This was a wonderful day on the water! Istarted relatively early from Ängsö, but there was already a little wind and since I wanted to get to Norrtälje I wanted to get started as soon as possible.
Initially there was very little wind, but we managed to make 2-3 knots and sailed after about 2 hours past Furusund. The wind came from the south-west and we gently slid past with a very light breeze from the back.
Past Kapelskär we turned off the main cruise-liner route and made our way north and then west. Here the wind picked up and we broad reached for about 1 1/2 hours. After that we had to tack into the wind and what fun it was! We tacked initially in quite a wide stretch of water. But later on it got quite narrow and sailing Akka single-handedly means a lot of work during the maneuvers. I learnt a lot today from her.
At 14:40 I say some low-hanging, scary clouds and it started to rumble. The wind picked up and shifted within 2 minutes by about 30-40 degrees. It started to flash to my starboard-side and it looked quite scary. I hurried to get out of my shorts and into my foulies and got the sails quickly down.
The weather past in front of me! I was glad as I could see loads of bright flashes and heard the thunder almost continuously.
I motored the last hour although the weather improved and I arrived at Norrtälje in sunshine. There I was helped by a very nice sailor-couple from Finland. They told me that it was a tremendous thunderstorm at Norrtäjle and told me how lucky I was to missed the worst of it.
After tidying the boat and the sailor I went for a walk through Norrtälje – charming (even with 2 Lagerhaus Silos right at the harbor.
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