Oslo-Soon
16:44 - Departure OMF harbour, after 3 days of hectic preparations.
The ships First Dog and captain arrived from Spain by plane on Sunday. With 2 big sacs and a huge dog cage and 37kg of dog - it was a challenge to walk the 500m from the train station to the harbour!.
We took the boat out to celebrate Midsummer Eve, just to discover that apparently a crow had been sitting on the wind vane and broken it of!. To the right is the gathering of boats in "Middags bukta" on the Midsummer Eve!
The next day we had to start searching for spare parts, but with good help from Belamarin, the parts were located and with assistance of good friends they were picked up, the captain was hoisted up in the mast, and before noon everything was in order.
With 27ºC in Oslo , the supplies were hand carried from the local store, stowed away, and as there were no wind at all, we motored to Soon.
Soon-Strömstad
The harbour in Soon is a wireless zone, and the captain spent quite some time setting up this web page so we weren't able to cast off before noon. The wind from the east, we were reaching out the last bit of the Oslo fjord, and tacked into Swedish waters.
This replica of a Colin Archer rescue boat passed us before we left Norwegian waters. His first rescue boat were built in 1892, and is still sailing!
The harbour in the City of Strömstad is surrounded by restaurants and discotheques, a bit of noise is inevitable, but there is a new guest harbour further away from the noise, by the entrance of the harbour
Strömstad-Gluppö
What a lazy crew! Didn't make it out of the harbour before noon today either. Had to do some shopping in the city before leaving.
Still sunny and warm, still easterly breeze, still reaching south towards Copenhagen - here Welkin is a doing good speed out the Koster fjord.
The wind increased during the day and despite the MET's promise of maximum 8m/s wind we had up to 15m/s before entering the sheltered waters of Gluppö, were we tied up to the bare rocks, with an anchor aft - the Scandinavian style!
Afterwards we could enjoy the view of the Swedish west coast archipelago from the cliff above the bay.
Gluppö-Utkjäften
Yet another day of nice sailing, at least we got off for an early start and could log more than 50 nautical miles. Approaching the natural harbour of Utkjäften, we noted that we would not be alone. But we were able to squeeze in between all the weekend sailors.
Utkjäften-Varberg
Today the weather changed to westerly winds, but still warm and sunny.
We got off to an early start, but the wind was very weak, so we motored the sheltered run trough the archipelago towards Gothenburg, were the wind picked up and we set sail and headed out to open waters.
Right: Sunset over the inner harbour
The Galtabäckship, is a reconstruction of a Viking ship found during an excavation close to the city. The work were done by a local idealistic organisation and were launched in 2007. Note the 'rolling stones' in the keelson, if the ship capsized, they would roll out of the boat to prevent the boat from sinking!
Varberg-Grötvik
The wind was changing today, it started off from E, then changed to SE, then to SW, then to NW and finally, in the afternoon to N, But we managed to sail throughout the day, except from the last hour, when the heat and no apparent wind made us start the engine.
The big excitement today, was the open sea rescue just outside the port of Grötvik. The rescue boat "R/S Grötvik" got a line over to a motorboat in distress, and managed to tow it safely to the harbour, through the high waves and strong wind... and finally pushed it to its berth.
There was only one free berth in the harbour, and we barely managed to get in. It was a tight fit, as one can see from the picture.
The harbour was quiet, far away from any cities, and surrounded with nice pastures to walk the ships First Dog.
Grötvik-Gilleleje
The Danish courtesy flag was hoisted under the starboard spreader this morning.
Still unseasonal warm weather and almost no wind today. We sailed for a couple of hours in the afternoon - but with the current in Kattegat, we were only doing 1.5 knots, so most of the day was for engine. Some whales were swimming around the boat, but it was too far away to get a decent picture. Most likely they were harbour porpoises.
Here is another collection: The local woman rowing club in Gillleleje got caught in a tight spot, but in the end they managed to get under way.
Gilleleje-Copenhagen
Despite no wind, we sailed for some hours today, because it is a sailing boat!
Didn't go very fast, and in the end we were under siege by some thousands of tiny flies, that gathered on every white surface on the boat, the sails included!
Then at last we could moor in Nyhavn in the Kings City - end of the first leg -
harbour day in Nyhavn
The deckhand left for Roskilde to day, so now it's only the First Dog and the Captain onboard. Did some shopping and had some cold beers at the pier, among all the other people who sought the chill of the waterfront in the heat.