We have been really bad at updating the blog, but here is something. As previously stated we are now on the hard. River Song is dressed in her winter attires.
We have started some work and finished some. What we have done are the following:
Winter conservation of the engine, changed the oil in the drive and the engine, cleaned the propeller.
Since we mostly tinker on Saturdays there are not that much material for blog and YouTube. We have also exchanged all the fresh water hoses and the filler for the fresh water and cleaned the fresh water tank.
In the middle of all this suddenly many people wanted to watch our films.
Of course there were things which didn't add up last time so we had to finsih the fresh water project the week after. Some tinkering in the aft locker as well.
Time to solve the through holes with my early Christmas present.
We had to have the old through hole piece with us to get the size right on the new shiny parts.
Now it's a bit too cold to install the through hole parts but there are plenty of other things to do.
A channel we sponsor via patreon isOdd life craftingThey gave us an expression which created a lot of extra work: "as we..". This means that as we do this we might as well do that and as we do that we might as well do....etc. This has happened a lot of the time. So as we change hoses we might as well...change the exhaust hose and rewire the electricity in the aft locker. So, here is an episode with list and hose.
Apologies for being bad at updating this page. On Saturday, Oct 10, we will put RS on the hard for the winter. Hence, the sailing season is over and Winter season starts. We will try to document as much as possible of the jobs we do. We will conserve the engine, change two through holes and their respective ball valves. The plan is to install solar panels as well and some other odd jobbs. The work I have done so far on RS is that I have changed all the running rigging and mounted a heater (Wallas 1300)
I have also got hold of a deck stand for the winter. It was a Press & Son which was supposed to be thrown away because the ridge was broken. I fixed it and saved about 5000 SEK. Pics will come in the next post. Subscribe to our YouTube channel where the action happens. Hugs from us.
The first day on our sailing week. This is supposed to be our new way to spend an entire week together on our summer holidays. For three years we went on MC-vacation but now we have turned to boating instead. The weather was perhaps not the best and unfortunately that mirrored my mood. A peculiarity of mine is that I never want to go anywhere the day before going away. But this will change for the better when we have left. This was no exeption.
We didn't sail that much this day, mostly because of winds which didn't blow in the right direction. But we got to try a new way from Stigfjorden to Mollösund, which meant going inland. The idea was to moor at a bouy from the Swedish sailing association outside Edshultshall but they were all taken and we sailed to Edshultshall instead, called Haala.
We were alone in the guest harbour, which has two toilets and a wash room but not much else. RS was moored aft of Westkust, the three masted schooner where Anders started his sailing career around 1989. It was with a lot of nostalgia that Anders showed me around the boat. Furthermore, he talked to several older gentlemen in the harbour who all seemed to be a part of Westkust and had he only had time, Anders would have been that too. But old memories also gives a lot of joy.
We took a walk throught the beautiful village, with its typical houses in stark white and ended up at a lookout point with a fantastic view over entire Haala. 73 people live here permanently so it is not very big. Back at the boat I made pancakes and we watched YouTube and snuggled. The first day of our sailing vacation was really perfect.
Tuesday July 28 and Wednesday July 29. Night harbour Lysekil
Tuesday morning we woke up to a cloudy and a bit windy weather. We put on proper sailing clothes and our new sou'westers. Then we started our journey towards Lysekil. Not far from the harbour it started to rain and half way the intensity increased. Sou'westers is tha shit! Luckily there was no wind but we could raise the sails a short while.
As we approached Lysekil we started feeling the wind increasing. In the guest harbour there was no Y boom which we thought but an aft bouy. Both of us are a bit uncomfortable with mooring by bouy but with nice help from kind neighbours in the harbour we made an ok mooring. But Anders managed to maul my boat hook. Bad quality! Our neighbours were a huge motor boat and a cute gig with very nice people who had brought the cat!
In the afternoon it started to become more windy and Wednesday was going to be even worse according to the forecast. Anders went to the harbour offic and managed to book abother night at the same place. Nice! That meant that we didn't need to go out in 15m/s (approx 30 knots) of wind. We mounted our cock pit tent and decorated it like a living room. It became very cosy! The wind was blowing around us but we kept dry and warm with the heater fan on.
