This cruise report does not really
belong on this site, because I did not have my Alacrity at that time
yet. Instead I was the co-owner of a 1964 wooden folkboat called
"Malin". I had just met my then wife-to-be and she had never ever been
on a sailboat before, except for a few quite unlucky shakedown cruises
with either too less wind or too much rain.
However she agreed to a one week's cruise our first summer together. There are quite a few people who would say that if you can live together one week on a moderately leaky and damp 26 foot wooden sailboat, there should be no problem with living together as a married couple afterwards. So far this has been true.
My idea with this first cruise was to sail into lake Mälaren which has less traffic and weaker winds than the archipelago and the Baltic. Additionally there are quite a few things to see. We would sail to the nice little town of Mariefred with it's famous Gripsholm castle. On our way there we would visit the island of Birka, where excavations have revealed one of the biggest viking settlements ever found.
To my wife's annoyance I had decided that we should have one more crew on the first leg of the cruise. At that time Malin had a berth on the archipelago side of Stockholm, actually in the same club marina where my Alacrity is today. Our cruise, however, would take us into the sweetwater lake Mälaren west of the city. To get there we would have to navigate an opening bridge and a lock. I was a bit worried as I never had gone through a lock before and this was the main reason why I liked one more crew to feel safe.
Here we are waiting for the bridge to be opened. The guy who is standing aft is my friend Jesper who accompanied us the first day. We had requested the bridge to be opened at 10 a.m. The weather was nice and sunny, however the forecast spoke of rain later that day.
When we had passed through the bridge we sailed for about half an hour. Then we decided to start the engine, a very old Evinrude 6hp outbord which, however, worked nicely almost the whole time. We did this mainly because of poweboat swell, something I would never do today as I since have learned that motoring through swell is much more annoying than sailing through it. Also, we soon would have to enter a canal to get to the lock and we wanted to get there as quickly as we could.
Here we are in the canal. It is a very special feeling to sail (or motor) right through the city. You can see the houses on the right side. A bit further down there are actually buildings on both sides of the canal.
We are through the lock, it's right there under the bridge. Now we are floating in fresh water. I remember actually having a silly feeling of what if the boat wouldn't float on the other side when going through the lock. The passage itself was no problem at all and my wife was of course right that we never would have needed the extra crew. Today I would confidentially sail through single handed, but I did not know this then! The lock itself is mainly there to regulate the water flow from lake Mälaren into the Baltic and there is only few inches of height difference.
After about one more hour's motoring we finally could set sail. Of course it almost immediately began to rain.
In lake Mälaren there are almost no natural harbours or anchorages at all. Instead local yacht clubs have docks on small islands where guest boats are welcome for a moderate fee. Our first night we stopped at one of these, called Jungfruöarna (The Virgin Islands). Before we moored there, we dropped off Jesper att a dock on Ekerö island from where he would take the bus home.
Jungfruöarna are two small islands connected by a tiny bridge. There is a club house and a sauna belonging to the yacht club and very nice docks. We rigged the boom tent (cheap tarp type) in case it would rain more and relaxed before dinner.
The next morning we sailed on to Birka. Winds were light from the Southwest so we were on a close reach most of the time and not moving very fast. At one time we were followed by a swan family...
When we reached the somewhat more open waters of Björkfjärden which we had to cross to get to Birka the wind died almost completely. It was warm and sunny and most other boats were motoring or just drifting along. However, after about half an hour the wind picked up again and we could sail comfortably to Björkö and the viking settlement of Birka.
This is the visitor's dock at Birka. It is quite open to the west, but very sheltered from all other directions. When we arrived we checked the weather forecast which was talking about somewhat stronger winds from the west the next day, however the night should be quiet....
The viking village of Birka itself was a disappointment. We had imagined some reconstructed viking buildings, longboats and people demonstrating ancient craftmanship. The reality was a tourist restaurant and a small museum. The rest was holes in the ground (excavations) and sheep.
Now, two years later, there have been newspaper reports that there has been some development since. Now they apparently have some real viking stuff going on. Most people who visit Birka do this by ferry from Stockholm, a nice day trip.
On the highes hill on Björkö there is a monument of Ansgar who was the first christian in Scandinavia.
This is my wife at the monument. The view is really great. The picture below shows the hill and the monument from the seaside.
Of course, the weather forecast was wrong. The west wind came already in the middle of the night and with it quite a swell. In the early hours I awoke and felt quite queasy. The boat next to us decided to leave. We, however tried to get some more sleep with doubtable results. Instead we went to the restaurant as soon as it opened for the day and ate a early breakfast on firm and steaday ground. Then we left to sail for Mariefred and Gripsholm castle.
Winds were perfect and after two days of light winds the boat and it's crew took real delight in some real sailing. The last part of the approach to Gripsholm cove was quite tricky with very few navigation aids (and some out of date charts). All went well however.
This is the steamboat "Mariefred". It was built in 1903 and has since sailed on the Stockholm-Mariefred trade. It is one of very few coal steam ships still in active service in Sweden and the only one on lake Mälaren.
When we berthed at Mariefred community dock the trusty Evinrude suddenly died. Fortunately the boat was gliding fast enough for me to get hold of a nearby mooring buoy. Afterwards we concluded that the engine failure probably was caused by myself sitting on the fuel hose...
