another season in the Baltic
‘I’d like to try steering in a couple of these locks’ announced an over-confident Karen one morning. Soon it had been decided (without consultation) that Karen would steer all day. Good experience, time served, motor memory, all were terms used to describe the experience ahead. Naturally, there was plenty of advice and guidance on hand […]
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Our time in the Archipelago is over and we are on our way across Sweden from East to West via the Göta Canal. In most places it is about 3m deep in the middle, so we should be OK! There are 58 locks to climb and descend, bridges to pass under, and many that open […]
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It’s an amazing summer here in Sweden and we are so lucky to have chosen this summer to be here on a lovely boat! But high temperatures and no rain have consequences. The next day we sailed south through the islands and spotted a pair of sea eagles perched on a beacon – a magnificent […]
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There is a fabulous peaceful anchorage hidden away between the rocks on an island wildlife reserve on Biskopson. The entrance is narrow, shallow, surrounded by rocks and the channel twists and swerves for a mile or so before arriving at the far end in a lagoon, with low rolling granite islets all around. There were […]
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The last week has been a relaxing (mostly!) introduction to live-aboard life with Patrick and Rachel. We have cruised around the Stockholm islands, anchoring or tying up to jetties. The area is full of boats – little motor yachts zooming past, sailing boats, ferries that are the island commuter service, and huge cruise liners bringing […]
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The Swedish really make the most of their island paradise, and in many coves there are little wooden jetties leading to little wooden huts where there are composting toilets and often rubbish bins. On the charts these features are shown as a door with a heart symbol, and indeed many of the real doors do […]
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We spent a few days sightseeing in Stockholm before our next guests arrived. The highlight was a trip to the Vasa Museum, where the warship Vasa built in 1628 has been restored. At the time it was the largest warship in the world. And like the Titanic it sank on its maiden voyage, but even […]
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A beautiful red sunset in our anchorage on Sack, East of Stockholm, heralded a return to summer weather after a few days when it was a bit ‘Scottish West Coast’. (Of course Scotland and Ireland are basking in the best weather in 20 years). In the morning we slipped very slowly through the narrow and […]
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We took the new shackle apart, and extracted its spring, pin and ring. This fitted the old shackle. I’m amazed, because serendipity has not been a feature of this tale. I attached the shackle to the furling drum, then carefully swaged wire through the pin, so it could not come undone and flip overboard. Not […]
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Who would have thought it. There are two different styles of Selden Snap-shackle of the correct size for our sail. And of course the one I found is the WRONG TYPE. The subtle difference is that this new one has a groove on the opening end. You need to see it: Now there would be […]
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Somewhere in Sweden there must be a snap shackle for our Code 0!! Breidge and I sat down with a map, charts, pilot books and chandlery catalogues, and identified the addresses of the shops we could reach by boat and bike. I rang round and found one Selden shackle of the correct size in a […]
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