Wednesday morning, Anders made a video and it shows how much it was blowing. We took a walk during the day and the waves beat against the cliffs out in the water. The wind stopped us from visiting Gullmarsfjorden and Nordströmmarna (where we had planned to lie at a bouy from Wednesday to Thursday) but there will be other days. Unfortunately we had to leave Lysekil due to no room in the marina so we prepared for a rocky road to Henån.
Thursday July 30 Lysekil to Henån
In the morning we woke up to a fantastic weather with the exception of the wind. A mishap in the morning was that I managed to drop my phone in the harbour. There was no point in trying to get a hold of it but after a few calls to the insurance company, Telenor and the police a new phone was fixed pretty easily. I was without one though and I realised how handicapped you are without your little companion.
Compared to the day before the wind had dropped and we felt ok while chugging out from the harbour. Sure, there were some waves but we were overturned by a big Beneteau with a young kid at the helm which heaved at least 45 degrees and had a good speed. As we approached Islandsberg we noticed that the small waves had stopped. Now the large waves from the North Sea had taken over and broke against the cliffs below the lighthouse. I have never seen such high waves from a boat and some were at least three metres high. It was scary but I trusted Anders and I was right to do so. We had also anchored ourselves to a jackstay across the cock pit.
When we had turned the boat towards Orust and were on our way to Malö strömmar we realised that the waves started to calm down. And after the Malö ferry it was calm seas again. We could then hoist the sails and had a nice sail with the main sail and the genoa. We sailed until we started to approach Henån. There we moored in the guest harbour with the starboard side to the quay and our mooring was a success.
We walked around in Henån, ate pizza at Christer's and enjoyed the stillness in the port. Because unlike the last few days there was no wind in the evening with a mirror gloss sea.
Friday July 31 Henån - Ljungskile
We woke up to a brilliantly gorgeous day and unlike the day before we could put on shorts and t-shirts. But the wind, it didn't want to join us. No matter how we sailed we managed to have up wind the entire time. The view was fantastic though. We sailed by Vindön and underneath the Vindö bridge, saw the Uddevalla bridge in the distance and chugged on along the almost mirror glossed sea lane towards Ljungskile. We had booked a spot in Ljungskile boat club's guest harbour, the one furtherst into the bay. And that was in order. Even during the night there were people around keeping watch. We had a lovely evening in the boat with YouTube and a beautiful sunset. And as usual we looked at the boats in the harbour. That's tradition, after all.
Saturday August 1, Ljungskile-Almösund
It was quite fitting that the last day of the vacation was the first day of August. Wonderful weather and we started the day by tacking forward but tired quite fast of it. We turned on the engine since the winds refused to go our way. Anders also fell in love with the autopilot, Helmuth, who steered us straight which enabled us both to enjoy the passage.
We once again passed by beautiful views, saw houses which lay hidden behind cliffs and moved under power lines without any trouble. When we were to pass the Svanesund ferry Anders got the chance to practise his skills at calling via VHF and could have a simple talk with the captain onboard the ferry. All according to the rules on the chart. When we saw the Tjörn bridge appear right after we felt a certain melancholy that the fun part was over. It had been a wonderful vacation, in spite of the wind in Lysekil and a dropped phone. We learnt a lot about the boat and about each other. We managed to live tightly together without getting on each other's nerves. And we love the same thing with the boat life: sailing past beautiful views without being in a hurry and just enjoying the sound of the waves around us.
Anders has had a goal ever since he bought RS and that was to sail passed Kråksundsgap. This notorious place, where ships have gone under during hard winds, and which he has sailed passed many times in boats where he hasn't been the captain, has always tempted him. Now we would sail past. Or at least travel past. There was quite a lot of wind on the way there but through Stigfjorden it was nice weather and we could sail quite a lot. When we came out to more open water we noticed the wind more and the waves were quite high. We got some respite when we went through Mollösund but the wind increased again before we reached our port for the night, Hällevik Yacht Club on the western side of Orust. For those of you who want a calm night and won't care too much for partying, or maybe will go further west, towards Denmark, this guest harbour is a good choice. There are three showers/toilets, one ice cream place where you can get fresh rolls in the morning and a very expensive restaurant. We were very happy though to be able to get Y-booms, our favourites. We walked around as usual, looking at the boats in the harbour and later enjoyed a cosy evening in the boat together with YouTube.
Taco Friday
Boris??
Silent Night
Thanks for reading. If you want to read more about us we have a Facebook-page: Sailing River Song. Don't forget to subsribe to our YouTube channel, also called Sailing River Song. The film linked below is from the trip home on Saturday.