Here we would stay two days and rest. Time to open a bottle of red wine. In the backgrund you can see one of the four towers of Gripsholm castle.
However she agreed to a one week's cruise our first summer together. There are quite a few people who would say that if you can live together one week on a moderately leaky and damp 26 foot wooden sailboat, there should be no problem with living together as a married couple afterwards. So far this has been true.
My idea with this first cruise was to sail into lake Mälaren which has less traffic and weaker winds than the archipelago and the Baltic. Additionally there are quite a few things to see. We would sail to the nice little town of Mariefred with it's famous Gripsholm castle. On our way there we would visit the island of Birka, where excavations have revealed one of the biggest viking settlements ever found.
To my wife's annoyance I had decided that we should have one more crew on the first leg of the cruise. At that time Malin had a berth on the archipelago side of Stockholm, actually in the same club marina where my Alacrity is today. Our cruise, however, would take us into the sweetwater lake Mälaren west of the city. To get there we would have to navigate an opening bridge and a lock. I was a bit worried as I never had gone through a lock before and this was the main reason why I liked one more crew to feel safe.
Here we are waiting for the bridge to be opened. The guy who is standing aft is my friend Jesper who accompanied us the first day. We had requested the bridge to be opened at 10 a.m. The weather was nice and sunny, however the forecast spoke of rain later that day.
When we had passed through the bridge we sailed for about half an hour. Then we decided to start the engine, a very old Evinrude 6hp outbord which, however, worked nicely almost the whole time. We did this mainly because of poweboat swell, something I would never do today as I since have learned that motoring through swell is much more annoying than sailing through it. Also, we soon would have to enter a canal to get to the lock and we wanted to get there as quickly as we could.
Here we are in the canal. It is a very special feeling to sail (or motor) right through the city. You can see the houses on the right side. A bit further down there are actually buildings on both sides of the canal.
We are through the lock, it's right there under the bridge. Now we are floating in fresh water. I remember actually having a silly feeling of what if the boat wouldn't float on the other side when going through the lock. The passage itself was no problem at all and my wife was of course right that we never would have needed the extra crew. Today I would confidentially sail through single handed, but I did not know this then! The lock itself is mainly there to regulate the water flow from lake Mälaren into the Baltic and there is only few inches of height difference.
After about one more hour's motoring we finally could set sail. Of course it almost immediately began to rain.
In lake Mälaren there are almost no natural harbours or anchorages at all. Instead local yacht clubs have docks on small islands where guest boats are welcome for a moderate fee. Our first night we stopped at one of these, called Jungfruöarna (The Virgin Islands). Before we moored there, we dropped off Jesper att a dock on Ekerö island from where he would take the bus home.
Jungfruöarna are two small islands connected by a tiny bridge. There is a club house and a sauna belonging to the yacht club and very nice docks. We rigged the boom tent (cheap tarp type) in case it would rain more and relaxed before dinner.
The next morning we sailed on to Birka. Winds were light from the Southwest so we were on a close reach most of the time and not moving very fast. At one time we were followed by a swan family...
When we reached the somewhat more open waters of Björkfjärden which we had to cross to get to Birka the wind died almost completely. It was warm and sunny and most other boats were motoring or just drifting along. However, after about half an hour the wind picked up again and we could sail comfortably to Björkö and the viking settlement of Birka.
This is the visitor's dock at Birka. It is quite open to the west, but very sheltered from all other directions. When we arrived we checked the weather forecast which was talking about somewhat stronger winds from the west the next day, however the night should be quiet....
The viking village of Birka itself was a disappointment. We had imagined some reconstructed viking buildings, longboats and people demonstrating ancient craftmanship. The reality was a tourist restaurant and a small museum. The rest was holes in the ground (excavations) and sheep.
Now, two years later, there have been newspaper reports that there has been some development since. Now they apparently have some real viking stuff going on. Most people who visit Birka do this by ferry from Stockholm, a nice day trip.
On the highes hill on Björkö there is a monument of Ansgar who was the first christian in Scandinavia.
This is my wife at the monument. The view is really great. The picture below shows the hill and the monument from the seaside.
Of course, the weather forecast was wrong. The west wind came already in the middle of the night and with it quite a swell. In the early hours I awoke and felt quite queasy. The boat next to us decided to leave. We, however tried to get some more sleep with doubtable results. Instead we went to the restaurant as soon as it opened for the day and ate a early breakfast on firm and steaday ground. Then we left to sail for Mariefred and Gripsholm castle.
Winds were perfect and after two days of light winds the boat and it's crew took real delight in some real sailing. The last part of the approach to Gripsholm cove was quite tricky with very few navigation aids (and some out of date charts). All went well however.
This is the steamboat "Mariefred". It was built in 1903 and has since sailed on the Stockholm-Mariefred trade. It is one of very few coal steam ships still in active service in Sweden and the only one on lake Mälaren.
When we berthed at Mariefred community dock the trusty Evinrude suddenly died. Fortunately the boat was gliding fast enough for me to get hold of a nearby mooring buoy. Afterwards we concluded that the engine failure probably was caused by myself sitting on the fuel hose...
Here we would stay two days and rest. Time to open a bottle of red wine. In the backgrund you can see one of the four towers of Gripsholm castle.