Readers' boats: Heron update

Peter Anderson from Dunbar, Scotland posted some picture of his newly launched Alacrity "Heron" on his blog. She looks great.

See more pictures on his blog.

French Alacrity Blog

For those of you who are fortunate enough to understand French there's a blog about an Alacrity here. I have no idea where it is, but it looks nice. ;)

Little Grace video

David Appleby sent me this video of his Alacrity 'Little Grace' sailing. Looks good!

Well, I am still alive...

OK, I went back to Stockholm for a couple of days this week and actually got the boat out for a short sail. There wasn't much wind but the sky was blue and the water was as it used to be, too. It was nice to be back, but well, my time here is ending and I've taken the mast down for the boat to be hauled out in October.

Oh, and I also found a fellow club member with a broken down engine so did get to do some good..

Next summer, hopefully, will ensue the adventurous task of getting the boat to the UK. So stay tuned.

Season's first overnight trip

The weather has been perfect these last few days, so I finally managed my first overnight trip of the season. I went to a place where I had been before, mostly because it's sheltered and nice and I didn't expect anyone else to be there on a weekday evening. It turned out there were a few others, but no one near enough to be trouble.

The sail started with, well not sailing. There was very little wind on Wednesday, so I motored the major part of the distance. It was still nice in the sun and very few other boats out. I met one bigger thing though, which I took for a sea scout vessel, but it later turned out to be charter vessel full of high school kids. How I know that? See later.



To get to the anchorage there's a nice narrow passage to be navigated, and it's that passage which prevents bigger boats to get in here at all, so it's very much a secret small boat haven.



I had a beer and a steamy vampire book.



Ravioli for dinner.



A lamp to read by although it didn't get really dark so near midsummer.



22.30



23.15



Then I went to bed. The night was perfectly still, not a sound, no wind, nothing. In the morning the wind got up, but the anchor held. I did move to the other side of the cove for a few hours later, though in order to get a little more peace and quiet.



Then I sailed home. There was enough wind to sail all the way, too. As I closed on the city, I was buzzed first by an ambulance helicopter, then a Coastguard fast craft. Ashore were fire engines. I later found out that it was the very charter boat I encountered the day before - which had been on fire.

Oh no - the pub has closed!

Today I set out with my friend Mari for our traditional spring lunch at the pub on Storholmen. It was a warm, sunny day with light winds, but enough to get us there without motoring all the way. However, as we arrived, disaster struck. The pub was closed. And not only closed, but completely deserted, shackled up, shut down. Crunched by the credits, supposedly.



And we had no beer, no sandwiches, only water, coffee and the emergency rations. Mari also doesn't eat meat, so most of the pea soup and corned beef based things could not be served. Fortunately, there was beans, and there was tuna.



After our makeshift meal, we explored the surroundings. I had moored the boat in a cove opposite of Storholmen, a place I never visited before. There were several other boats there, it being Saturday, and also a group of sea scouts who had arrived by dinghy.







There were lots of green things, nice nature things, and some less nice things, mostlyt murder ants.





After having talked to a guy with a broken jetski who had been towed into the cove and abandoned there by someone who probably wanted to keep the channel clear from obstacles, we had coffee and then sailed home in almost no wind, motoring the last half an hour. It was still a very nice day. Oh, and the jetski guy did get help from another mobo, they passed us later with his contraption in tow.

Continuing the hydrographic expedition

I've done a few day trips to small uninhabited islands around here and plotted them on foursquare. It's really just a geeky thing, but if other boaters go there and check, then the islands will show instead of having to be added manually. Now today I visited the third one, Västerskär, still within comfortable daysail range from my club (and there are a few more still...). The interesting thing is, this one lies in between some nice tricky shallows and I did previously not dare even go near it.

Enter the new chartplotter app on the iphone. With it I thought I'd give it a try. And it worked perfectly. It was also quite a revelation considering that my usually so trusted eyeball navigation showed to be quite some way off. I seriously begin to wonder why I haven't been running aground lot more earlier. Anyway, I guess I've just had a good safety margin.

Now, here are some pic. First I met this little ferry which confused me by erratic maneuvers ,while I was tacking, to such at degree that I was considering calling her up on the VHF, but then I realized it was training docking maneuvers.



Then, as I got the island in sight, the wind died.



I drifted for a while, but then started the evil engine for the last mile. Anchored, had lunch and took a video of some birds screeching. Not much of an expedition. But it was warm and I had a perfect following wind on my way back. Bliss.



