My holidays have started and I have prepared for some serious sailing. Food, water, clothing and gear stowed. Bike on board and the dinghy on deck. Tomorrow I will get the diesel tank filled up and going south. First destination is Landsort. Then to Gotland, Visby. Weather is good. Goodnight after an evening out with Monsun owners Kristina and Thomas of Puffin. Thanks again!
2021 sailing season has begun
On Friday the 23th of April Isabell was back in the lake at Rastaholm. After a short period of fine spring weather we are back to snowfall and coldness. Nevertheless, Isabell is afloat and ready for another sailing season. In the weekend of the 30th April – 2 May the mast is back in place, and the boat stocked up with food, water and warm clothes. Soon will take her out to the seaside. Now with new rigging details and shiny new Lewmar 40 ST winches for the genua. The rudder repair was successful, no more clonking sounds from the rudder hinges. Looking through my old logbooks I concluded that I have sailed Isabell halfway around the equator (11 500 nautical miles) since I bought her in 2008. Let’s hope for many more miles of sailing fun!
Easter holidays boat fixing
And it is finally time to start prepping Isabell for another boating season. Easter weekend is usually the time to take off the winter shelter and start fixing things on board. The weather so far has been great. On last Thursday I removed the cover from the deck. Since, the new rudder hinge has been put in place. It will still need some polyester work, but the hinge is good. I had bought solid round bronze bars with a 25 mm diameter, that fit perfectly into the bronze hinges. Then I removed the anchor rolling mechanism from the bow and bent it back into its original shape. This was necessary after the collision with a pole in Lemmer, last summer. Started removing loose paint on the underwater body. Will get out the old vacuum cleaner and sanding machine to polish off the old antifouling paint (P60-80 grain sandpaper). After that is done, the primer is put on to finish off with one or two thin layers of hard antifouling. Have to wait until it gets a bit warmer outside. In the meantime, I will install two new genua sheet winches. Almost like the original Lewmar 40’s, only the new ones are selftailing, Lewmar 40ST ocean chrome-bronze winches. They fit nicely on the same holes as the old winches had.
Replaced a few rigging details, and invested in a new decklight, now all the lights are LED-type. The rest of the boat is in rather good shape. Maintenance on the engine is ready, already done in the fall 2020. Looking forward to a great new boating season! Happy Easter!
Date set for 2021 launching
Winter is slowly loosing its grip on the countryside. The sun is starting to warm a little more every day, and the snow is almost all gone. Still frozen on the lake, but more open water for each day that passed. I was at the boat yard this past weekend and have taken off the lower hinge shoe of the rudder. Will order a replacement for the bronze hinge pin, that is fairly worn down. It measures 66 mm and with a starting diameter of 25 mm. I will order a new pin with outher diameter of 25,5 mm to adjust for wearing of the shoe.
The date for launching is set to 23 April 2021. So, a good seven weeks to get Isabell ready to go back in the water. Looking forwards to it!
Winter tasks for a rainy day
Hello again! During the past few weeks I have done some winter tasks. Outside it is grey and mostly dark. Fantastic weather to sit inside and write about precious memories and experiences that may be useful to other sailors. At first I wrote an article about the experience of taking a sailboat across the Netherlands via the standing mast route, in Swedish. In the Swedish language very little decent information is available on this topic. Apart from a number of sailing blogs of folks that have actually made the passage, nothing is available in Swedish. So the article was my number one priority. It can be found on the Sailing Isabell website under the little Swedish flag.
The second article I just finished is about taking a sailboat through the Kiel canal, or the Nord- Ostsee Kanal (NOK) in northern Germany. Also in Swedish, since information is available in German, Dutch, and English, but lacking in Swedish. It was fun to do, since taking me through the NOK memories to remember what was essential, also brought about this enormous sense of joy. It was fun to take this route through the Kiel canal during the past summer. Also this article is available on the website under the little Swedish flag.
