Head winds

Our next stop is Vindalsö, to dine and dance with friends.
Discrrtion is the better part of valour, so with strong headwinds we chose the simpler route up Nämdöfjärden rather than pick our pay through the isles to get there. Even so we had three and a half hours with 16knot winds on the nose. On on the last hour did beats turn to reaches..
A really tiring leg.. but not so tiring that we weren't still dancing at 2 and relaxing in the sauna at first light...

Lazy days

We set off after a lazy breakfast on an easy reach in bright sunshine. This time we really do expect strong winds in the night so when we passed a sheltered bay on Böteskobb it was too good to miss. Lunch, a swim, blög a little, and put the meat in to marinade.....

First night out

After a lazy lunch at the marina we set out late in the afternoon for a couple of hours aiming for Mortö Bunsön... But as we got near I checked the forecast on the mobile. Two completely different stories from two differebt sites. So we sailed on to Grönskär to find a spot that covered all eventualities. A good fast sail averaging over 5knots
And then we rounded off the evening with a grill and a sunset. What else?

Picture to follow...

A step forward

One of the winter jobs was fitting a removable step on the bow.  Coming ashore is normally OK-but once in a while it's tricky for the crew to come ashore without a great leap of faith. 

The IF-båt is not that well suited for a step though - the bow is quite swept under which means that the strut from the step doesn't transfer all that much of the load to the hull... Most of the weight seems to be on the deck fittings.  The strut length makes a difference and the strut is adjustable - but not to any degree of finesse.  I tried drilling it but cutting a large hole in a curved tube without a pillar drill didn't really work.  So as a last resort I've added packing to the end, both to protect the hull and to lengthen it just a little.

Back on the boat it all seems to work in the marina - although the packing tends to move a bit under load so it is only partly doing it's job.  We''ll see how it goes when we get out to sea.....

Under a cloud

The homeward trip had the luxury of  a following wind - at least to start with and we made reasonable pace in modest winds under blue skies.

Too good to last you might think - and it was.  By half way home the weather over the land was threatening with trains of dark clouds skirting along just inshore of us.. getting closer and closer as rumbles of thunder echoed over the water.  We'd edge away towards the sunshine, only to lose the wind and fall back into the shadow.

After an hour of playing tag the clouds rolled overhead and the rain started...

...but by then the thunder had moved on and we just got a shower for ten minutes or so.  More annoying was that the wind died and to get us home we had to fire up the outboard. 

I've not been chased by a cloud before.....

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25 June 2011
Sittuviken - Kalrslunds
Paul, Kia

Midsommar by sea

This year midsummer saw what's getting to be our traditional trip south to celebrate with friends out in the country.
The weather for the trip down was good - breezy, and maybe a bit too much on the nose for a quick sail but we set off with full sail and were soon close hauled and well heeled over on the leg out from Karlslunds. To keep us pointing we took the winch to the jibsheet to tighten it in - which proved not to be the best of plans. Not long after I noticed the leech was fluttering a lot - and a look behind the mainsail showed the genoa had split a seam. So down it came and the rest of the trip was beating with just the main...

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24 June 2011
Karlslunds - Sittuviken
Paul, Kia