Marstal

I sailed around in the famous archipelago south of Fyn in first couple of weeks in August.
Marstal is always nice. It was a very lively village some 100 years ago with hundreds of big Marstal schooners sailing all over the world. When this trade died because of the use of bigger ships with engines, Mastal slowly lost its importance and is now a pretty sleepy little village.
But it has this air of boats everywhere, and even though the harbour is big and there´s a lot of boat tourists, its not like being in a moern marina.

More info about Marstall here and on Google:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marstal

Gilleleje in Denmark

I came to Denmark in the end of july. It was with some mixed feelings. I am danish, but I havent lived in Denmark for the past 9 years. The best of it all was to see old friends.

And a picture of the captain in his boat

Blogs always get so impersonal if there arent any photos of the author. So here I am:

Out through the channel and leaving Sweden

The 16/7 I left the lake Vänern. I felt like staying, but I also wanted to go south, to Denmark, where I´m from and where the boat is going to stay on land when I´m not sailing and living in it.

The lake Vänern is divided in two parts, Värmlandssjön in the north east and Dalbosjön in the southwest devided in the middle by the very beautifull archipelago "Lurö skärgaard" I sailed right through Dalbosjön on a rainy day, where Yggdrasil and the autopilot did the work themselves. It was so dark that you couldnt see the coast, so I stayed below with the GPS and the seecard and only looked up every 15 minust or so. I really like those two extra windows that Yggdrasil has in the front of the main cabin. I can actually see forward pretty well from down below.
I hope one day to come back to the lake and then I´m going to concentrate on Dalbosjön.

I was a little bit nervous when I left the lake. In front of me, I had 6 locks and 45nm of channel and river. I had asked around about the locks. If it could be done alone and everyone said it wasnt a problem because the locks dont let the water in through opening the ports, but using a much more modern system where the water comes in and goes out through the bottom. They were right. I wasnt a problem at all. Just stay with a ladder and "walk" the steps when you go down. The northern part of the river is very beautifull and I enjoyed the motoring a lot.

Another thing that worried me when starting was the fact that the river and channel is a total of 45nm and I had only done a max of 7 - 8nm with the engine. But there werent any problems.

I went out through the northern part of the river, passing Kungälv. I wasnt in the mood for Göteborg which is a big city. Reaching salt water was nice. I like the smell. But I was a little bit shocked about the enourmous amount of boats in the archipelago near Göteborg. Also the the ever present civilisation (houses, cars, ferries etc.) kind of scared me. So I passed through the famous archipelago of Göteborg pretty quickly heading south all the time. The last photo is from my last place mooring directly to the rocks on Ockerö Kalv. A wonderfull spot with bare rocks. and very clear and clean salty water. It was great to be in Sweden!!

Sailing in the lake Vänern

Vänern is the biggest lake in Western Europe. Some 80 nm on the longest. Its very deep. More than 100 meters (330´) Its also very clean. In fact its a drinking water reservoir and you can drink the water when you are a little bit away from the coast.
There are lots of small rock islands archipelagos and since most of them are natural parks, its very quiet and unspoiled. I’ve sailed in many places in Scandinavia, but the lake Vänern is definitely one of my favourite places.

The Vega was built in Katrinehamn in the northern part of the lake. It was a good feeling starting out in the boats home waters.

My girlfriend sailed with me for 10 days and one day she said: “look there, is it a car?” It wasn’t a car, but we realized that we hadn’t seen a car for 6 days!! Something very unusual in modern life.

The archipelagos are not very deep close to their coast and finding a place to moor directly against the rocks can be difficult. Especially when sailing alone. Here’s what you do. You look at the sea card and you ask locals. When you decide for a spot, you go in using your engine. You stop some 5 – 10 meters out and go up in the front of the boat and take a look. If it looks ok, you go out and prepare.

You need to have two lines ready in the front. both with metal wedges attached in the end for hammering down between the rocks. You also need to attach a front ladder to your front pulpit. Behind you prepare the anchor leaving it hanging half a meter down in the water.

Then you go in slowly. If possible go so slow that you don’t need to reverse the engine. When some 25 meters from the rocks, you let the anchor down and when you are very close to the place where you want to moor, you go up front, stay on the ladder with one of the lines with wedges and you jump in. Don’t forget a good hammer. Try to be fast with one wedge. Go back to the rear of the boat, stop the engine, and slightly tighten the anchor line. The back to the rock with the other line/wedge. That’s more or less it.

On the last two pictures, you can see my favourite spot on “Ormholmarna” An absolutely wonderful and very quiet spot, where you can only go in with smaller boats like the Vega. Don’t worry, there’s no tide and the bottom is mud.

One of the things I knew that I would have to change when I bought an Albin Vega, was the standard cabin table. Its to big, to flimsy and its always in the way. I bought moveable table leg in Sweden called a "Lagun bord" Its higly recommendable. If you buy an extra base plate, it can be used in the cockpit as well.

The adventure began. Buying the boat

I bought the boat, an Albin Vega 27 in Sweden, its home country. I bought it there because there are so many for sale, they are cheap and besides, Sweden is one of my favorite countrys. Its clean, people are in general nice and easy going and the nature is big and quite wild as well.
I bought the boat the 5/6 2010 and my first year adventure was sailing from Hällekis in Vänern to Denmark and also a little bit around in Denmark. In total, I ended up with 825 Nautical miles in 8 weeks.

My Vega, Yggdrasil is from 1971, Its number 1118 out of almost 3500 built. Its in a very good shape and it has been taken care of durings its whole life. There are no "issues" that has to be fixed. Just some few improvements to personalize the whole thing. It has its original Albin 022 petrol inboard engine. Its old, but it always starts and hasnt been a source of any problems. The main sail is new and the roller furling genua is in a good shape but a bit to big (21 sqm)
The whole idea about buying a boat is to have a summer residence in Scandinavia where I´m from. I live in Spain, and although I really like it, its to hot in summer. I cant work and I dont like 35 - 40 degrees celcius. I´m my own boss, so I decided to give myself 2 month of sumer hollydays a year and work one more day a week during the rest of he year. Since I really like my work (building guitars) thats not a problem at all.
I´ve sailed since I was a kid and I´ve owned traditional Scandinavian boats like a folkboat. I have sailed singlehanded for hundreds of miles and I like it. I hope my girlfriend will join me for some weeks every year and besides that, I have my dog, Nimbus to give me some company.
On the first picture you an see what she looked like when I found her.
On the next, the engine, a 2 cyl. sidevalve 12hp thing that goes extremely slow. Its a bit noisy and smelly but it pushes me around, it always starts and its got style.
Next the cabin the way it looked day 1.
after that a cople of pictures of Yggdrasil ready to go into the water and finally ready to sail.