GOTEBORG, SWEDEN 57.42N 11.57E and crossing the Gota canal to Stockholm
Restless of Auckland
Roland and Consie Lennox-King
Thu 4 Jun 2009 08:43
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5 May we flew London to Copenhagen and were very happy to
be met by our friends Lena and Mogens, who drove us to Restless in the
boatyard where she had been in over winter. The first night aboard, on the
hard was very cold at 5'C but we were glad to see that Restless was dry under
her winter cover. The next week was a rush of antifouling, polishing masts and
cleaning after months away, but we had a memorable trip on Mogens' boat 'Bat' to
the Swedish island of Hven for a BBQ with 20 members of his sailing club. It was
a cool windy BBQ with lots of aquavit and singing, including Roland's version of
Pokarekareana.
14 May Restless went happily back into the water and once
her masts were stepped, the sails bent on, engine checked and new batteries
installed, we were ready to leave Copenhagen on the 22nd. The boatyard owner
Graham and his wife Yette invited us to a lovely Danish dinner before we left,
and drove us to Frederiksborg castle, near their home. We left Fiskerihavn but
did not go far, only to Vedbaek marina up the coast, where our friends Inger
and Tuxen had managed to buy us 2 folding bikes in a supermarket
loss-leader for a fifth of the normal cost. We could have stayed in Vedbaek
forever, our many friends invited us to their homes for Danish meals, and took
us sightseeing around the countryside that you cannot see by boat. We went one
evening to 150 year old Tivoli amusement park - forerunner of Disneyland. There
was an invitation to a birthday party on a sailing ship...... but no! It was
time to go, so on the 30th May, after delaying our departure due to a couple of
days of gales, we set off for Goteborg, stopping for a night in Varberg harbour,
in the shadow of an old fort. It was motorsailing with wind on the
nose. After a phonecall from our Irish friend Michael on 'Southerly' that
he was leaving in a day from Goteborg, we again motorsailed the
remainder of the 130 miles to arrive in time for a quick
catch-up.
Kajsa, whom we had met in Scotland, came to see us
in Lillabommen marina by the Opera house in Goteborg, with the welcome
news that her sister Emma would like to join us for a few days on the next
part of our trip, across Sweden by the Gota canal. We had a lovely BBQ at their family home; this summer Mona and Lars
plan to cruise the Shetland and Orkney islands, but they may drive along the
Gota canal and find us.
The Gota canal connects the Baltic with the North Sea, and
was built in the early 1800s to avoid the tax the Danes put on shipping
using the Sound to get to the Baltic. The distance we
have to go is some 220 miles from Goteborg to Mem, where the canal exits into
the Baltic, some 100 miles south of Stockholm.
Our plan this summer is to sail around the Swedish
archipelago from Stockholm to Helsinki, and from there we hope to visit St
Petersburg before sailing south to Gotland, the east coast of Sweden and to
Kiel, where we plan to go through the Kiel canal to Holland.
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