This is "Onbekommerd"!

Sunday, August 21, 2016

A map and some facts and figures

We are now back in London and as one can see in the previous post, Onbekommerd has started her hibernation.

What is left to do is to give a bit of an overview of the season.
First, here is a map showing the voyage by means of a red line.





This was taken from our electronic chart on the laptop, we use a program called WinGPS Pro for that. Using a GPS signal we know exactly where we are on the chart. The little red boat with the circles around it shows where we were when the GPS was last connected.

Our most Northern point was 60 degrees 15.03 minutes north and the most Eastern 20 degrees 45.05 degrees east. Both of these we on our way to Segline in the Åland Islands.
Most Southern was 52 degrees 15.11 minutes north (in the Nijkerkernauw) and most West was 4 degrees 44.62 minutes east (near Akersloot).

We spent 122 days on board, 30 in NED, 7 in GER, 9 in DEN, 65 in SWE and 11 in FIN.
In those 122 days, we covered 1666 nautical miles (3085 Km). For that, the engine ran 306 hours and used 1250 litres of diesel.

Next year, we plan to go back around the middle of May. We'll pick up the story then......

Thursday, August 18, 2016

And so the boating season ends

We arrived in Nävekvarn on Monday and have been preparing for the 'layup' since Tuesday.
As the weather was nice and sunny, we first cleaned and dried the dingy and packed it away.
Next it was scrubbing time: the whole outside of the boat, including the teak deck.
We also changed the engine oil, changed the diesel and oil filters and cleaned the bilge.











In the evening we had drinks in the clubhouse with a number of British and a few Dutch yachtsmen who are also laying up here. For some reason, Nävekvarn is very popular with these 'foreign' boating communities.

Yesterday, Wednesday, we did all the inside cleaning jobs and started the packing.

We were first expecting to be hauled out early this morning, but the boat lift / cart had a puncture so it was after two when it finally turned up. By then it was drizzling, so we only have a few pictures.











The boat looked good underwater, very little growth, but then with almost daily movement that's what one would expect.

The tractor pulled the boat cart up the hill a bit faster than we could walk and an hour or so later Onbekommerd was safely on her blocks and stands in the dry and heated hall.








We then disconnected the batteries, inspected and cleaned the anchor chain and removed our luggage from board.

Tonight we are staying in the guesthouse which is part of the Swede Port Marina, actually it's the same building that the boat is in.

Tomorrow is a travelling day: bus to Nyköping, train to Stockholm, bus to the airport, flight to London, underground and train to Coulsdon. Guess we'll be tired by the time we get there.

Location:Skutvägen,Nävekvarn,Sweden

Sunday, August 14, 2016

Last anchorage of the year

We are currently at anchor in Västerfjarden, a bay on the island of Ringsön. Spacious, well sheltered from all wind directions and at this time of the year very quiet. Last night there were 5 of us, the other 4 left in the morning and after the new arrivals of the day, we are 7 now. Only one Swede, four English and one boat with a Welsh flag whom we suspect to be a closet Swede...

Tomorrow we go on to Nävekvarn where we are planned to go into winter storage (a bit early this year) on Thursday. More about that later.
As it is our last anchorage for the season, I took the dinghy to take a few pictures:











Location:Västerljung,Sweden

Friday, August 12, 2016

No photos......

We have been on the move a bit, but the camera is taking a bit of a rest so this is just a post of words.

After the somewhat disappointing stay at Skansholmen, we put in a bit of diesel and continued to Trosa. We were also here on the 28th June on our way North. A very pleasant small touristy town with a good harbour.
Also a good supermarket, which we needed badly after emptying the cupboards for a few days.

We decided to stay for an extra day, to get some work done but also to time our last week on board. Next week Thursday Onbekommerd is going into winter storage and the next day we fly to London.

In the meantime we met two Cruising Association members here (for the first time in weeks) and also a couple on a Dutch boat we met in Nävekvarn at midsummer.

