|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
Cruising with S/Y HULDA 2007-2008We plan for a one year sailing trip with our 32 fot yacht HULDA. We are Claes and Jaja (Margareta) Tornberg, two happy sailors, age 62 and 61, living just outside Stockholm, who have sailed since we were young and been dreaming about a long trip for many years. It´s time now! After having managed to take a pause in our jobs and (hopefully) settle all other potential obstacles for the trip we intend to leave the Stockholm archipelago beginning of June 2007 and head for the atlantic. This homepage is primarily intended for the family contact but we invite anybody interested in following our adventure to visit our site. We will write letters now and then and publish some pictures. Most letters will be in swedish but some in english as well. If you are interested in our boat we present some data and pictures under S/Y HULDA. If anybody would wish to contact us we have the relevant channels here. Allen unseren lieben Freunden aus Österreich und Deutschland bitten wir um Verständnis, dass unsere Berichte zukünftig nur auf English geschrieben werden. We have entered our route in Google Earth. Use the zoom slide on the left side in the map to get the view you want. Bring the slide down a lot to start with and then choose a suitable scale. Vlieland - Tynningö (home) We are at home now!!! Yesterday we were greeted by children and grandchildren at our house in the Stockholm archipelago. Feelings were hard to control!! The last trip from Vlieland via the Kiel canal and up along the swedish coast was troublefree and the final week was enjoyed in almost Caribbean temperatures (at least in the air!) in Sweden. Our adventure has come to an end after a wonderful year with many memories and a lot of new friends. We also have had much joy with this homepage and we understand that lots of people have followed our trip. Thank you for your interest and also for the positive feedback we have got from many of you. Maybe we have inspired somebody to make a similar trip. We would be happy if that is the case since we are convinced you will be rewarded with fantastic experiences, like we have been. This homepage will be closed in a near future and so will also our email adress, today often used for lots of spam. Please send us an email if you want and don´t have our other email adress. We will not publish it here in order to avoid future spam. Some final pictures in Resebrev as usual. HULDA out!
Brest - Vlieland, Holland We are just now safely tied up in the popular Vlieland marina in northern Holland waiting for a force 7 wind, now singing in the rigs around us, to cease. After 3 days in Brest we left for northern Brittany and nightsailed to Treguier, a very nice little town accessable 24 hours without tidal restrictions. We really enjoyed visiting Brittany and experience the good food and the friendly people there. Some day we will return to Brittany! After a one day stop on Guernsey we passed the Alderney Race at high speed with the strong tidal current and arrived in Cherbourg. With a rental car we visited some of the historical D-day scenes along the Normandie coastline. If EU can prevent anything like what we had reviewed for us during the visits to happen again most of the bureaucracy in Brussels can be forgiven. Dieppe was our next harbour. A nice little town. Since then we have daysailed up along the French, Belgian and Dutch coast. Our plan is to proceed to the Baltic via the Kiel Canal. Hopefully we will be at home by 1st of August. Pictures as usual in Resebrev.
Azores - Brest, France We have crossed the ocean and landed on mainland Europe! On the 11th of June we saw land (Ile D´Ouessant) first time in 10 days and have rested in Brest since then. Although this part of the crossing (1190 Nm) only was about half of the previous it felt longer, probably due to the cold weather as compared to what we have had for the last 10 months. We stayed in the Azores for 12 days and we enjoyed every minute of it. The Azores is one of the highlights of our trip. The nature is beautiful and the people are very friendly and helpful. We had the opportunity to visit 4 of the islands in the group. See pictures in Resebrev. On the 1st of June we departed from Terceira and soon we were hit by chilly wind. Winter clothing was used during cold night watches. In NE force 6 wind we crossed the traffic lane outside Ile D´Ouessant. The AIS radar was particularly valuable during this passage in identifying potential collision hazards. We felt like a frog leaping over a busy highway. After Brest we continue north along the french coast. A visit to the channel islands is in our plan. St. Martin - The Atlantic - Horta, Azores It certainly is a very special feeling to see land appearing in front of you after a long time at sea. We had this feeling of joy and relaxation the 17th of May when Pico, the 2351 m high volcano on the Azores came out of the mist when we had 50 miles left to sail. This happened after 19 days at sea and 2250 miles from St. Martin. We left St. Martin (Sint Maarten) the 28th of April and headed north in the still persisting easterly trade wind. After 5 days we reached calms and motored for 35 hours until a chilly north wind brought us towards east. We then practically followed the rhumb line to Horta. We had all sorts of weather (except storm) during the passage. In gales we used our storm sails which made life on board relatively comfortable although the boat was rocking heavily and we sometimes wished we had more than 2 hands. Most of the times though we enjoyed smooth sailing and the passage will be remembered as a positive experience. On the 18th of May we arrived at Horta after 2300 miles. Horta is an interesting place. Not only because of all the artwork painted on the concrete walls around the harbour by previous passage makers but also because it is a meeting place for cruisers arriving from different parts of the world. We plan to stay here a few days and then make a stop at Terceira, another island in the Azores before we start next leg to Brest in France. The distance to Brest is about 1200 miles, "only" half of that we just made. Pictures in Resebrev.
