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 a beautiful remote anchorage and explored ashore, where over the hill we found a restaurant taking bookings!
Our destination was the Trollhättan Canal, our route to Goteborg and Denmark.
It is very different to the Göta Canal. This canal is used mainly by cargo shipping, and the locks are HUGE!
The bridges and locks are mostly opened at the convenience of commerce and the big ships take preference. But between 0900 and 1900, pleasure craft may also pass through, but preferably in convoy to avoid multiple filling and emptying.
We traveled in a group of five yachts and waited together at each bridge for permission to pass, and filled the locks together.
Amazingly, the drop in water was very gentle, due to a double floor in the lock base that prevented the turbulence we experienced in the Göta.
But at the bottom it seemed like the Gates of Doom.