We may stay another day, depending on the weather. Nävekvarn, where the winter storage is, is just a two day trip through the skärgård away.

Location:Edanövägen,Trosa,Sweden

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Nothing to report

After leaving Birka, it was a short stretch to the start of the Södertalje canal. We got to the lock just in time to see the doors close, so that would have meant an hour's wait but the next sequence was brought forward by 15 minutes because of the planned arrival of commercial traffic (they won't lock commercial and pleasure craft together in this lock).
Having got that out of the way, we continued 10 miles to Skansholmen, which in the guides looked like a good stop on the way to Trosa.
Unfortunately it is quite run down and most off the 'boom type' moorings are too narrow for us. So in the end we found a spot alongside, quite far from the shore facilities (which are nothing to write home about anyway).
But the good thing is that it is well protected from the strong winds we have seen for the last two days, at times well over 20 knots. This is way more than we have seen in a long long time.
Tonight will be our third forced night here, but the wind is dropping now and tomorrow we are continuing to Trosa.
The peak season has clearly ended, it's quiet on the water now. It's quite a bit colder and the sun sets before 9pm.



Location:Sodertalje,Sweden

Monday, August 8, 2016

Vikings

We spent the night on Birka. That is a very interesting place. To start with, it is said to have been the oldest settlement in Sweden. Before the 9th century, people lived mostly separately on farms for instance. But Birka became a Viking settlement with up to 1000 people living there. Nowadays, the only things left are archeological: there are remnants of the fort that protected the village. There are earth mounds which contain graves. And there are remnants of the village but only as far as archeological finds are concerned. The area is an UNESCO world heritage site.
The best known 'picture' is that of the cross on the highest point:





But strangely, this cross - suggesting a Christian link - is a bit misplaced: a missionary came to Birka in the 9th century to convert the Vikings. Although the Vikings were quite happy to add a God to their 'collection' (headed by Odin), they were not prepared to abandon the existing Gods and were never converted.

The Viking settlement on Birka suddenly disappeared in the 11th century and the great mystery is that no-one knows what happened to make it disappear. Lots of theories, but no clear direction.

During the day, the island is full of day trippers, on ferries or with own boats. At night, there were just 4 boats, including us.





During the night, the wind came up and we were rolling around a bit.
This morning we went South along the Södertalje canal and are now in a harbour called Skansholmen.
As it is blowing hard and expected to be similar for another day, we'll stay here tomorrow as well.

Location:Sodertalje,Sweden

Saturday, August 6, 2016

Castle and Steam

We got to Mariefred yesterday and found it to be a really nice and interesting place!

To start with, it is dominated by the Grypsholm castle and this time it's a real castle.
It was built in the 16th century by King Gustav Vasa (who was elected King of Sweden at the cathedral in Strängnäs cathedral in 1523) and extended a few times by subsequent kings. It was never destroyed, not even by fire, which is unusual. Today one can visit it, it also houses the Swedish National Portrait gallery, a collection of almost 5000 portraits of people who have been important to the Swedish nation.
There is also an 18th century theatre, Gustav III was a lover of the theatre so he had one built, including all the machinery to move sets around etc. Quite interesting to do a 'back stage' tour and see all the wooden cogs that make it work.

All in all, Lake Mälaren is full of Swedish history and we are glad to have taken the opportunity to visit it!



























But there is more to Mariefred (which by the way is the site of an old convent, that's where the name comes from). There is a narrow gauge railway which operates a service with a steam engine to a castle at Taxinge. There they have an incredible cake buffet and you can take the steam boat back to Mariefred.
We had a very enjoyable 'tourist day'!

































Update: from the train we spotted these 'fallow deer'. We were hoping they were elk, but unfortunately......





Location:Gripsholmsvägen,Mariefred,Sweden

Thursday, August 4, 2016

Not really a castle and another cathedral

Yesterday, we were in Sundbyholm, where there is supposed to be a 'slott', which we would translate to 'castle'. It turned out to be - as many 'slotts' are, more of a manor house, in this case transformed into an expensive restaurant (think a main course to cover our groceries shopping for three or four days). But it was quite pretty, the harbour was pleasant (good ice creams like in most Swedish places) and we had a short nature walk.