Oh and here's the video.

More "Little Grace" pics

David Appleby sent a couple more pictures of his refurbishing project.

Due to the extended and exceptional winter conditions in Finland (it is still freezing at night and it snowed again over the last few days) David Appleby has abandoned the refurbishment of Little Grace in favour of throwing everything back on and going sailing. He will use bathroom silicone sealant for the fittings and only round the holes where appropriate so they are easy to get off when work resumes next autumn. Hopefully – 20 will not be the norm for so long and the job will get done.

Launched!

Hooray! I got an unexpected phone call today at lunchtime from the club's crane guy. He had found time to launch me ahead of the rest again this year. So I'm in. The engine took some extra pulls this time, but then the winter had been exceptionally cold. At last it started! Very very pleased!

As you can see, the rubrail is now white. It will probably not stay that way, but it looks very nice right now.

Awfully quiet

Yes, I know, I've been awfully quiet around here. But simply, there hasn't been anything to say. We still have lots of snow and even today I could walk right over the ice at the club. Which might be a trifle worrying, with the traditional launch date only about six weeks off. Fortunately, the ice normally goes quite fast once it starts to go, and the air is already much warmer, especially when the sun is out during the day. So there might be spring after all.

The most important news else is that I've gotten one of those fancy iphones. There's lot to be said about them, but it does have a very nifty chartplotter application, which works great (yes, I've tested it on the harbour ferry...). The downside is only, those things have really poor batteries. So I have struggled for weeks to find a way to charge the thing on the boat. Now, I have been able to charge all my previous cellphones with various solar chargers, but the iphone just won't have those. Apple, being protective of only the gods know what, have built-in software which not only checks that the charging cable is, well - approved by the charging cable god, but also checks that the charging device does deliver exactly the right amount of milliamperes. That's really bad, because most solar chargers deliver less than an USB contact. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, charging would just take longer. But it is for Apple.
Anyway, I finally found a solution that works, an extra battery, approved by Apple, which can charge the phone, and, thank the gods, can be charged by anything else. All my old chargers suddenly work again.

Finally, I am glad to announce that I will be on extended leave from work from May until September this year. So there will be lots of time for sailing, and then it won't be as quiet here anymore. See you in spring.

The refurbishment of Little Grace

David Appleby, who recently moved his Alacrity "Little Grace" to Finland is now going to refurbish the boat. He has sent some before-pictures and will keep us updated on the progress of his work.

More winter impressions

I got this request for some pictures of the boatyard and my boat in its sorry winter state. Unfortunately, on the way there I decided to make a video instead, being, as alway, terribly inspired by Dylan Winter. However, I did not know that the camera's lense makes you look quite like a rabbit if you put it too near. That never happend to Dylan. Anyway, it's too late now and I will have to go through with this.

Getting into the yard wasn't easy as the lock had frozen. Expecting this I carried a small can of anti-freeze spray, which got me in, but did not entirely clear the lock on the inside so I wouldn't have gotten the key in if the door had slammed shut.



And here is the after-pic.



I did get out without trouble so I could take some more pics from the other side of the inlet.

A survey of "Limpan"

No, not a boat survey, it's an island. In fact it's the nearest uninhabited one from my club, and despite having sailed past it lots of times I never had been ashore there. I had anchored in its lee a few times and seen other boats moor at the rocks, so I knew it was possible.

This week-end a friend and I decided to give it a try. There was quite a blow, with very gusty winds from the west, so we started with the small jib and a reef in the main. This worked quite well and with the wind mostly on the beam we made it to Limpan in record time.



When we came closer we saw that there was another boat already there, trying to find a spot to moor. So, we would not have the privilege of our own island - oh well. We did, however, find a nice spot to moor, out of sight of the other boat.



The island itself makes quite a good lee, despite the wind howling past it on both sides. On this picture the border of the lee can clearly be seen, where the water is darker the wind is blowing.



We had a little picnic and then made a thorough examination of the island. It's probably less than half a kilometer long and at most about 100m wide, so the survey was done quickly. A good thing was that there is almost no undervegetation, so it was very easily accessible.

View towards the island from its southern point.


And the narrow sound between it and the next little island to the north.



The northern one might be worth a visit as well, but it's not as easy to get to as the beach is very shallow at most places. We saw two kajakers however who went ashore there later.

Survey finished, we set off back home. As we had the wind dead against us in the beginning, we did use the engine for a while. Yes, I know, but I am not getting any younger, either.

