Week 41 – 53   7 October – end of year 2019   307 nm and a lot of walking.

We are sorry that we haven’t been writing our weekly blog in English since early October.
There are no excuses as we should be able to find time to write. This will be a summary of our fall and early winter along the Swedish west coast.
We have been enjoying sailing in the archipelago taking advantage of the nice weather we at least sometime have had. No severe storms so far but a lot of rain and in between very nice sunshine. We have only had frost one weekend in early November.
Early October we spent a week in Stockholm visiting relatives. We combined that trip with visiting Björn’s mother in the south of Sweden.
We have done four long sailing trips with great success, one all the way to the Norwegian border. We have managed to avoid most of the rain and with our “unlimited” time schedule we have been able to wait for good wind conditions.
Visiting small harbours and protected anchorages during off season is really a treat. No congestion what so ever. But there have been a change since we sailed here fifteen years ago. Today we meet a few sailboats even in November. Of course it’s mainly during weekends, but even in weekdays it can happen and then it’s almost certain a retired couple like us.
All together it has proven to be a very good decision to have turned north from Ireland this August to sail the winter in Sweden. We really enjoy the brisk and sometime clear weather sailing, although the days are shorter. But with next harbour or anchorage close by it has never been a problem to be able to moor or anchor well before sunset. On top of that there is about an hour of fading light after sunset.
In mid November we sailed a weekend crossing Kattegat to the Danish Island Läsö. In the season normally the harbour is crowded with sailboats from Northern Europe, but this weekend we were the only boat, quite an exceptional feeling. Took long walks on the island and of course had a Hof (a Danish beer) at the Pub.
The possibility to be able to take advantage of the “empty” archipelago is such a blessing that is difficult to explain. You must have experienced the wonderful archipelago in overcrowded summertime to fully appreciate the silence that is the opposite of the busy summertime. OK you can’t swim in the water and you have to wear more than normal foul weather gear, but the rest is pure happiness.
Two times we have taken Moon instead of the car down to Gothenburg for a week to participate in meetings and visiting friends. There are several marinas in Gothenburg empty of boats where we have been able to moor for a very decent fee including electricity to keep Moon warm and cosy.
It’s even possible to choose the one that have the best location regarding the next coming strong wind.
Very convenient to bring your home around to different places you have to attend.
In mid December we had a plan to sail down to Helsingborg and Björn’s mother for the holidays. But the weather forecast was predicting south east to south west for the rest of December. There is no protecting archipelago for 80 nm down the coast and sailing close haul in December in open waters is not a good idea. On top of that the short days calls for night sailing and that’s even worse in cold and dark December.
Finally we decided to sail back north from Gothenburg to our “winter jetty” and use our car for the trip south to Helsingborg and spend Christmas together with Björn’s mother.
We plan to be back in Moon by the end of December or early January and hopefully still have good weather and no sea ice. The latter is not unusual during in the inner part of the archipelago in January and February.
We plan to continue living in our floating home and go sailing when conditions apply, and of course that we stay healthy. The plans for the coming summer and fall include Norway far north and then Iceland and maybe even Greenland before heading south again.
Maybe we will spend the next winter in Portugal/Spain, the Canary Islands or the Caribbean. Plans are written in sand below tide…
Happy Holidays to all our English spoken friends from S/V Moon
A&B