Today we continued to Strängnäs. Somewhat to our surprise, we found another cathedral, relatively close to the previous one in Västerås. It was also started in the 11th century and - unlike most churches - does not appear to ever have been destroyed by fire.











Frescoes still intact!








The weather has turned a bit cooler and less stable with quite a few showers today. And for the first time in weeks we are wearing long trousers instead of shorts. But overall everything is still very agreeable!

Location:Västervikstorget,Strangnas,Sweden

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

A very old cathedral

Last night we spent on Fagerön, a very small nature reserve island with a jetty that takes about 6 boats if you try hard. There were 5 of us. Just a composting toilet and a place to leave refuse. And a place to make a fire plus two benches to sit on. We had our drinks there whilst cooking the steak on the Cobb. Three other crews had the same idea. We really enjoy these 'naturhamn'!

This morning we continued to Västerås, quite far north and west on Mälaren. After Sigtuna, it is the second oldest town in Sweden. Although looking quite industrial from the water, it has a really interesting cathedral, originally dating (as a church) from the 12th century and made a cathedral in 1271. Of course we paid a visit:


















Something surprising was the way the 'Svenka Kyrkan', the Swedish church, tries to get people into the churches:





Tomorrow, we start going south and east again, towards Södertalje. We plant to be there, at the lock where one leaves Mälaren, in about 5 days.

Location:Sjötullsgatan,Västerås,Sweden

Sunday, July 31, 2016

Not really a lake, the harbour has disappeared and another quiet anchorage.

As mentioned before, we are now on lake Mälaren. The only reason it is a lake, is that it does not connect directly to the sea. And it is fresh water, not brackish like the Baltic at this latitude. But to us, there is little difference between Mälaren and the Stockholm skärgård. Well, that is as far as the geography is concerned: the same sets of islands and 'sunds' between them. The other big difference is the crowds or rather the lack of them. In the Stockholm skärgård you continually have to avoid ferries and other boats, here we seldom see anyone else. Today not more than 3 other boats. And it's still peak season....

Yesterday we found a harbour in our almanac. It was called Härjarö, supposedly part of a recreational facility with a campsite, cabins for hire etc. We arrived in the middle of a rain storm (the first one in a long time) and found only three other boats there. After tying up, we were told that the harbour (and the rest of the facility) had closed down three years ago! So much for our 2016 chart which also showed it. Anyway, the concrete pontoons and (some of) the mooring facilities were still there, so we stayed. After dinner we walked around the deserted campsite which was a bit 'Kafkaesque': sort of maintained, looking as if the occupants had just left a few hours ago.
Anyway, the sunset was not less spectacular because of it:








This morning we moved on another few hours to a very quiet anchorage. We thought we might be by ourselves, but another boat came in and looks like spending the night as well. It's quite pretty here!

The 'lake' is quite big and as we are not in a hurry we'll take another 2 days to Västerås, more or less on the NW extreme.

Location:Strangnas,Sweden

Friday, July 29, 2016

A lock, a lake and a palace

Today, for the first time since Kiel, we had to pass through a lock. And we are now on a lake, called Mälaren.

First we passed just outside Stockholm, which is very scenic from the water:





But what's this lock and lake all about?

Mälaren was a bay of the Baltic sea until around 1200. By then, because of a process called 'glacial rebound', the two connections with the Baltic, the Södertalje canal and the Ridderfjarden, became to shallow for shipping.
This 'glacial rebound' is the rise of the land, caused by the disappearance of the weight of the ice after the last ice age. At some stage, the rise was as much as 7.5cm per year, now it still is around 1cm per year, a lot in geological terms. The level of the lake is now close to a metre above the level of the Baltic, hence the lock!