Something I have always hated since day one with sailing is when the boat is leaning. I always get the feeling that the boat will tip over or that I will fall out of it. Luckily Anders is aware of my fear and challenges me in small portions so that I won't chicken out totally. I nearly panic when the boat leans too much, particularly when the leaning is sudden.
Today we had the idea to go out into the bucket and sail both with the main and the genoa. We made some good tacks and at one point the boat started leaning a lot. And the panic grew. But instead of sitting around sniffling the entire trip I decided to sit looking forward in the boat, not to the side. And that did the trick. Despite a pretty significant leaning I didn't get more panic but I felt that I managed to be in the boat even when it was leaning.
Also, what great sailing we did! Anders had perhaps not managed to explain 100% to me about how to manage the sails and I thought that I would have to work all the sails myself. We split them up and I managed the genoa as usual and Anders took care of the main. We got really good winds and quite a few knots.
There are no pictures from the day but a little film below. We are also present on Facebook as Sailing River Song. Please visit our YouTube channel, Sailing River Song, for more films.
We have actually only had other people on the boat, apart from family, once before, when our neighbour with daughter came along for a trip. Now we got the chance to treat my best friend and her family to a day on RS. What great weather it became.! Not much wind but lovely, warm and the best coast really showed itself from its most beautiful side. We started by measuring the wind; almost 0. But we do have an engine so that's an easy fix. We cast off after everyone in the Harris family had come onboard and put on sunscreen.
We went by motor under the Skåpesund bridge and out in Stigfjorden to anchor in a bay where we had previously lain and knew it was good. I had brought a large sallad and cold pies and we ate everything in the cock pit. It is nice with a good table with a laguna mount. The junior section of the Harris family started to become a bit restless. Our boat isn't the largest and yes, it can be a bit difficult to get an opportunity to move around like you are used to. Consequently, we started going homeward. The winds had by now started blowing a little bit and we could sail a part of the way. Nice to be able to show our friends the wonderful life sailing is.
The sea was not at all in upror on the way home and the few waves we had came from the motor boats that passed us. We were very happy with the day, however, and Anders and I were happy that we had been able to give the Harris family a nice trip on the sea.
Whatever you do in life you have to do for the first time once. Today was such a day. We were to go a little way away from out home harbour and anchor and a natural harbour. We went there by motor because the winds were tricky and when the winds are gusty the boat starts leaning suddenly and I become frightened. With motor, it was ok anyway and soon we started approaching our natural harbour, Hälsön, about 2 h from Almösund, in Stigfjorden. Halsön is uninhabited but has a lot to discover when it comes to nature and animal life.
It was a bit tricky to get the mooring done right in an easy way. The boat moved around and although we had planned to moor with the starbord side towards the cliff it became port side. Next to the mountain, the depth is 5 metres but it felt quite scary to lie so close to the cliff anyway. At this location, the Swedish Cruising Association have drilled in loops in the cliffs which makes the mooring a bit easier. We tied the stern and the aft securely and had a spring in both the stern and the aft,
On our way to Hälsön (in Stigfjorden)
Here is Hälsön
Next to this cliff is our mooring.
Extra crew
Properly moored and fenders in place
First time in a natural harbour with our own boat.
So cool
I made pancakes for us and we sat in the cock pit and enjoyed pancakes and nice weather. We just relaxed which was wonderful. This is what vacation is about.
What a wonderful place!
It is about 3-5 m depth
Here is also a Sopmaja, a hut with one half for garbage and one half with two outhouse toilets.
Oysters!
Securely moored, winds of up to 16 m/s (32 knots) tonight
Thank you Swedish Cruising Association for the loops you provide.
Lovely weather.
Time for pancakes! Bought like this. Just add milk. Shake and fry
Very nice!
The nature at Hälsön is typical for Bohuslän. Naked cliffs and wind pained bushes which grow in the direction the wind blows or behind cliffs to get away from the wind. These white flowers were everywhere.
Anders and I took a walk on the cliffs and I felt like a mountain goat. Just enjoy the lovely pictures.
Because Anders was going away the entire week 27 we wanted to do something together. And wasn't the weather perfect for sailing! Friday afternoon we travelled to Almösund and had a wonderful evening in the still Bohuslän. Almost no wind in the harbour and temperatures of about 27-28 degrees Celsius in the evening made it very enjoyable for us. It turned into both bathing, eating prawn sandwich, walking, more bathing, a visit in the boat from a friend of Anders' and enjoying the sunset.