Antigua - St Martin For the first time in 4 months we had no wind
one day this week! A strange feeling after so long time with strong
winds gusting through the rig. After some interesting days in the historical area of Nelson Dockyard on Antigua we sailed on to the flat, sandy Barbuda island, famous for its large colony of frigate birds. This is the worlds largest gathering of these large (1,8 m span!) flying artists. A memorable visit. 62 miles west of Barbuda is St Barthelemy, a former swedish colony which still keep some memories from this time in the names of the streets and the name of the capital (Gustavia after our king Gustav III). The island has developed into a caribbean version of St Tropez with superyachts in the harbour and jet-setters crowding the main streets fashion boutiques. We didn´t quite fit in there so we only stayed for a short while and sailed on to the very different volcano island of Saba. Saba is practically round and offers little
shelter from the atlantic waves. We couldn´t stay and had, after a short
snorkeling trip, to continue to St Martin where we now are anchored. We are now anchored in the Simpson Bay Lagoon in St Martin (Sint Maarten) preparing for the crossing. The weather forcast is studied every day to see when conditions may give favourable winds for at least the first 5 days. The crossing to the Azores will probably take 3-4 weeks. Pictures in Resebrev.
St. Lucia - Antigua The wind has turned more easterly. Our new headsail is in place and we have been able to sail north with some slack in our sheets . What a delight! We left Rodney Bay the 13th when the new sail had arrived from Barbados (Doyles) and sailed to St Anne on Martinique. What a difference to come to a french island! Clean streets, nice and friendly people (although we didn´t always understand eachother) , plenty of good food in the shops. We enjoyed it! We tried to be polite and speak french with them and they were often polite and answered in english so the conversations were sometimes slow but we got along. Our batteries were flat at one time and we got worried about how to manage our electricity during the remaining trip. New batteries here would not fit into our compartment (too high). We decided to invest in more solar panels and made (we thought) a bargain with a used one in Le Marin. On board we found out that the panel was useless. An expensive piece of scrap! We could buy a new one in Fort de France which now makes us happy (especially Claes who can have cold beer again). We stayed some time in St Pierre (north Martinique) before sailing on to Prince Rupert Bay on north Dominica. A fascinating island, Dominica, with wild nature and gorgeous sceneries but poor economy which was obvious from looking at the roads and the villages. During a guided tour around the northern half of the island we could enjoy beautiful views and some interesting examples of old carib culture. The trip ended at Syndicate Trail where a few wild green parrots, the national bird of Dominica, appeared in the treetops. We were lucky to see these shy birds. On the way to the Saintes, a group of french islands belonging to Guadeloupe, we passed the ground where the famous naval battle took place 1782 between admiral Rodneys british fleet and the french fleet. Rodney destroyed the french fleet and the british could take control of a large part of the carribean. Scenes, models, tactics etc from this battle can be studied in Fort Napoleon on Terre d´en Haut, the main island of the Saintes. To our next anchorage in Deshaies on NW
Guadeloupe we could once again sail with loose sheets and enjoy
carribean sailing at its best. On the 27th we left Deshaies for English Harbour on Antigua. We stay a few days on this historical place and enjoy a superb anchorage and nice yachts around us. Pictures in Resebrev.
