5/13/03 – 5/14/03 At the dock in Ellös
Most of this time was devoted to getting Sugilite ready to depart and inquiring about our household shipment. Getting information about the weather occupied a considerable amount of our thought process. Accurate weather knowledge is a highly desirable item for sailors and we didn’t seem to have a simple way of getting it. There is a special kind of weather radio called Navtec which is mostly used in Europe. It delivers weather reports twice daily in English. We decided to purchase one along with a remote control unit for the autopilot. In addition, we had brought with us the VHF[1] radio we planned to use as the model we wanted was not available in Europe. Most of this time was devoted to installing these items and stowing food and other staples.
It’s fun being at the HR dock. There are always lots of new boats being delivered and fun people to meet. Some people load pallets of things onto their boats. A German guy loaded cases of wine. With the price of wine here, guess we should have shipped a bit more. We met Brian of Red Shoes. His wife is coming later this month so he’s loading the boat with 2 pallets of stuff alone. He seemed a bit lost. We spent several hours talking with a German couple who were picking up a new 36, their second one. He brought charts of the German Bight and spent a couple of hours with us going over strategies of leaving Cuxhaven (Germany) and sailing to the Netherlands. Our notes from this meeting proved to be the most valuable of our entire trip.
5/15/03 – Motored to Lyseskil
New gadgets installed and we are off. A funny thing happened however. When we pushed the button for the autopilot, the boat would immediately turn 180˚ and go the other way. We spent time perfecting our map reading skills. We found out later that the GPS[2] didn’t get plugged back in after the remote control unit was installed so the autopilot couldn’t receive the GPS headings. With our first big crisis out of the way, we went back and had beers and made charts on the computer for the next day’s adventure.
We bought another SIM card for the Sweden cell phone from Vicki, but now we couldn’t get our email to download. There was still no word on our shipment of household goods. We were getting tired of waiting so we decided to head off – first north to Smögen then south to Copenhagen so we could meet Brian. Vickie offered to work with the freight forwarder to have our shipment sent up from Göteburg when it finally arrives. We’ll survive on the stuff we’ve brought till we get back to Ellös. Saw more Eider ducks.
5/16/03 – The autopilot now works, the Navtec works but the other radios are still questionable. The VHF is only partially installed and the SSB[3] radio we haven’t figured out at all. Brian is flying to Copenhagen today to meet his Internet flame. We are due to meet him in Copenhagen on the 20th. We spent the morning in Lysekil practicing landings with a breast line and leaving with a bow spring line (starting forward, then changing to reverse.) We learned this technique in Dashew’s book, Practical Seamanship and it really works for us. Not much opened in Smögen but it’s a very cool town. We docked along the boardwalk. We bought postcards to mail back home and some bananas for the larder.
5/17/03 – South to Marstrand.
We initially went north from Smögen to the Soten Canal. It’s very cool very narrow channel only 50 ft. wide in places. The sides are mostly barren rocks with some clumps of trees and a few little red houses. The canal is about 5 miles long with a bridge in the center which opens for boats by turning on a pivot. We used the new horn we bought from Vickie to tell the operator to open bridge. We then circled back to Smögen before starting south towards Copenhagen. We went past Gullholmen to Marstrand where large a medieval castle dominates the skyline. As we motored along the harbor we saw lots of high school kids in prom clothes walking on the adjacent boardwalk. It seemed to have something to do with graduation. We decided to dock there for the night. It’s a very cool town but empty because the resort season had not started. The boardwalk along the harbor was lined with small shops and restaurants. The town had placed several flower pots in the shapes of large Eider ducks. We ate at the “last restaurant” as you walk along the boardwalk. The owner was kind enough to let us use their internet connection. Our waitress said the Swedes do not start coming until July – then Germans and French in August. It’s quite a resort town – but empty now. She had been an exchange student in Oklahoma while her twin brother got to go to San Francisco. What a deal! All afternoon long we watched a young girl driving a dingy back and forth across the harbor at full speed. She’s getting lots of practice and having a great time to boot.[1] VHF radio – Very High Frequency radio which is used to communicate with a range of about 20 miles. We can talk with other ships, bridges, locks, coast guard stations and receive weather information with it.
[2] GPS – Global Positioning System – another kind of specialized radio. It picks up signals from satellites and can give you your position on the earth within a 100 ft. or so.
[3] SSB radio – Single Sideband ratio which is used to communicate with a range of several thousand miles if the atmospheric conditions are just right.