Nov 20, 2015 | 2012, Cruising, Getting started |
The Inspiration becomes the Intention
Back in August of 2011, our plan was to buy a Najad or one of the other so-called “Orust boats” (built by yards on the island of Orust on the west coast of Sweden). Hallberg-Rassy, Malö, and Regina af Vindö were all on our short list. I knew these boats after my years as a sailboat owner in Stockholm, and they were known for being robust, classic, high-quality blue-water yachts.
The Orust Boat Show. Called “Öppna Varv” in swedish, the show takes place every August on the island of Orust.
Much to our dismay at the time, Najad went bankrupt just a week after we returned from our trip. What kind of support would there be for a brand that didn’t exist anymore? So we started looking at Hallberg-Rassy, Malö, and the other Orust boats and decided that the 45 to 54 foot size range would be a good choice for a live-aboard boat. We wanted to have enough space for permanent living and for friends and family to visit. We also had two large dogs. We couldn’t imagine having 6 people and two big dogs on a smaller boat than 45 feet.
Jacques inspecting a Hallberg-Rassy 53 at Vindö Marina on the west coast of Sweden. Little did we know in 2011 that we’d be here with our own boat in 2015.
Here’s our first “basic boat requirements list”:
- Robust, classic, heavy displacement style. We are going to live and voyage on this boat, not just spend weekends and holidays on it!
- Well-protected and deep centre-cockpit style, rather than the light-displacement, aft-cockpit, wide-beamed sun-bathing style boats popular in the Mediterranean.
- Modified (longer) fin keel. And, if possible, shoal draft. My old boat was a long-keeler that drew just 1m60. Why shoal draft? Because in the archipelagos of Sweden and Finland, where we will spend a great deal of time, a boat that draws 2 meters or more will not be able to come into certain anchorages or use certain fairways.
- Easy to handle for a couple of “a certain age”, and capable of being sailed single-handed.
- Cutter rig for more/easier “options” in sail handling
- Good interior layout for safety and comfort (lots of handholds, relatively narrow for boat length). We didn’t want a wide “party boat” where you’d be tossed around with nothing to hold onto during a storm.
- “Homey”. We would need to feel emotionally “at home” on this boat. For us, that meant a wooden interior and a bright, fresh feeling as opposed to the austere interiors found on many modern boats, especially the French and Italian ones.
- Well-equipped galley, with a good oven, microwave, refrigerator and freezer. I’d like as much drawer or basket storage space as possible. I used to always hate getting on my knees to search for things lost in the back of a lower cabinet or stored underneath the cabin sole.
- A reliable engine with a reasonable amount of horsepower (at least 2 for each foot). I know, I know, it’s a sailboat. But not every day is windy. We don’t want to be forced to stay at an anchorage or marina we don’t like simply because there’s no wind. Or be “stuck” if we need to stay out of a bad weather situation.
- Good sized diesel tanks to feed the engine, the generator and the heater. In the northern latitudes, such as the Lofoten coast of Norway, fuel stations may be few and far between.
- Three cabin – two heads design (so that friends or family visit, they are confortable) and a useful/comfortable navagation station.
Nov 16, 2015 | 2011, Cruising, Getting started |
The french call it “coup de foudre” — “lightning strike”.
This is the story of how we were suddenly struck with a life-changing urge: to buy a sailboat and live on it.
So what inspired us? What was the incredible catalyst for this new turn in our lives? To answer that, we need to go back to July of 2011.
Jacques and I decided to celebrate our 50th birthdays by doing an “epic” three-week motorcycle trip from Geneva, Switzerland, were we live, all the way to Stockholm, Sweden, where I used to live.
We spent the 4th evening of our trip in a beautiful harbour near Oscarshamn, on the east coast of Sweden. The view from our hotel window was that of the glistening Baltic Sea out to Blå Jungfrun, a little island known for its oddly rounded shape, and of a small marina.
View of the yacht marina just outside Oscarshamn, Sweden
View towards Blå Jungfru island off the Swedish east coast.
Remembering my old sailboat days, I said to Jacques, “you know, when you have a boat, you don’t need to pack your bags, make hotel reservations, or buy tickets. You just buy some groceries, top up the water tanks and then cast off.” After weeks of meticulously planning our routes and reserving various hotel rooms for this trip, I was really tired of planning and reserving, something you do need to do in Europe during the summer holidays.
Staring at the marina, Jacques then said, a bit pensively “and if you don’t like your neighbours or if you get tired of when you are, you just leave!”
Evening fishing in Stockholm in front of the Swedish Cruising Club offices
During the next two weeks in Sweden, mostly in Stockholm where I lived for 12 years, we were constantly bombarded by images of boats, marinas, islands, bright blue seas and sunny skies.
