another season in the Baltic
It has been different, cruising in a sea without tidal rise and fall. We can pull into a little bay, drop anchor in sufficient depth, and that’s it! No calculations of how far the sea level will drop and rise overnight, and how much our anchor chain will move towards the shore at low water, […]
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Mixed forecasts. Generally we look at four of them every day, and for a few days ahead. Usually there is a sort of consensus, but on Saturday, three agreed it would be a benign day, possibly up to Force 4, while one predicted Force 6 or more on the nose. From the harbour, a gentle […]
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The long hot summer is well and truly over. Melodrama is making her way along the Danish coast, harbour hopping towards Augustenborg in Southern Denmark. These Danish harbours are great. It’s obvious they are old fishing ports, some still active, others now tourist spots. They provide great shelter, and all have shower blocks, and a […]
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A blustery beat round a shoaling headland or a day sheltering behind the wall in Odde harbour? We chose to sample the delights of this small fishing village. It had a quirky Tuna Museum, and fabulous fish shop smoking herring and serving a lunch of a variety of local fish dishes with a craft beer, […]
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Three days in Goteborg in a nice but tight harbour, while we waited to welcome our new crew Anthony and Janet. They arrived in a thunderstorm, bearing ‘Mrs Woodman’s Sustaining Ocean Cake’ in a Melodrama tin, a bottle of whisky with a recipe for a ‘Melo Dram’ – yum!, and some tea bags of course. […]
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The biggest challenge of the passage through the canals and lakes from Stockholm to Goteborg was always going to come right at the end. We knew that the main commuter bridge across Goteborg was 19.2m at its highest point, and that although it was possible to open a small section, they were not very happy […]
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It took three days to cross Lake Vanern, one of the largest lakes in Europe. A stop at Mariestad to avoid a choppy headwind made for an interesting afternoon, eating crepes on the wharf and admiring Mina, the oldest sailing ship in Sweden. The next evening, we picked up a Swedish Cruising Club mooring in […]
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Early morning and only a few locks to go to the end of our journey through the Göta Canal. The 10:25 train to Lyrestad was due to pass so we tied up to a wooden jetty to wait for the bridge to open. William had decided to reposition a fender – and there it was, […]
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Ian and Mary have joined the crew and we are on our way west and down towards Göteborg. Having honed our skills in the locks going up, now it’s all change as we sink down in the locks. We are novices again. Thankfully the experience of being in the lock as the water disappears is […]
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The Göta Canal stretches across rural Sweden, with long canal sections linked by natural lakes. At Motala, we spent a last evening with Janice and Steven chatting to our Swedish neighbours, Maíre and Håkan on board Isabelle, and listening to the crew of an old German sailing ship playing traditional folk songs on an accordion. […]
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We are all hooked on a delicious treat that is a Swedish tradition available everywhere. These little green rolls of rum truffle wrapped in green marzipan with both ends dipped in dark chocolate are to die for! The Swedish call them Dammsugare (literally dust suckers) after a 1930s Electrolux Vacuum Cleaner. Their other name […]
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