Mac the Knife

We left Utö this morning in brisk winds with the threat of rain (threatened by the weather forecast, plus  a general cloudy greyness). In the event, though, the sun came out and though we had to tack north against the wind, we made good progress and decided to skip the…

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Action

We had a bit of wind over the last few days and got some wonderful sailing in. Today we reefed down to the first reef and we headed into the wind at 5,5+ knots. Wonderful. Akka really likes the wind from the front, she just goes at it, whereas when…

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Power again!

I haven’t updated for  a few days because we were running low on electricity and for some reason Wolfgang thinks his work should take priority over blogging. Suffice it to say that the weather has turned magical, the water has gone up to twenty degrees, which is perfect for cooling off after a long sweaty sail, and Wolfgang has installed some converter thingy that means we can now recharge his laptop from the boat batteries, which in turn are recharged from a solar panel that now functions thanks to the sudden dramatic presence of Sol.

Below you have, in reverse order of events, the excellent little restaurant Wolfgang and I ate at last night in another Kyrkviken, this time on the island of Ornö. Swedish restaurants are horrifically expensive but it was lovely to wallow in luxury for once and the pike in lime and cream sauce was absolutely fantastic. Through the window, you can see Akka at the jetty.

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This is Wolfgang’s suit being aired, in case any business opportunities should present themselves in the next few days.

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This is a cove on Ranö where we are now (there should be a little o over the a but I can’t do it with this keyboard) and this is the signpost that led me on a 2.5 kilometre walk to an ince cream shop and back.

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This, as you can see, is a weird tree in the perverted embrace of another tree. That was back on Häsö where we spent the night a couple of days ago, and this is the view from the cliffs known as Domkyrken, which I think means Cathedral.

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Finally, although I don’t have a picture of the island in question, I have to confess that Wolfgang and I both failed the idiocy test coming out of a bay the day before yesterday – we each assumed that the other had the tiller, got on with various things we had to do, and drove straight at an island, only realising as the keel went boink boink boink over some underwater rocks that our sailing holiday was in danger of coming to an abrupt and soggy end. Luckily Wolfgang has lightning reflexes  and Old Faithful went into instant reverse. Wolfgang says the moral is “Assumption is the mother of all fuck-ups” but my personal Lesson Learned is “Don’t go to the toilet until you’re proeprly under sail,”

Been busy

After our uncertainties about the white smoke, we asked at the Hamnkontor (harbour office) if they can recommend somebody to help us with the engine. We were given the telephone number of a “Mikke” and I called him a little bit later. As he was busy at the time he…

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Blue and balmy

Yesterday evening the rain cleared up and we got one of those blue-and-gold Nordic nights, when the sun is so low on the horizon it doesn’t reach the water, so the sea is deep blue while the islands seem to glow with their own honeyed light. It was a harbinger…

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Old Faithful

This morning a very jolly Swedish engineer came over to look at the engine. He was so jolly I couldn’t help thinking that either he was high or life as a Swedish marine engineer must be really enjoyable (the young chap at the checkout in the government booze store was…

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