Boats docked on beautiful Strandvägen in Stockholm
View from our hotel room on Lidingö island just outside Stockholm
That Sweden was having one of its driest and warmest summers on record certainly helped cultivate the little seed of an idea: living a cruising life. What a dream — being able to have our morning cup of coffee and evening cup of tea at sea, on our own boat, every day.
The nautical life in Stockholm. One of the many boats that provide transportation among the thousands of islands in the archipelago.
View of the island of Skeppsholmen in Stockholm
After two weeks in Stockholm, we packed up and headed to the west coast of Sweden. I had chosen a hotel on the island of Tjörn, home to a famous regatta called “Tjörn Runt” (Around Tjörn).
View from our hotel room at Björholmens marina.
Our hotel was located at a marina (of course). As we visited the ports of Lysekil, Smögen, Marstrand, Skärhamn and Ellös, the longing within us grew stronger. We were continuously bombarded with images of the nautical life: the boats, the holiday and week-end sailors coming and going, the boat barbecues, and crews just enjoying the cruising life.
The marina at Skärhamn on Tjörn Island, Sweden
The Decision
The day before we were to leave the west coast, we visited the tiny port village of Henån, were the well-known Najad yachts were built until the end of 2011. As we walked around the marina, we came upon a used Najad 511 for sale. Jacques said, “this is what we should buy!” I think he said it half-jokingly, not sure of my reaction.
The boat that started it all – at the marina in Henån, where the Najad yachts were made.
We had a look at the sale sheet posted in front of the boat and walked around the deck and sat in the cockpit. As I peered down into the salon, I said, “we could seriously live on this boat.” Jacques totally agreed.
And so the inspiration became the intention.
Nov 7, 2015 | 2015, Cruising, Destinations |
Day 9: Kullavik to Ellös, Sweden
It was the first night of the cruise with no sailing, no wind, no thunder, and no swell. We all slept like logs.
I finally had access to Swedish breakfast food after yesterday’s supermarket run. As I giddily opened the jars of Swedish herring called Varbergs Drömsill and Fjällbaka Kräftgravadsill, the others just turned away, saying “ugh, how can you eat fish at breakfast?” I replied “you should try it. If you just knew how delicious it was!”
Joakim arrived after breakfast to join us for the morning’s test sail. He brought along his wife, Emma, and presented us with two of the anchorage/marina guides called Havneguiden (Norwegian for Harbour Guide). He and Emma wrote and photographed the Swedish guides called Hamnguiden number 8 and 9. We were thrilled and hugely grateful because they are superb guidebooks loaded with high-quality overhead photos and diagrams showing where underwater rocks and shallows are located. They also show the best anchoring places and the location of facilities such as recycling and trash containers, toilets, and access to fresh water.
We sadly left Kullavik marina (it’s a delightful place and we heartily recommend it) and set off for an island with a dock to let Jacques and Joakim off so that they could take photos of Freja.
Sailing out of Kullavik with Joakim at the helm.
One of the photos taken during the “photo session”.
After the photo session, we continued to sail up past the mouth of the Göta Älv, the river that flows out of Gothenburg, through a gorgeous archipelago landscape through to Marstrand.
Sailing past the island of Kalvsund, near Gothenburg.
Marstrand is known as the Cowes or Newport of Sweden. The Volvo Ocean Race had a leg end/beginning from here during the 2008-09 race and we saw the VO 70 Telefonica Blue go aground on an underwater rock just minutes after the start.
Sailing towards Marstrand
We sailed to Marstrand using the inner fairways instead of approaching from offshore. It’s so much more interesting to sail past one little seaside village after the other. Instead of just seeing water, sky and the coast and islands in the distance, you see children and dogs playing, people having coffee on their patios, kayakers paddling, and fisherman preparing nets or arranging their lobster pots. You can even smell the coffee and cinnamon buns as you pass yet another café in a narrow passage.
Kalvholmen – fishing huts painted in the typical Swedish red, called Faluröd, with white trim.
The easiest way to sail the inner passages in an archipelago is use the paper charts (in Sweden, the Båtsportkort) together with the plotter. The paper chart gives you a quick overview of the next few miles and you can keep the electronic chart zoomed in to your immediate position so you can see the underwater rocks or shallows coming up in the next mile.
I know there are sailors who say that paper charts are obsolete these days, but using both kinds of charts means you don’t have to zoom in and out all the time on your plotter. You could have two chart plotters of course, one with a raster chart zoomed out for the overview and one with vector chart zoomed in, like we saw on a Flemming motor yacht. But I’m still quite attached to my paper charts. Even if you don’t like to use them, they’re a back-up if you lose power to your electronics.