Apart from all that, I have been cleaning and fixing details that belong to the Isabell rigging. Since the mast is down this winter, I have the possibility to look over all the rigging details. Checking and replacing the worn parts. So that come Spring the rigging is good for another 4 or 5 years with the mast standing.
We have now made it through all of 2020, a very special year, and ready to meet the coming year with new plans and energy. Let’s hope it will be a good year.
End of the sailing season
Today I had some help from another friendly Monsun owner to step down the mast off Isabell. Yesterday I removed the cables and radar dome from the mast, stripping it clean to be removed. Took down the sails as well, which was lucky. Today the wind was very strong, and blowing directly off the lake into the harbour. Quite a blow. But yesterday, as I worked the sails and stripped the mast, the weather was calm and beautiful.
The mast came off and Isabell raised about 20 cm from the water surface. I can see that this summers many miles has done a polishing job on the underwater hull. Alot of the red paint is missing.
On Tuesday, October 20th, Isabell is lifted onto the hard. And the sailing season has come to an end. Now the time starts to do some serious maintenance jobs. Another pleasant part of owning a boat. And the atmosphere at the boat club, in spite of COVID19 issues, is generous as always. Nonetheless, always a bit sad to come to this point of lifting Isabell on the hard.
Reached my home port Bullandö Marina
In the afternoon of Saturday, September 5th, I reached the berth in my home port. The strong winds from the SW the past few days have helped me sail home in only three days from my anchorage at Arkösund, where I ended up on Thursday. From there it was about a hundred miles home. I took the short route across open sea, directly to Landsort, and the SXK blue buoy at Läskär, north of the Öja island. 42 nautical miles in a days worth of sailing. The next day was rocky, as the sea swell rolled in along with me, into the Mysingen archipelago sea. Another day with 42 miles of sailing, passed Dalarö early, and sailed until darkness fell. Got to Munkön. From there it was only a little jump home. As I came past Stavsnäs, and into the bight that leads under the Djurö bridge, a lot of boats appeared on the water. After all the solitude this was quite a shock. It so happened that this was the day the Annual Nordic Boat Regatta was held. Funny, it was like falling back into the mid-summer business of the canals in The Netherlands. But I got into port without too much troubles. And this marks the end of this summers adventure. I am going to miss living on the boat. After 74 days of living on the boat, and moving about 1860 nautical miles during those days, life will be a bit different at home on land.
Concluded that this little boat has been a fine home, and I am so happy that everything on board worked as it was supposed to do. Only the normal wear and tear, and of course the little damage on the anchor roller from the collision in the harbour at Lemmer.
The east coast of Sweden between showers
Where am I now? I have reached 58°02.9’N 016°46.8’E Kvädö southern depth. Hiding out for the N wind and drying all the wet stuff.
Early yesterday morning I sailed out on the northern part of the Kalmarsund. Since it had been very windy on the Baltic Sea the past few days, a heavy long wave pattern was still running. But the weather was fair and I could sail a few hours with all the sails up. In the vicinity of Oskarshamn the wind died down to almost nothing (4-5 knots) and the heavy sea made going a bit uneasy. So I decided to follow the inside passage through the skerry coastal landscape. It has several beautiful spots, and as usual the water was empty. I hand-navigated most of the way, but progress was good. Saw a few sailboats near Västervik and passed two naval vessels going out to sea. Another two sailboats and a motor yacht in the vicinity of Loftahammar. That’s it. After Loftahammar it started to drizzle, and after a while came the heavy rain, buckets of it. I threw the anchor at a small cove near Kårö and ate, rested a bit and waited for the rain to get past me. Since the following days promised high northerly winds, I decided to use all of the daylight hours to motor northbound. That was a bit of a mistake. I did not get further than where I am now. Near the entrance to the town of Valdemarsvik. And it rained a whole lot more. So in this downpour and closing of darkness I found an anchorage that looked good on the charts, but visibility was too low to see for real. Early this morning I could actually see the surroundings, and I happened to pick a good spot. It gives good enough cover for the hard norhterly wind and has a beautiful natural setting.
