Month: August 2018

Tuesday 7 – Friday 10 August

Just after dawn on Tuesday morning, three friends from ‘home’ strolled along the pontoon, fresh from their overnight ferry after a weekend-long party in Helsinki. Fortified by a full English breakfast, and possibly bewildered by a full Skipper’s briefing, we slipped the lines for a gentle introduction to cruising: 12M motorsailing with genoa in light winds, on flat seas, amidst lovely scenery. We returned to our ‘builders’ anchorage, for supper of Rendang Curry and Mango & Passionfruit Mousse.

Relatively early on Wednesday morning, we set off for the open sea and Sweden. It soon became apparent that we were not going to be ‘third time lucky’ on this passage, as a brisk SSW pushed up a choppy sea before we were even clear of the islands. We were soon down to second reef and staysail, and two of our company kept up a steady communication with our trusty buckets, Jimmy 1 & 2. Having taken the precaution of seasickness remedy at the appointed time, our remaining guest valiantly resisted any and all discomfort, in spite of over-exposure to the elements that later resulted in blisters and sore skin.

It was with immense relief all round that we finally slid into the more sheltered waters of the Swedish East coast, dropped and furled the sails and motored into our selected anchorage off Torparö, East of the Stockholm archipelago. We’d sailed 33 Miles in just under eight hours, touching a top speed of 8.2 knots; our average speed was four knots…and it didn’t rain. Recovery was swift once calm waters were regained, and the atmosphere relaxed over supper of cottage pie or fish pie with spicy colcannon topping, followed by baked nectarines.

Having chosen an anchorage for its shelter from forecast wind, the first entry in the following morning’s log reads “less weather than expected last night”; doubtless this contributed to a good night’s rest, and it was with renewed enthusiasm that we weighed anchor, stripping the chain of a discarded fishing net and disposing of it safely, and set off for another 38 Miles in warm, if sometimes damp, weather. Helming was shared more evenly today, and once again we hit 8 knots, reaching in lovely conditions.

We treated our fantastic new recruits to a night in our secret ‘beaver/osprey’ anchorage, relaxing over another cockpit supper of baked nachos with minute steaks, the latter perfectly cooked by Skipper on the back step. Dessert was warm raspberry frangipane tarts, narrowly avoiding disaster due to a temporary oversight in the galley.

Friday being the final day of this trip, we relaxed a little as we flew the genoa here and there to complete the final 15M into Stockholm. We docked safely once again in Wasahamnen, but our guests seemed oddly reluctant to depart for their hotel – had they enjoyed the experience, or was it just exhaustion and relief at surviving kicking in?

Thank you, guys, for a great farewell meal (safely on terra firma), a wonderful time, and some very special memories. You’ll be welcome back any time.

Thursday 2 – Monday 6 August

Once again we had a fantastic sail across to the Åland Islands, enjoying a colourful reach under mainsail and gennaker in a steady F3 Southerly breeze. In the Southwest of this archipelago we found a pleasant bay on the North side of Södra Labbholm, in front of an unfinished house. As we’d noticed elsewhere, the dock is completed first, then the sauna (although this was not evident here) and finally the living accommodation. At least with the pontoon sturdy and stable, the builders could arrive by motorboat for the day’s work.

Skipper was called upon to change the gas canister, which fortunately ran out only after supper had been cooked.

With a plan to anchor off Mariehamn that evening, in order to combine a free night with a social occasion, the tender was hauled from the sail locker so Mate could inflate it to give it a test run. Inevitably, a new puncture had materialised since its last airing around a year ago in Scotland, and Skipper’s best efforts at repair were not going to produce magically instant results. So in the afternoon we pottered back to Mariehamn East harbour, for a return supper invite from our lovely friends on Saltimbanque: fabulous proper Breton crêpes, even if they were washed down by local ‘cider’. It was great to catch up on our mutual wanderings, and swap tips for forthcoming anchorages.

Having made the most of our walk-ashore berth to catch up with laundry, we left the harbour once again on Saturday evening, to retreat to the anchorage that we’d used before, just down the channel. Sunday was mostly quiet, apart from the mother of all thunderstorms, that loomed menacingly towards us from the Western sky, and caught us square in its eye, with torrential rain and forked lightning forming a ring around us. This time, we were quick to disconnect all electronics, and stow the portable ones in our very own Faraday cage – otherwise known as the oven. Everything on a boat should have more than one use. We were glad to escape any further loss of instrumentation.

On Monday we headed back into Mariehamn, now half empty after the end of the Finnish holiday season, and were able to tuck inside the line of stern buoys to tie up alongside the outer pontoon – much more our style.

On the way into the harbour, we felt like we were looking into a mirror – just setting their anchor in the bay was a sister Allures 45: hull X24, just two before l’Escale, now with her second owners and renamed Duo of Hamburg. Another contender for the Alu Club, and a delight to meet and exchange experiences over a brief drink in our cockpit, followed by an equally brief ride on their ready-prepared tender to play ‘spot the differences’. She also has a red interior with American cherry woodwork, and a slightly darker red external livery.

After all this excitement, we watered the boat and stocked up the fridge, cleaned and baked until late.

Wednesday 1 August

Continuing our journey Northeast towards the open sea, we made the most of a steady F3 Easterly on the genoa to motorsail an alternative route from the one we’d followed on the way in to Stockholm. Still avoiding the main ferry tracks wherever possible, we picked up a somewhat garbled Mayday call on our VHF radio, from a British yacht that was reporting having run aground a little way ahead of us. We were not close enough to reach them any time soon, but maintained radio watch and soon heard the Swedish rescue service offering assistance. Later in the day the yacht appeared on our AIS monitor, and we tried to make radio contact to check they were okay. It seemed, however, that our radio was once again receiving but not transmitting, and Skipper spent a sticky hour at the chart table taking apart the connections once again, cleaning them up and reinstalling everything. Fortunately, this seemed to do the trick.

We anchored at the third attempt just South of the island of Gålgryte, in water a little more open than Mate prefers, but at least there was some welcome breeze.