Finally a video I shot on the island. It turned out in some Blair Witch Project style, which wasn't really the intention, but you can see a little of the island anyway...



Altoghether, a nice day trip and perhaps the last landfall on unexplored land of the season.

Summer cruise 2009 - Part III

(If you have missed the earlier parts you may want to start reading from Part I) The day my father arrived I sailed the boat to Finnhamn, only a short distance from where I was moored. It still took quite some time, in blazing sunshine and with almost no wind. When I finally was moored up I had to take a swim at once. I was moored at Idholmen a 20 minutes walk from the ferry landing, but my Dad likes walking in the forest so I thought it wouldn't be a problem. Shortly after I arrived, a big Bavaria 36 moored closely next to me. But this is to be expected here, where it is quite deep everywhere and there is a shop and a restaurant as well. Still, the crew was nice and offered me a whiskey for compensation, which I accepted, of course. An hour and a half later I started to walk to the ferry landing. When I got half way there I realized that I had forgotten my wallet, so no beer at the pub while waiting for the ferry... Anyway, my Dad finally arrived on this slightly less ugly ferry.

In real "Riddle of the Sands"-style he had not only a rucksack but a hard suitcase which may not have been the best choice of things one would like to carry through a forest - or onboard a boat. But we managed nonetheless. I had offered my Dad two choices as for destination for the next day: a pittoresque fishing village with a pub or a deserted island with a view of the horizon. Knowing my Dad I was quite sure he would pick the fishing village. So we sailed to Möja. Winds were very light and we managed to sail about halfway until they died down completely. We then motored the rest of the way, taking the shortcut through the Möjaström passage, which I had never done before. At the entrance to the channel someone was restoring this beautiful vessel.

And here is a short clip from the passage. At Möja we went to the restaurant in order to book a table for the evening, only to discover that it was closed for restauration until 2010. Instad we had a hamburger at a grill at the ferry landing. Later we discovered that the café which only used to sell breakfast and danish pastry now had expanded and even served food. So we went there again in the evening and had very nice steaks... Before that, we visited the little church. I had never been inside before, despite having been to Möja several times earlier. It is really nice. From the roof hangs a big model ship. Unfortunately I only had the camera in my mobile phone at the time and the light inside was too bad. When I got back the next morning with the proper camera, the church was closed...Oh well, another time.

Möja also has a new harbourmaster.

The next day we sailed in a little more wind to Lådna. It's a place I have visited many times and it is always nice to come here and have a swim. My Dad enjoying the water.

Afterwards he told me that this cruise was the best he had yet. Mainly, I think because of the much warmer weather (it did not rain even once!), but he also liked the food on board better. (Although I cannot remember the food having been worse last year...). From Lådna we sailed on to Gällnö, another known place from my reports. On the last leg back to town it is a bit difficult to find new anchorages. This time, it being a week-end and very sunny and warm, the achorage was so crowded I did not find a suitable rock to moor at first. Instead I sailed the boat until the keels touched the mud and we could jump into the water and wade ashore. Coming back aboard wasn't as easy though... We moved to a proper rock later. Via a short hop to Hästholmen south of Grinda (which my Dad did not like at all as we were moored in shadow from trees most of the time), we sailed on to Getfoten. This time, however we took another route, through Lindalssundet. It's a shortcut, but usually much frequented by wash-making mobos, so I try to avoid it. This time it wasn't so bad and we could sail all the way through. Only the last part, through Vaxholm itself we had to motor against strong winds in an area with much traffic. Shortly before entering Lindalssundet we met this survey vessel, moving some buoys.

And this nice Dutch boat.

At Getfoten we arrived at the same time as the garbage barge...no nice smell...

And the boat next to us, a mobo from Uppsala with engine trouble had fixed a tow to a boatyard that would arrive at 0600 the next day.

With rain (finally) in the forecast, I thought it was just as well for us to make an early start as well. And so we did, arriving at home just before it started to rain! After all, this cruise was definitely one of the nicer ones. We did not have to sail in rain once. In the beginning, the winds were a little on the strong side, but as they were from the right direction we could sail anyway. The engine did us good service, and with the old Honda we might not have been able to make good the distace from Söderarm to Blidö in one day, so there is something to be said for a little more horsepower sometimes. Still we did not use much more than six litres of petrol for the whole trip. As for improvements on the boat, I don't really think there were any this time, although I got a little better at reefing. Finally the tracks for the last leg. First Finhamn - Möja - Lådna - Gällnö. And Gällnö - Hästholmen - Getfoten - Home.