Entering the Albrechtssunds Canal on the way to Marstrand
We had actually never been to the island of Marstrand and I don’t have a good reason why. Perhaps it’s because when you visit from land, you have to leave your car/motorcycle/the bus on the Koön (Cow Island) side of the harbour and take the ferry over. We had imagined it being a long ferry ride (it isn’t). Anyway, it’s a shame that we’d skipped it, because it’s an awesome place with a real summer/yachting vibe.
Freja moored in Marstrand
We moored just in front of the Marstrands Wärdshus, and Mark snagged the last table on the sunny deck. We ate a delicious west-coast seafood lunch and had a fantastic view of all the boat traffic through the harbour. Joakim showed me “inner way” to get to Ellös on the charts which I’d brought with me to the restaurant.
Sailing through the Jungfruhålet passage
We wanted to get to Ellös by 17.00 so we said good-bye to Joakim and cast off our lines for the last part of our journey. We passed through some very narrow fairways that seemed only just wide enough for two boats to pass each other – something that one doesn’t see very often in the world. One passage, called Jungfruhålet, has a part that seemed only wide enough for us, with our almost 5 meters of beam, to pass through. I was grateful we didn’t have a boat coming through from the other direction!
Mollösund
We continued north past the the towns of Skärhamn and Mollösund, old fishing villages that have become mostly summer house towns for people in Gothenburg.
Another view of Mollösund. The windmill is still standing.
Sailing through Kyrkesund
We arrived at the Hallberg-Rassy harbour at about 17.00 and had just enough time to “check-in” with the boatshow organisers, and get our berth, name tags and other papers for the show. Tomorrow was going to be a long day as we had to thoroughly clean the boat, inside and out, to be presentable for the 3-day show. After our more than 1,000 mile trip from Southampton, we though we deserved a glass of Champagne. Skål for Freja and her crew for making it to Ellös in time!
The End of Our Cruise – Moored in Ellös
Nov 4, 2015 | 2015, Cruising, Destinations, Marina Reviews |
Day 6: Rendsburg to Stora Baeltet Denmark
The rain and thunder of the previous night was forgotten as the sun appeared in a clear blue sky on our 6th cruise day. We were disappointed at not being able to stay one more day in this charming town and marina. But we needed to be in Ellös, Sweden by Wednesday evening and it was now Sunday.
We arrived at the Kiel-Holtenau side of the canal at around 11.00 and after a short 30-minute stay at the waiting pontoon, we received the signal to proceed into the lock. This is the side on which you pay the transit fee (41 Euros for our 16 meter boat). The kiosk where you pay is a tiny market – it sells milk, bottled drinks, snacks and newspapers.
Finally in the Baltic Sea after exiting the Kiel Canal at Holtenau.
After exiting the lock at Holtenau, just north of Kiel, we were finally in the Baltic sea! We were now in the Kiel Fjord, famous for the Kieler Woche regattas, the largest annual sailing event in the world.
The first thing we needed to do after exiting the canal was to find the marina with the fuel station Axel told us about while we had dinner in Rendsburg. He said it was the least expensive one in the area. That’s important when you’re filling 800 litres of diesel! It’s the “Hafen Strande” in the town of Strande.
View towards Laboe on the eastern side of the Kiel Fjord.
Another view of Laboe, on the other side of the Kiel Fjord.
It was about 13.00 by the time we left the fuel station at Strande and turned northeast toward our route through Denmark. The plan was to sail towards Stora Baeltet (the Great Belt) between the islands of Fyn on the west and Sjaelland on the east. The wind was increasing from the east and we planned to find either an anchorage or a marina on the way with sufficient shelter.
A view of the Danish island of Langeland. Wind generators are everywhere in Denmark.
Using the book Cruising Guide to Germany and Denmark and the handy marina guides that came with our paper charts (NV Charts, Germany), we began be checking out anchorage possibilities. The islands close to our route however, were either too low to provide shelter from the wind (which was now gusting to 30 knots) or had shallow water — too shallow for our draft of 1.8 meters. We continued up through the fairway towards the bridge over the Great Belt (Storebaeltsbroen), the 18-km long bridge between Fyn and Sjaelland, thinking that we’d surely find a suitable marina or an anchorage on the way.
By 19.00, we still hadn’t found a harbour, so we decided to just keep going through the night until we arrived at the island of Anholt the next day. Anholt is a great jumping off point to sail east to the Swedish coast.