Prawn sandwich is great
So still
Nice walk on the jetties
Saturday June 27 2020
Already when we woke up it was over 20 degrees and we understood that it would be a warm day. After breakfast we chugged out of the harbour and planned a long day trip, actually around the island Tjörn. Although, where was the wind? We were out of luck there. We went by motor under Skåpesund bridge but realized soon that there was no point in going around Tjörn, if we wanted to sail. We could have done it by motor but that is no fun on a sail boat. Instead we decided to anchor in a lovley bay. We had never anchored before and today, when the winds were soft, it was a perfect day for trying. Anders managed the entire anchoring by himself, and very good at that and I only supported with reversing the boat so that the anchor dug itself into the bottom as it was supposed to do. Then we enjoyed three to four hours of bathing, eating food and just being together. Over 30 degrees af heat and cool, salty baths. What a day! As we turned around homeward a light breeze had started and we could sail for a little while. So nice, even if the surges from the motor boats were disturbing the peace.
Anchored for the first time
Annika is safe in the boat.
Seaside
Deputy captain?
I’m going in!
Scrubbed away some dirt too.
Chemtrails following chemtrails?
Panda woman!
Annika's shoe was found in the water. It probably needed to cool off.
Well, darn it, the sun does burn at sea. Despite sun factor of 50 we got sun burnt and I looked like a panda. When we arrived in the harbour in the afternoon Anders managed a nice mooring by himself and then we cleaned RS from all the salt water. In the same stride, Anders managed to flush one of my shoes into the sea too. I guess it was warm aswell. 🙂
Watch out first attempt at an edited YouTube-video here above. In English!
What a summer we have! Despite being only the middle of June we have 25-26 degrees celcius every day and great winds. Both me and the captain were craving some kind of sailing during the weekend and thus we did what we have done many Fridays since RS became ours; we went out to her after work. The sun was shingn but wasn't it a bit too windy? Well, at least according to skipper but since I know that I have a tendency to not want things right before them happening despite the fact that I would benefit from it. We took a walk along the jetties and tried our new anemometre. Along the groyne the wave broke up over the jetties and the eind blew 14 knots and gusted 20. We looked att eachother and decided to wait until Saturday morning to sail out. The plan thus far had been to go to one of Kryssarklubben's bouys and lie there but we ended up with a night at harbour instead. I made a pizza roll in the Omna and we had brought along some snacks so after another walk along the jetties we sat down in the cock pit and looked at the stars while the wind abated. Then we ended up on our bunks in front of YouTube.
Cook makes pizza role
You buy a kit
Just to cook in the Omnia
Captain is building a seat (prototype)
As a painting
Senior had a taste too
The end of a Friday night
Saturday morning we woke up early to a wonderful summer weather. Quite a few winds but I thought to myself, might aswell try. We went out already around 9 am and headed south. Outside the Tjörn bridge we set course for the southern tip of Tjörn. Good winds but the sea was not as good. The waves hit us pretty hard against the boat and despite hardly any leaning we had good speed. The rocking was not nice though. It was not a good combination together with hunger and a some panic. But thanks to the captain's understanding of his crew's mind he steered us into a little bit calmer water and the panic subsided. We could sail all the way down to the southern tip and it was not until we came into an area with a lot of rocky islets that the captain felt that it was enough for him. He gave the order to start the engine and pull in the genoa. This was made with ease and the captain commended his crew. We chugged on by motor all the way to our night harbour, Ängevikens guest harbour. When we arrived we had sailed for five hours, a little more than half by sail. We moored on the outside of the harbour, with the port side out towards the waterway, but thanks to most boats driving passed did so slowly and in a calm manner we didn't have to worry about far too much rocking.
When we had moored completely, payed the fee and got land poser I cooked some food.
Efter en dusch i de fräscha duscharna gick vi en promenad längs med kajen och tittade på båtar. Vi gick också ut mot en av badstränderna och gick längs vattnet. Det finns så mycket musselskal och ostronskal på denna sidan av ön längs strandkanten. Kapten berättade att han själv hade lärt sig simma i simskola på en likadan strand, tidigt på sommaren och med en massa musselskal som stack en i foten. Vi gick hem till båten, tittade på YouTube-klipp och myste allmänt. Solen gick sakta ner och det svalnade av lite grann. När vi gick och lade oss hade vi luckan i förpiken öppen och det var skönt med frisk luft i båten. Jag tänkte på att bara för ett par tre veckor sedan hade vi på värmefläkten när vi skulle sova. Det behövdes verkligen inte nu.
