Monday July 27 Almösund - Edshultshall
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.
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