Bequia - St. Lucia While we are waiting for our new genoa to be
delivered to St. Lucia 10th of March we have been sailing down to the
Grenadines once more and spent some days at Petit St. Vincent (PSV) and
also in the Tobago Cays. When returning into Admiralty Bay we had some engine problem so we had to sail up to the anchorage between other yachts. A professional photografer caught our fight against the wind and we got a nice picture of HULDA in action. We were totally unaware of his presence. After a couple of days more on Bequia we eventually got favourable wind to enable reaching St. Lucia in one tack. We passed St. Vincent in the morning and refrained from stopping there. That island has received a bad crime reputation lately. On approaching St. Lucia we passed the two spectacular Piton peaks, raising with almost vertical sides out of the water up to 760 and 780 meters above sealevel. Later we took a trip by car together with two german friends to the area and got fabulous views of the peaks from inland. After clearing in to St. Lucia, an independant state within the British commonwealth, at Marigot Bay we continued north to Rodney Bay. This metropole for sailors in the Caribbean is visited by most sailors on their way up or down the island chain. We therefore meet old friends from previous harbours here and have a lot of fun with them. We stay here until the new genoa is delivered and then we proceed up north to Martinique as our next stop. Pictures in Resebrev as usual.
The Grenadines The Grenadines is a windy place! We have had a relatively strong wind in our nose most of the time when heading NE along the island chain from Grenada up to Bequia where we are right now. We left Grenada on the 27th of January and sailed up along the leeward coast, passing the underwater volcano north of Grenada on the windward side (that is an area you don´t want to cross over!) and reached Tyrrel Bay on Carriacou as our first anchorage in the Grenadines. Each of the islands has only 1 or 2 suitable anchorages on the leeward side of the island and that is where you may find friends from previous harbours/anchorages. Which we did. It is great fun to meet other fellow sailors and ventilate experiences from places visited. We left Carriacou on the 29th just after having received the wonderful message from our son that we are grandparents again! Malte was born just a few hours before. This was celebrated in Chatham Bay on Union Island with lobster and champagne in the cockpit! Chatham Bay was a very nice anchorage with
pelicans diving for fish and a turtle saying hello to us when we
arrived. We went on to Clifton (the main town on Union
and a good anchorage) and from there on to Tobago Cays, a must if you
are in the area! On the following day tacking northward, our genoa 2 was torn once again! This time in the fabric (not a seam as last time) so we regard this sail as scrap now. The sun has broken down the strength of the dacron cloth and we have to get a new sail. We have ordered one here from Bequia which will be delivered to us in St Lucia the 7th of March. Until then we must use our stormjub when we continue north. The larger genoa 1 is too large in the current wind situation. We will stay some time here in Admiralty Bay on Bequia. A nice place and well protected also from NE swell (but not from wind!) Our next stop will most probably be St. Lucia. We don´t plan to stop at St. Vincent. There has been some unpleasant violence including robbery on yachts in some of the harbours there recently, so we like many other sailors avoid St. Vincent. Pictures in Resebrev.
Grenada We have now spent 2 weeks on Grenada with our daughter and granddaughter having a lot of fun together. On a tour of the island the nick name "spice island" was clearly demonstrated since we experienced a lot of different spices/smells as we travelled through the mountainous and green landscape with a knowledgable guide. Rests of the furious hurricane Ivan year 2004 could be seen on the new shining roofs on almost all houses. Nutmeg production, being the most important spice on the island was seriously affected by Ivan. 90 % of the production was eliminated and it will take decades before the island has recovered on this important source of income. Our daughter and granddaughter leave us today and soon we will continue our sailing trip north to the Grenadines. Pictures as usual in Resebrev.