Fint väder och vi är klara för avgång.
Klädesholmen
Jaa då var vi här.
Vår rutt under Lördagen.
Slip betald.
Lätt att förtöja och lätt att avgå.
Väl förtöjda.
Mat på G.
Chilli con carne
Lyx i livet.
Utsikt ner mot Kyrkesund
Ohoj.
Min älskade, mitt allt.
Pannkaker till kvällsfikat.
SSRS Skärhamn.
Skärhamn
Kyrkesund
På söndagen vaknade vi nästan först av alla i hamn. Klockan var inte mer än sju men man känner sig utvilad ändå. Vi gjorde oss i ordning, åt frukost och startade sedan motorn för att ta oss hemåt. Denna sträcka var inte alls lika lång och kapten beräknade ca tre timmar till mål. Allt berodde ju också på hur bra vindar vi kunde få. Vi tuffade på i ganska maklig fart. Motorn på båten har bara tio hk och gör inte mer än ca 4-5 knop. Vi hade också motvind, i princip större delen av vägen, och motvind sänker farten ännu mer.
Vi tuffade förbi några fisk- och musselodlingar på vägen och såg Atene, en vacker träskuta med två master, hemmahörande i Skärhamn. Annars blev det ingen segling alls. Motvinden och det faktum att det är rätt trångt på vissa ställen gjorde segling svårt med kryssning och vi (läs jag) kände inte riktigt att detta var ett alternativ denna dag. Men man kan ha det mysigt på segelbåt även med motorn igång även om man såklart föredrar den stilla njutningen det är att endast använda segel.
Vi tog oss upp mot Skåpesund och under bron och gick därmed i ”mål” på vår resa runt Tjörn. Ja, Tjörn Runt, segeltävlingen, har målgång strax innan Skåpesundsbron. Efter bron tuffade vi sakta bort mot hemmahamn, svärandes åt vissa sjömarodörer som inte borde ha båt eller kanske enbart en eka med åror. Fart på sjön kan vara farligt men det verkar vissa inte bry sig om.
Vi fick till en fin tilläggning. Det känns som att vi har blivit bra samspelta och löser saker tillsammans. Vi städade ur RS, både ute och innan, tog en kaffe med svärfar och en lätt lunch för att sedan åka hem till katten.
Helgen blev så lyckad! Både jag och kapten kom hem med stor lycka i själ och hjärta. Det som främst gladde oss och även till viss del överraskade oss var att vi klarat en av semesterns mål redan nu, nämligen Tjörn runt. Till semestern blir det istället Orust runt med Gullmarn istället. Det blir att se fram emot en förhoppningsvis varm sommar med ljumma vindar som alltid fyller våra segel och tar oss åt rätt håll.
National day, June 6th. We decided to take a day cruise and travelled to RS early in the day. When we arrived it was almost lull but we know that if we go out of the harbour there is usually more wind. After a nice start (Anders is getting very good at this), we unfolded the genoa and stopped the engine. And no, there were no strong winds. The captain steered towards the north because that was the direction of the winds. We were almost alone on our trip, with just a few motor boats that easily passed us. Our speed wasn't more than a few knots but thanks to the lack of other boats the captain could sit down and steer and we had a trip north which was calm, stabile and relaxing.
The captain loves his life.
The sea is calm.
We sailed on and the gusts gave us a few more knots but otherwise it was calm. When we had almost reached the ferry in Svanesund I had made some lunch and we decided to turn around 180 degrees and set the course southwards.
Now we had up winds, although not the up winds we experienced last time. We had to tack to get home, though. It didn't bother us too much and we managed that which didn't go well last time, which was keeping me calm. During the entire sail we tacked 16 times and I have realized that I must allow the wind to help me when I tack. Then the sail will move over quicker and I don't need to work so hard.
Log book writing
New LED diodes
The berth in Svanesund
Back in the "tub" we had a small race with another boat before rolling in the genoa and starting the engine. We also moored almost perfectly. At harbour I wrote in the log book and the we had a fika with father-in-law. On the way home we went a different way, via the Asker Islands and the the Svanesund ferry to the mainland. A wonderful national day at sea.
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