
At 1630 UTC we take down the sails and start the engine. Gushes are near 18 ms, while the average wind is only 8-10 ms. At 1800 UTC we reach Kårehamn on the eastern side of Öland. A small but nice fishing habour and village. In port we buy 20 liters of diesel from the local fishermen. Buy some fish as well. We get a whole bucket of herring for a few crowns. Hmmm. Nice. In the evening the sun comes out and we sit in the cockpit long into the evening. We are on our way home. Now we intend to sail southwards along the eastern side of Öland. Problem is that there are no harbours along this side to find cover in in case the weather turns bad. In that case we will have to seek open sea and stick it out there.
A lot of fishing gear is placed everywhere along the shallows and we nearly sailed over more than one fishing net that was not properly marked. But we are spared that mishapp.

Crossing behind us. Gotland ferry boat. Coming at a pace of 30 knots… Swooffz. Not a good idea to be in the way.

Friday 24 July 2009
pos. 56*56,598 N 018*18,16 E

We intend to sail over to Öland from the port of Vändburg. But things do not turn out that way. We have SE wind turning to S and then W. Meaning wind is straight ahead all the time. We have to tack long legs to get ahead. And since the waves and current are heading south as we are, the highest waves ever seen in the Baltic (at least by the skipper) are facing us a stretch just at the southern tip of Gotland. 4 m waves with a very short interval between waves are beating hard. We run with a third of the main sail up and a little piece of the foresail. After 5 hours we head N along the westcoast of Gotland to the port of Burgsvik. We will have another go at it to sail over to Öland another day. In Burgsvik we meet a nice young couple from Stockholm with two young boys on their Friendship boat. The boys (maybe 2 and 4 yrs old) are playing on the deck in their floating vests. The oldest boy ties his younger brother into one of the halyards and winches him up about four meter over the deck, before his dad sticks his head out of the cabin and stops him. They are having a short discussion and the boy is hoisted down on the deck again. What a blast!

Burgsvik is a nice harbour and we go enjoy the beach just inside the stone jetty. It is windy still. Let’s hope it turns back into the right angle tomorrow.

Thursday 23 July 2009
position 56* 59,71 N 018* 27,36 E

We enjoy looking around Ronehamn. A quiet and elegant little town on the east coast of Gotland. At noon we sail off toward the southern end of the island. Now our target is Vändburg, a larger commersial port. It again is very foggy at sea. Very little visibility, but also hardly any wind. We have 2-3 ms from the SE. We get into port at Vändburg after 4 hours and the distance was 19.4 NM. Not so much, but enough in heavy fog. Always is a bit scary to not being able to see around yourself out in the open sea. We stayed close to the coastline, so that no larger vessels would happen to crush us. But there is always a risk for fishing gear we do not see, or other yachts running in the way…

While in port the sun breaks out and we enjoy sitting in the cockpit in the sunshine. Outside temperatures are 25 degrees C and the water is 20 degrees. Nice! We have some luxury as we can connect to shore-electricity. The day just flew past.

First ice in the archipelago! Longing to ice skating and skiing for the season.

Tuesday 21 July 2009, winds 14-16 ms from SW. We stay put and enjoy Herrvik and surroundings.

Wednesday 22 July 2009. The wind has calmed down, now only 8-9 ms from the SW. We sail off at 0730 UTC. Nice winds and good clear weather ahead.
After half the distance to Ljugarn, our first target, the wind shifts to W and stronger than 10 ms. We are now forced to tack into the wind and the waves become higher than 2 m. So we decide to let go of our Ljugarn plans and continue to the harbour at Ronehamn. A better angle to the wind and waves. Making good speed through the water, we have the current against us. Nonetheless, we make good speed and get to Ronehamn at 1645 UTC.

A very exciting sailing leg. Before we get into port, a dense fog catches us out at sea. It gets quiet and wet. But we have our instruments and get into port without problems. There we find a nice place to park Isabell alongside a wooden jetty. We are safe.
Isabell moored against the old jetty, with reinforced mooring lines!