Sailing ASTREA; A Summer in Scandinavia; Episode 4: In the archipelago of Gothenburg and Norway
So, on the way from Gothenburg to Marstrand. With a new crew. Peter, how are we doing? Perfectly. It couldn't be nicer. 5 knots of speed and about 9 knots of wind. Yes, super. And sunshine! This tanker is lying in the roadstead ...
... and we had to get out of its way. Now we're heading up through a narrow fairway. The whole armada from Marstrand is coming home to Gothenburg. We're going in the opposite direction and hopefully we'll have a berth in Marstrand.
Stefanie, send me an "E". Do you get it? Cheers! Peter, cheers! - First day and only against the wind! Yes, exactly. But it was wonderful. And a bit of work. Marstrand, we can see it over there. It's a picturesque place. I now understand why the Gothenburgers sail up here every weekend. Exit from Marstrand. We are now on our way to Gullholmen, one of Sweden's oldest fishing villages.
It's a bit of doldrums sailing along the archipelago north of Marstrand today. But we have T-shirt weather for the first time. Exactly. - We can enjoy the sun ... ... and apply suncream. We also saw a porpoise earlier.
There's always a little something going on. Now we're almost under land again and have to be careful not to ram a rock. We're just outside the archipelago in the Kattegatt. We sail along the archipelago until we enter it again further up.
Over there is Gullholmen. We are now entering the sound. Over there lies the island of Gullholmen, ... ... with an ancient fishing village. It only has 100 inhabitants. Ah, it's the village on the left. This anchorage bay has beautiful rocky moorings on the right-hand side.
It even has a fixed rock hook. But there is a cross current, which is why we couldn't moor. We decided to go back through the very, very narrow fairway to Gullholmen, which is supposed to be very picturesque. Gullholmen, our alternative stopover, ... where we went after we couldn't anchor in Pilgrimen. But it was worth it. It's a totally picturesque place. It's one of the oldest fishing villages here in Sweden .... .... documented since the 13th century and today only around 100 people still live here.
But everything is very well-kept. You still have to put on your sunglasses. It's only 10 past eight in the evening. Very cosy.
But probably also rough in winter. We came in this afternoon through the extremely narrow fairway with lots of shallows. That's beautiful! You really can't top that.
Smögen comes into view over there. Thee party town in the archipelago north of Gothenburg. And that's what we're going to see now. We had a great sail from Gullholmen right up to here. We threw all our weather instruments overboard ...
... because there was no wind forecast, but we had 12 knots. Incredibly beautiful sailing. So, we have now arrived in Smögen. After a hurdle race with dockspot.com, we have at least got a code for one toilet and one shower. As you can see, we have a bit of rain today.
Urs, looking for food. Not fogging agents, but food. It's a beautiful little town. An old fishing village. Here comes a real native, Swedish Man.
Looking for a grocery store in Smögen. A little seating area. Here's the price of a Toblerone in Sweden. But it tasted good. So, after successful shopping on the way home.
Stocked up for the next few days. A big weighbridge over there. Leaving Smögen at 09.00 on Wednesday morning.
The party town was actually quite quiet now in the low season. That suited us pretty well. We hope that the weather forecast is better than yesterday. It's cloudless, fantastic.
The barometer has risen by four points overnight. Tip top. We are now sailing out under motor. As soon as we reach the eastern quadrant, we head north. Today we want to anchor in a bay. We've been sailing under spinnaker for several hours now. It's going well. It was a bit bumpy at first.
The sea has calmed down now. At the same time, the wind has picked up a bit. It looks like we can continue sailing like this for another 2-3 hours. As you can see here, we are very high upwind. Around 77-78 degrees on the apparent wind, sometimes even 72 degrees. There are these fishing buoys everywhere that you have to avoid. And we're right on the edge of an archipelago.
And on the other side we also passed an archipelago of such skerries in the Kattegat outside. There's our AP, Anna Petra. We have now arrived in Trossö.
Peter is just about to tie up the last line. We've tied up around a stone up there. Peter, cheers! Trossö, moored to rock nails. So, we've done it, us old mountaineers.
So, ... So, William Tell's jump. We botanists. A two-needle Scots pine. Swiss stone pine or Weymouth-Kiefer.
Where is the duck family? - Out there! Oh yes. From here it's just down to the sea. Urs hauling the anchor line ... ...so that we are completely safe and can sleep peacefully. And now we can see William Tell's jump. Where are we here? - In a beautiful place. Yes, at half past four in the morning.
More than 20 knots of wind from a different direction. We've had to leave our anchorage with the rock nails and are now lying here on a buoy. Over there we can see our mooring from before. The anchor got caught under the boat, luckily it came free again. We were lucky. The same as on Lake Lucerne.
Scoundrels! Those motorboats! No, honestly! As if the sea were only 10 meters wide. No! We've got everything under control at the moment, don't we? Great speed. Up ahead, we can see a course of 340 degrees. And boat speed 6.4 knots at the moment.
We're on our way from Trossö, Sweden, to Tresvika anchorage in Norway. It's foaming all around. We have over 6 knots, earlier even 6.7 knots close to the wind. This is what the sea looks like when it's alive. Awesome!
Almost snow-white, as if it had been snowing! This is what a competent skipper looks like down there, fully focused ... ... and this is what a sailor looks like just before throwing up. Hopefully it's in the camera. Have a great day. We're having a great one. We've been in Norway for half an hour. You can clearly see it in the landscape (joke). It is still incomparably beautiful.
Wilderness as far as the eye can see. High-tech as far as the eye can see. A skipper who has everything under control. Super.
Anchor drink at it's best. Urs, Peter, cheers. To our great ride. And our 6 kn average speed. We are now at anchor. In a bay that can't be topped for scenery. What else we forgot, ....
Norway, ahoy! It's the first time I've ever flown the Norwegian flag! There, we seem to be alone. The last neighbor has just weighed anchor. Tomorrow we're heading left to Halden. On the approach to Halden we turned into the sound. Norway is on the left, Sweden on the right. We are now just between the two bridges. Beautiful landscape.
We have just jibed. The wind is strong and comes straight from behind.
2024-01-02 06:44