Tobago - Trinidad - Grenada We celebrated christmas on Tobago in Man-of-War Bay. An unusual christmas but we surprised each other with some traditional christmas items we use to have at home and which each of us had brought without telling the other. Our genoa 2 that was torn during the crossing was repaired by ourselves since none of the 4 sailmakers we contacted by email ever responded to our mails. We think however we have made it strong and hope it will stand up to the winds until we are back home. One morning we went fishing with a local fisherman. Kingfishing! After 1,5 hours trolling at 15 knots in the heavy sea outside Tobago we caught a 15 kg kingfish and succeeded to get it on board without being bitten by it. Part of the fish gave us some delicious meals. On 27th we sailed down to Trinidad, Chaguaramas to celebrate new year and have some work done on HULDA. At 12 pm on new years eve the firework in Chaguaramas started. Not the traditional colourful show but a lot of red emergency parachute rockets were launched (forbidden to launch except in emergency of course). It was interesting to study their behaviour. Some stayed up long in the air as expected but quite a few fell rapidly into the water raising serious concern about the reliability of these rockets in a sharp situation. Hopefully the failing rockets had expired long ago. HULDA was put on the hard for a few days and was given a new antifouling paint and a new anode.We had the time to do this and the facilities at Chaguaramas are excellent for yacht maintenance. We also took the opportunity to see some of Trinidad´s nature. At Asa Wright Nature Reserve we could study some colourful birds, unknown to us and although we were scared when we suddenly during the walk on the trail encountered the highly poisonous Fer-de-Lance snake we highly recommend a visit to this place. Later we witnessed large groups of Scarlet Ibis birds (the national bird of Trinidad) returning to their nests in the Caroni Bird Sanctuary in the evening after feeding on shellfish during the day. The shellfish eventually make the originally white birds turn red after a few years. It was a marvellous scenery to watch thousands of the colourful large birds circling abouve our heads. The crime rate in Trinidad is very high (395 murders 2007 and a lot of robbery!) and we only really felt safe in the security areas around the marinas. Consequently it was with a feeling of relief that we set sail for Grenada on the 7th of January and arrived in Prickly Bay the following morning after a very pleasant night sailing. We plan to stay here for two weeks and enjoy the company of our daughter and granddaughter and see what "the spice island" has to offer before we continue north. Pictures: see Resebrev. Previous Swedish resebrev from 2007 are now in Resebrev 2007. Cap Verde - The Atlantic crossing - Tobago We have sailed across the atlantic now! With relatively strong winds (force 6 and at times force 7) from ENE we made the 2200 miles with an average of 5,8 knots. Praia, the capital of Cap Verde was covered by a smog of brown dust (Sahara sand) when we left civilisation the 4th of December for 2,5 weeks all by ourselves. We used main sail with 2nd reef and genoa 2 with jib stick, both sails secured with preventer. The jib stick was used both when running downwind (most of the time) and when reaching. This gave us good speed and stable conditions when HULDA rolled in the high sea. However, with 600 miles left, our genoa was torn halfway up the leech so we had to furl it leaving just a small triangle for the remaining miles. What would we have done without our marvelous Sailomat selfsteering gear? It kept the course in the rough see regardless of windforce or direction and made it possible for one of us to read, listen to good music, prepare food, think great thoughts about the meaning of life (!) while the second half of the crew was snoring in the berth. In the mornings we could often count numerous flying fishes having landed on the deck in the night. One fish even flew into the cabin just missing Claes head by a few centimeters and landing on the floor at the foot of the mast. They come at high speed and you can often hear when they smash into the side of the hull. All together we saw 4 ships during the trip. No
other sailing boats or anything else except birds and flying fishes. Cooking is a real challenge on board a rocking boat. During the first week we had fresh food and some premade dishes kept in the small refridgerator. Then we must start to dig into the storage of canned food, which is not bad at all today. By adding some spices, garlic, fonds etc the cook served delicious food on board. After just a few days the bread started to look like something else than bread and it was donated to the sharks. We then made bread cakes in the frying pan from premix pizza flour. Much appreciated. We had bananas, grapefruits and apples for 12 days. Some other fruits were less resistant to "aging" and were finally given to the sharks as well. We used just a fraction of the water we carried. We will be more generous in spending fresh water on our next long passage. The 20th of December we finally saw land and
could throw the anchor. We plan to spend the christmas in Tobago and
then sail down to Trinidad for new year. Pictures: see Resebrev
La Gomera-Cap Verde 600 miles south of the Canaries and about 200 more before we would reach Cap Verde we both suddenly in the dark night felt the smell of something burning, possibly cable insulation! Our worries calmed somewhat when we at least concluded there was no open fire onboard! Eventually we found out that our car-radio had a short circuit after some corrosion inside. The two year old radio is now history. We can live without the local radio programs but the loss of the CD player is worse. However, we still have our MP3 players to comfort us during the night watches. We were ready to leave La Gomera 15/11. However, after a final check of the weather forecast (grib files for the next 7 days) we realized we would have to face strong SW winds for some days so we stayed in San Sebastian. During the next 6 days we had a fantastic time together with outher "yachties" in the harbour and almost regretted we had to leave when the wind changed to our advantage. After leaving in W-wind for one day we
experienced at times a hilarious sailing in N-NE force 6-7 winds which
brought us the 800 miles to Sal (Palmeira) in less than 6 days. Only three official ports can be used to clear
in and out of the country, Mindelo (NW), Palmeira (NE) and Praia (S). We certainly are very happy we took this opportunity to visit the Cap Verde islands. In Praia we intend to fill up with some fresh food and some more water before we leave for Tobago, probably on the 5/12. Pictures: see resebrev!