So today I took the day off and while the sun is shining I dry out all the wet stuff. Time to download some more pictures to the computer and update my status. The wind situation is not in my advantage the coming days. Only about 120 miles to go, but it will take some time, if I want to enjoy the ride. Luckily, I am still on vacation. Best to enjoy the scenery along this ancient (from the Viking era and onwards) seafarers route through the skerries. The route is well marked and easy to follow, although at times very exposed to the open sea (wind and the sea waves).
Following the eastern coast to get home
Where am I now? At 57°N outside the Södra Cell paper mill perimeter at Påskallavik, hiding for the passing bad weather.
It seems that following the eastern coast will be my best option to stay out of the northern wind zone for the coming few days. I have made some progress through the Kalmarsund, while the weather has changed frequently. Using the wind blowing around the centers of heavy rainfall over the mainland, it has at times been possible to sail with the main reefed and keeping close to the wind. Got to test my heavy weather gear, it rained a lot. The coming few days are going to be drier, according to the weather forecasts.
It is empty on the sea. I am basically passing through the Kalmarsund all by myself it seems. Of course both the lousy weather and that the holiday season is over may have to do with this. Anyway, it will get more crowded once I get to the Stockholm archipelago. That will hopefully be in a few days. Only about 150 more nautical miles until I get home.
Today, as I motored into the hiding place here at Bokön, two eagles circled right above my head. I got so excited and distracted that I almost sailed onto a marker buoy. Fantastic to see these magnificent birds so close up. Otherwise I have spotted a few hundred cormorants, that seem to be everywhere, and one seal.
Depression train causes daily weather changes
Where am I now? In Möcklösund, Karlskrona archipelago.
From Ystad to Simrishamn I had decent sailing weather, winds changing due to heavy cloud formations over the sea southeast from where I was. Well in port at Simrishamn it rained heavily. The harbor was empty, and according to the people at the harbor office it has been a season with very few visiting boats. I bought some diesel and went shopping in town. The next day I sailed and motored across the Hanöbukten (Bay of Hanö), and had set course on the island of Utklippan. At a quarter past four in the afternoon the Utklippan lighthouse was visible. First part of the journey I had sailing wind, then the wind died and I motored a few hours. Afternoon, the wind gradually returned from the west. The sea waves came in from the northwest, and made it necessary to hand steer a lot of the time. As the wind picked up in the afternoon, the windvane kept course. Most of the time the sun was out and it felt warm. All alone on this part of the sea. I spotted three ships on the entire journey. Then, as I got closer to Utklippan, the wind picked up to 11 meter per second and the waves grew more than 2 m high. So when I finally got to Utklippan, breaking waves and the wind straight into the harbour entrance made me pass it by. I set for rounding Utlängan on the mainland side of Blekinge and steered for the entrance to the inside route from Långören to Karlskrona. Well behind land, the sea became calmer and I raced against the clock to find an anchorage before darkness fell. I anchored in a nice spot in leeward of land and went to sleep.
At 5 am I woke up, because the wind had changed direction and the anchor was dragging. Isabell hit bottom. So I got into foul weather gear, got the anchor up, which was fouled with sea weeds, hence the dragging. It had just become light enough to navigate these shallows visibly. I knew the area well from before, since I lived in this area for a few years a while ago. So I went for the safe inside inlet of Norrviken, where Kryssarklubben has a blue buoy. It is where I stayed today. Rains a lot and every time it rains the wind picks up from nothing to terrible, to die down to nothing afterward again. Now I am cleaning ship and resting a bit. The weather is going to be wet and changing winds for the coming week. I will just have to take it as it comes, and try to get myself to the north. I am glad nothing more serious happened when the anchor started dragging this morning. The parts of the coast are very shallow and stony. But with a beautiful natural scenery.