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