La Palma - La Gomera (Canary Islands) We have started to run hotels! 12 hotels in
fact. After Tenerife where we spent 9 fantastic days we sailed on to La Palma, the NW-most island. In Santa Cruz (it´s confusing with Santa Cruz both on Tenerife and La Palma) we stayed in the modernized marina at a pontoon (a luxury with electricity and tap water that soon will be history) for 8 days and explored the island. This youngest volcanic island showed spectacular sceneries with both old and new (1949 and 1971) volcanic landscapes. The high altitude of the island (2400 m) make it fertile and there are comparatively much forests in some areas. La Gomera, our next stop is also very fertile above 1000m and present a different but still very exciting scenery. Lots of deep valleys and steep cliffs. Challenging driving with the rental car. We have walked quite a lot on the islands, a nice and healthy way of exploring them. Now in San Sebastian on La Gomera we make our final preparations for the crossing. We have filled the stores: 150l diesel, 300l water, propane, food in cans for 50 days(!) and some fresh vegetables and fruit. Tomorrow we leave for Cap Verde (will take about a week to reach)where we plan to stay until beginning of December when we cross to Tobago. Some pictures in resebrev as usual.
Lanzarote - Tenerife We had our first rain in over 2 months this week! A refreshing moment for Claes, less appreciated by Jaja. We stayed on Lanzarote for 10 days waiting for
the parcel with glasses for Claes. Post deliveries to the Canaries are
obviously slow. Even some locals were surprised we got the parcel so
soon! A nice sail along the east coast of Fuerteventura brought us to Morro Jable at the south end of the island. In the harbour we were hit by a strong wind rolling down from the high volcanos nearby. This wind continued for three days and when we left for Gran Canaria HULDA was decorated with brown volvanic dust. The marina in Las Palmas on Gran Canaria refused to take other boats than those belonging to the upcoming ARC rally although they had free space on the pontoons. We were forced to anchor in the bay outside the marina. The ARC rally starts 25th of november so Las Palmas is closed for other yachts over one month before the rally! We stayed a few days in the bay and visited the island by dinghy. Santa Cruz on Tenerife, our next stop and were
we still are, is a good place for yachts preparing for an atlantic
crossing. Except the fact that Tenerife is a wonderful island with
gorgeous scenery, they also have good facilities for yacht maintenance
and provisioning. Our next stop will be Santa Cruz on La Palma, the NW-most island in the archipelago. We also plan to visit La Gomera and possibly El Hierro before we take of for the atlantic crossing some time in mid november. Pictures: see resebrev!
Porto Santo - Lanzarote We have now left the small group of Swedes who so far never was on the Canary Islands. We are there now! In Marina Rubicon on Lanzarote. After 6 days on lovely, nontouristic Porto Santo with its long sandy beach, we sailed to the Quinta do Lorde marina on the northeast tip of Madeira. During this passage we had our first sight of a whale. Unfortunately very short but still fascinating. Madeira with its mountainous countryside can
offer hilarious walking on the levadas. We experienced that. The 16 km
walk on the Caldeirao levada was sometimes almost too exciting but
remains as a fascinating memory from this beatiful island. We set the course to Isla La Graciosa, just north of Lanzarote. This little island is still unspoilt from tourism and we could enjoy some solitude and swimming in the bay at Playa Francesa on the south coast of the island with the steep hills of Lanzarote close by and also a walk in the desertlike landscape to the little village of Caleta del Sebo. A days sailing along the east coast of Lanzarote brought us to the modern Marina Rubicon complex close to Playa Blanca on the SW tip of the island.We have to stay here for a while to have the genoa 1 repaired and also wait for the delivery of a new pair of glasses to Claes. He broke one in Portugal and ordered a new set to Rubicon but they say parcel delivery to the Canaries may take long. We will probably get to know Lanzarote rather well before continuing to the other islands. Some pictures as usual in resebrev.