During the Viking age, between 1000 and 1150, Mälaren was therefore a Baltic bay and hence there are several Viking villages and old towns and castles around what now is the lake. During the next one or two weeks, we'll do a bit of exploration.

Tonight we are anchored in a quiet bay with a view of Drottingholm Palace, the official residence of the Swedish Royal Family. Not exactly Viking age: it was originally built in the late 16th century.






Location:Ekerö,Sweden

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Revisiting a few places

After two new harbours, Sandhamn and Möja, we revisited Finnhamn yesterday and Grinda today. These were two places we thought our visitors would like and we were very happy to return there. Both were even more busy than a week ago, it really is peak season! But a very nice atmosphere in both places and quiet at night. That is something that continues to surprise and delight us: the people here are really considerate and are careful not to disturb others in a crowded harbour.

Tomorrow we will continue to Vaxholm, again a place we know. After that, we only have three weeks of this year's 'season' left, we plan to explore lake Mälaren, west of Stockholm a bit.

Location:Värmdö,Sweden

Monday, July 25, 2016

A cove and a small harbour

Yesterday, Sandhamn was our destination. This is an island in the 'outer skärgård', the last few islands before the open sea. And it is also one of the harbours of the KSSS, the Royal Swedish Yacht Club. The island is very popular with tourists and quite a few ferries disgorge loads of day trippers there. We expected it to be busy so planned to be there early, before noon. But the youngster in the RIB who met us, told us that there were about 20 other boats waiting for a mooring and that it could take a few hours before we would be tied up. But there is a 'secondary' harbour, mainly for smaller boats, where there would be space. So we went through a very narrow 'sund' to find a delightful little cove, very well protected and free from hordes of tourists walking past. Much better than the official harbour. It was on a small island, with a ferry taking you to the 'mainland' (which of course is an island itself....).









Today we continued to Möja. On this island there are a few harbours, but they are all extremely small! The first one, Kirkviken, was already full before noon and at the second one, Löka, we took the last place (out of six). We had a nice Cobb on the rocks here, overlooking the fairway.





Location:Möja Löka by,Värmdö,Sweden

Saturday, July 23, 2016

Back to Härsö with the new crew.

Yesterday, our friends Gwilym and Janine came on board and today we returned to Härsö. It's such a nice and friendly place that we wanted to 'show it off'.

We lit the Cobb and had a good time!













Location:Tyreso,Sweden

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

The Stockholm fortifications and an idyllic island.

Yesterday, we spent the night in Vaxholm. We badly needed some supplies, both solid and liquid and on the small islands where we like to be, the shops are small and there are no 'Systembolagets' (the Swedish state liquor store, you can't buy any alcoholic drinks over 3.5% in any other shop). So Vaxholm it was, it has both required shops within 10 walking minutes from the Gästhamn. For this reason, the Gästhamn is very full during the day with boats that just come for shopping (which also explains that it's one of the few harbours where a fee for 'daily mooring' is charged. After about 4pm quite a few boats leave and in the end the harbour was not full at night in spite of the peak season.
But Vaxholm is interesting beyond the shops as it is part of the old naval defence system of Stockholm. The Vaxholm fortress, which you pass when you arrive from the north, controls one of the few sea passages into Stockholm. Some of the other entrances (notably Oxdjupet) were actually filled in with rocks in the 16th century and from 1876 the rocks were removed again in order to provide access to for instance the Finland and Åland ferries. The fortifications were maintained into the 20th centuries. These days they are mainly tourist attractions.





This morning we decided to spend a quiet night at some small island and - after some research in our Hamnguiden- we choose Härsö. What a perfect choice it turned out to be! There is some wooden staging that we tied onto with our stern anchor out. We went to explore a bit and found signs to 'Domkyrkan', which is not a church as the name would suggest, but a mountain with a great view. It's quite a climb up, but a few strategically placed ropes help.
There is no wind now, we are here with a handful of boats and it's quite idyllic!
























Location:Saltsjobaden,Sweden