Our 'epic voyage' started slowly with a delayed flight out
of Birmingham leading to a missed connection in Copenhagen. The low point
was at the transit desk where people were dealt with by number and Ann drew
"666". Fortunately things then began to look up and before long
we were in an excellent hotel close to Ellös.
Tuesday, the official handover day (glorious midsummer
weather with daylight until midnight), was spent trying to understand how
everything worked and starting to unpack and stow all our gear. The
Hallberg-Rassy boatyard is full of swallows, which we took as a good
omen. We took our first test sail on Wednesday - 8.6 knots in 14 knots of
wind and superb handling. Then it was back to learning, fixing and
stowing. One of the most daunting moments was drilling several large
holes in our brand new teak deck to fit the hoist for the outboard. We'd
rented a car for a few days and made good use of it, so we now have new Swedish
duvets and hundreds of plastic boxes of all sizes - now largely full and stowed
under the floor, under berths and wherever.
Friday was midsummer eve - a national holiday in Sweden -
and marked for us with a naming ceremony for Swallow. Next to us on the dock
is a friend and fellow Mahina crew. Jack Hoopes and wife Jocelyn, with their
new HR40, delivered a day after Swallow. So once we'd named Swallow and
drunk our first bottle of champagne, we named their boat - Windleblo - and
drank a second over dinner. Our first cooked meal on board and first
dinner guests.
The HR yard is very friendly place to moor up for a few
days. We are surrounded by people of numerous nationalities collecting
boats or just visiting. Plenty of helpful practical advice for almost any
problem. With almost everything attached we are only a day from heading
off. We had our first solo sail yesterday - a nice clean departure from
the dock, a couple of hours of great sailing and then an almost perfect docking
(thank God) before a very attentive audience. All quite nerve racking,
but very good to get that bit done.