Portugal - Porto Santo (Madeira) We had our greatest scenic experience so far a few days ago when we approached the island of Porto Santo in the Madeira group after 4 days at sea from Portugal. A large group of dolphins greeted us with a hilarious diving show around the bow of HULDA. Some jumped high above the surface and turned in the air before landing with a big splash, others jumped in perfectly coordinated groupes of 2 or 3 at a time. It was fantastic to see and it went on for an hour. They must have been very happy to see HULDA coming to Porto Santo and we were extremely happy to see them. Claes refrained from singing for them this time in order not to risk the show. We left mainland Europe at Cascais (close to Lisbon) after nearly 2 weeks sailing (very little, no wind) or motoring (very much) down the coast of Portugal after leaving lovely Baiona in Galicia. Portugal was less scenic than Galicia but the people were very friendly and easier to communicate with. And their restaurants served excellent fish. We took a daytrip to Lisbon from Cascais by train and returned with a lot of impressions and nice pictures from the historic city. Fully equipped we left Cascais the 17th for Porto Santo, the longest nonstop trip so far. In light, favourable winds we could sail the whole distance, 550 nautical miles without any trouble and as mentioned before we got this fantastic finish before reaching the Porto Santo harbour in the sunset. We plan to stay a few days on this beautiful, not so touristic island before proceeding to mainland Madeira. As usual you can find some pictures in resebrev. Galicia, Spain We have spent almost two weeks now in the nice spanish province of Galicia. It has been a big change compared to the previous weeks in England. Warm (hot!), sunshine, no rain, good seafood and a lovely, hilly countryside with interesting fishing villages in the many bays (Rias) where we could have spent a lot more time. After a few days in Camarinas we sailed pass Cap Finisterre and anchored in a nice bay. The following day we were at times escorted by dolphins further south to Ribeira, a genuine spanish fishing town. We also payed a visit to the holy city of Santiago de Compostela and later anchored by the spectacular village of Combarro in Ria de Pontevedra. Combarro has an old part built in granite with a large number of strange tombs on pillars. We are still curious about the story behind these "pillartombs". It is not so easy to communicate with the local spanish people. Our language knowledge doesn´t seem to coincide so often. After a short visit to Islas Cies we now stay in Baiona at the south end of Ria de Vigo just north of Portugal. We will leave Spain tomorrow for Portugal and new experiencies. There are some pictures from Galicia in resebrev.
Falmouth - Biscay - Galicia, Spain We are in Spain now! After 3,5 days at sea in for times relatively tough tailwind (force 8) we arrived in Camarinas just north of Cap Finisterre the 22nd of August. We waited for about a week in Falmouth for
favourable winds and studied GRIB-files (weatherinformation available on
the internet and via satellite phone) every day until we finally saw a
period of more than 4 days with winds from NW-NE which was what we
wanted. Shortly before the galicean coast we were welcomed by a group of dolphins playing with HULDA for a while, a very nice welcome to Spain. Claes wanted to contribute to the show by singing a loud tune for the dolphins, but they soon disappeared. They must have a limited sence for good music, the dolphins! We have stayed a few days in Camarinas now and plan to proceed down along the spanish and portugies coastline before crossing over to Madeira. For pictures, please look in resebrev.
Southampton - Falmouth We returned to Sweden the 24th of July for almost two weeks, the reason being the funeral of Jajas father. It felt a bit strange to come back home almost as a visitor since we cut off our everyday life at home when we sailed away beginning of June. Our children and grandchildren were happy to see us again and we were extremely happy to see them for a short while. On the 6th of August we returned to Southampton and continued our adventure the day after by sailing out over the Solent, passing the Isle of Wight with the spectacular Needles cliffs at it´s western tip. We have now had some nice sailing along the beautiful south coast of England. One exciting moment was the passage around the Bill of Portland where tidal currents from different directions combine to a violent "race". We followed instructions from the pilot book and passed inside without running into any problems. Currently we are in the Falmouth harbour, a
centre for racing sailors as well as for cruising sailors like us. Our
plan is now to cross the bay of Biscay to La Coruna in Spain but the
weather situation is such that we´d better stay in the harbour for a few
days and let the strong winds calm down and change direction. In the
meantime we enjoy the life onboard with good food, good literature and
good humour.