At 22.00 we started our 4-hour shifts — first Mark and Liz, then Jacques and I. The night passed rather uneventfully with the exception of the passage under the bridge, which was lit like a Christmas tree. It was truly a fantastic site from the water. By 6.00, the wind had increased slightly – we were now getting gusts of 35 knots from the east, but we had been protected from any heavy swell by the peninsula of Sjaellands Odde just east of us. By the time Mark and Liz were up for the morning watches we were getting waves of 3-4 meters.
Day 7: Stora Baeltet to Bønnerup, Denmark
Jacques and I were now off-watch and decided to try to get a couple of hours of sleep. After about an hour, I was awakened by the feeling we were changing direction. We had been on a northerly course and with winds from the east, I had been sleeping up against the lee cloth, when suddenly I rolled fully onto the mattress. We had tacked and seemed to now be on a broad reach towards the west.
Mark and Liz had decided that it would be a prudent idea to take shelter at Grenå as the winds were now gusting to 40 knots but forecast to drop off that afternoon. After a quick check in the harbour guide, we decided to go for the marina in Grenå. The ferry/fishing port was our back-up choice if the marina entrance was too difficult to enter (the wind and waves were going right into the marina entrance). A few hours rest in the harbour would give us a chance to have a good meal and a rest before continuing that afternoon.
We attempted to get into the marina but saw from a distance of around 500 meters that it would have been too dangerous. The 3-meter high waves were crashing violently against the outer marina wall. We entered easily as the entrance faces north instead of east. The possibilities for tying up were limited as we hadn’t yet prepared a fender board and the harbour walls are definitely not made for pleasure boats with gelcoat hulls. We finally agreed that the best idea was to snuggle up against a huge dredging vessel. It was so tall, its bulk had created a spot out of the wind and we were able to raft up relatively easily.
We then kept one-hour watches as we were afraid of chafe on the mooring lines. We had almost a lot of swell in the harbour and the banged-up, rusty steel dredger was not exactly mooring line-friendly. I was happy we had bought two enormous round fenders – they were exactly what we needed here!
After a few hours rest and a hot meal, we set out for the Bønnerup marina/fishing harbour on the north side of the peninsula. Its entrance faces north, so Bønnerup, a two-hour sail from Grenå, would provide us with decent shelter throughout the night. The entrance to Bønnerup marina is flanked by seven enormous wind generators. They certainly were providing a return on investment with the wind we were getting!
Bønnerup Fishing Harbour (Denmark)
We phoned the harbour master as we approached. There were no more berths in the marina! Everyone was waiting for the wind to decrease, and even the fishing boats were not going out. We were directed to the fishing boat side of the harbour. Once again, we were happy to have those huge balloon fenders to protect our gelcoat from the rusty steel pontoon where the boat delivered their catch!
Freja tied up to the fishing boat quay in Bønnerup.
One good thing about being on the fish-delivery quay, we were completely sheltered from the wind behind the fish hall – where the fish is deposited, smoked, packed and sold. We had dinner in the cockpit whereas the boat owners in the marina, in the direct path of the wind, stayed below.
Freja in front of the fish hall in Bønnerup Harbour.
Day 8: Bønnerup, Denmark to Kullavik, Sweden
By the next morning, the wind was beginning to decrease in strength and down to around 25 knots from the southeast. We got an early start – we wanted to arrive to Kullavik, Sweden by late afternoon.
Wet and windy morning in Denmark.
Why Kullavik? Because Mark had been in contact with a swedish journalist who wanted to test sail the boat. The journalist, Joakim, offered us a berth in his home marina, Kullavik, south of Gothenburg.
The weather was windy but fabulously sunny as a strong high pressure system had moved in over Sweden. We were all impressed by the beauty of the skerries around Vrångö as we approached the coast. The sailing was getting more and more comfortable as the swell decreased. I was so happy to be back in Sweden!
Sailing towards the west coast of Sweden
Passing the skerries south of Vrångö, Sweden.
We arrived at the charming marina of Kullavik just after 16.00. Joakim met us at the marina entrance and directed us to a mooring which was generously offered to us for free. And then Joakim lent us his car so that we could visit the local supermarket! Generosity abounds here!
Approaching Kullavik. The red building is the boat club sauna.
I stocked up on some of my favourite Swedish food and drink: Ramlösa Citrus mineral water, Skagenröra (a prawn dish) Västerbotton cheese and Kalix löjrom (Bleak roe or caviar from the Bothnian Bay in the Baltic). Yum!
After giving Freja a nice fresh-water rinse – she hadn’t been cleaned off since she left Southampton – we prepared for dinner. We had invited Joakim to celebrate our arrival in Sweden and opened a bottle of chardonnay to drink with the appetisers, and a bottle of Merlot to drink with dinner – both from our vineyard. Skål!
Freja at Kullavik Marina, Sweden