Den Helder - Southampton A persisting SW wind convinced us to take the inner route in Holland instead of going south on the North Sea. The inner route means leaving the tidal water and sail on shallow Ijsselmeer and Markermeer. We enjoyed a nice sailing south to Muiden close to Amsterdam and stayed there for two days waiting for better weather and experiencing some Dutch life. We passed Amsterdam and went back out in the North Sea at Ijmuiden and headed against the wind south to Scheveningen. By staying in Holland earlier we managed to avoid a storm hitting the North Sea cost two days before. The wind is not kind to us. Our small bikes give us a lot of fun and also some valuable exercise. They took us to Den Haag from Scheveningen. Having studied the potential harbours along the coast, the wind and weather forecasts and the tidal currents we decided to make it to England without any stop from Scheveningen so after a long overnight sailing (and partly motorsailing) through the heavy traffic areas outside Europort and Schelde we finally reached Dover after 30 hours at sea. The circulation pump for internal cooling water on the engine showed a minor leakage at the routine inspection after the long trip. Volvo-Penta-service in Dover ordered a spare pump and with overnight delivery the new pump was installed the next day on the warranty. Splendid service! The west to south-westerly wind don´t give up! We have to fight this together with strong tidal currents in the English Channel to come further west. The funeral of Jaja´s father will be on 3rd of August so we have decided to travel back to Sweden from England the 24th of July. After Dover we made stops in Eastbourne, Brighton and Shoreham before reaching Southampton were we have found a nice Marina outside the city. A one day trip to Isle of Wight with the high speed ferry gave us the opportunity to see the sailing metro pole of Cowes and also get some valuable exercise with our bikes. We will leave HULDA in Southampton for a few days and return to nice sunny weather and pleasant north-easterly winds the 6th of August! For pictures, please take a look in resebrev.
Kiel - Den Helder We left Kiel and the "windjammer parade" for the
Nord-Ostsee canal and the square sails of the windjammers were replaced
by the square containers on huge carriers in a never ending "container
parade". We decided to go to Hamburg instead of taking
the common route to Cuxhafen, one reason being that our control lever
mechanism for the engine was showing signs of fatigue and in Hamburg we
could get the opportunity to replace it with a brand new Volvo-Penta
unit. A second reason for visiting Hamburg was the chance for us to see
a city which was practically unknown to us. We left Hamburg at high tide 5 o´clock in the morning and raced down the Elbe with the current to Glückstadt where we stopped for a while. Strong winds and tide prevented us from leaving until the day after when we started our long trip in favourable wind aiming for Den Helder in Holland. However after about one day the wind shifted to SW (right on the nose) and increased to giver us a tough cruise in the narrow area between the Terschelling-German Bight trafic separation zone and the Friesean islands. We were very happy to enjoy the shelter of the Den Helder harbour after 42 hours and 256 miles at sea. When opening our mobile phone after arrival we got the message that Jajas 93 year old father had passed away the day before. A sad but expected message. We ended the day with candle light in a sorrow mood. We will start planning a trip back to Sweden some time for the funeral. For pictures please take a look in resebrev.
The Baltic behind us. We have now crossed the Baltic Sea and will soon
leave the "easy" homewaters for the more challenging tidal water in the
North Sea which will add a new dimension to sailing and navigation. The
Baltic has no tidal variation.
We had difficulties finding a place in the Kiel harbour when we arrived the 21st. The morning after we found out the reason: "Kieler Woche". Big traditional celebrations with about 100 windjammers parading in front of us and a lots of activities in the city which we were unaware of before arrival.
We stay here in Kiel for a while before entering the Kiel Canal towards the North Sea. We have more pictures in resebrev. We have spent a few wonderful days in the
Stockholm archipelago and enjoyed the solitude on the islands before the
usual summer invasion starts later in June.
We are ready for departure now! Yesterday we had
our farewellparty with the family.
2005-05-26
Last week we had to dismantle the engine and change rubber supports on the almost new Volvo-Penta D1-30 engine! The engine was installed last year with a new type of enginemounts that was obviously not suitable for this engine. Without getting any support from Volvo-Penta we installed the traditional (Metalastic) supports instead and the motor is running with less vibrations now especially when idling. An unexpected incident in our preparation work. However, we are glad we could solve the problem before the start of our journey. We show some recent pictures under fotoalbum - förberedelser and resebrev. |
