Home Again

Our Slott Hotel proved to be both elegant and comfortable - out on the road to Oxelosund. The gardens were extensive with a large collection of modern sculptures which we enjoyed before resting and then going out to eat a last Suchi at Kohiro. We went to bed early and got up very early indeed. The hotel had kindly put out a packed breakfast in the fridge in the breakfst room for us so we could leave prepared for our journey. 

The drive to Halsingborg was wet, dull and fairly boring but thankfully traffic light. The ferry was crowded and snacks on board poor. Lunch was available in a separate dining room but only for those going back and forth a few times. We found our lunch very pleasantly in a real Danish Inn on the coast road to Copenhagen just north of the Lousiana art gallery. 

 

General Update

I should have explained in part 3 that we aborted our trip to Norrtalje this year because of several problems that took up time. The first was the closing of Danviks bridge at the entrance to Stockholm harbour that made the short cut through Lake Malaren unavailable. The alternative route through Myssingen is longer and less sheltered. The second was a rather prolonged stay in Stockholm seeing friend which was very enjoyable and extended because of somewhat unfavourable weather. The third was our unjustified worry about the engine. We have decided the increased noise level is most probably due to removing the waterlock at the beginning of the season as it had started to leak. The fourth was time lost because of my nose bleed and the final straw was the forecast of strong northerly winds that sent us into Stockholm.

In Stockholm we met more friends and visited a more than usually normal exhibition in the Lilyvachs Gallery next to Wasahamn. Essentially it was a run through of furnishing from William Morris onwards – interesting but casually presented with insufficient explanation. We also revisited the Hallwylska house, a wonderful example of late 19^th C. taste and a great deal of money. We also discovered next door to Hallwylska a Lebanese restaurant that does a very good buffet Dagens Lunch. We spent a lot of effort trying to take out the harbourmaster Leif and his wife to lunch or dinner as he has been very good to us for several years. However we totally failed. However we’ll try again next year.

We’d been in touch with Martin and Maria Morris and arranged to meet them at Malma Kvarn after reporting on the quality of the restaurant.

We left Wasahamn at 0600 a little later than our previous trip and had Stockholm harbour almost to ourselves – no fat ferries with hideous wakes, just two work boats and a couple of international ferries. We found the route through Baggenstaket ; lovely in the early sunlight and also deserted. We did have a scare with a very nasty rattly engine noise which Kristin tracked down as a sheet of plywood  leaning against the exhaust swan-neck! Once out into Bagensfjard we hoisted sail and had a very pleasant gently close hauled run down to Malma Kvarn but had trouble getting through the sailing school doing circuits right on the fairway. Martin and Maria duly arrived and we had a super time together and another very good meal at the restaurant with as a bonus a fried breakfast cooked by Martin the next morning. The only fly in the ointment was that we all went swimming in the lake behind the harbour and I managed to slip on the rocky slope, fall over, skin my shoulder and scratch my specs – clumsy!

Last few words from Broken

With a good forecast and very little wind we left harbour bound on the short trip to Broken for sun, swimming and scraping teak. Broken was as lovely as ever with many foreign boats but few club members and we continued teak maintenance and swimming as often as possible. My shoulder reacted badly to the bandage – I got a rectangular rash – so we had to buy some cheaper bandages that did not have this problem.

We stayed in Broken till the weather threatened wind and rain and left for Nykoping again but fully intended to return for family race day. Unfortunately the weather has continued to be uncertain with rain threatening often in the forecasts but less oftwn falling on the boat. However the plastic tent has proved invaluable and rain did fall heavily on us while the family race party was happening on Broken We were very sorry to miss it but got on with maintenance. We also did some tests recommended by Vectamarine and we are awaiting recommendations for further changes to prop angle as I write.
Our sails are off and packed. We did try to find someone to wash them but the prices seemed absurd at £8-9/sq. metre that’s about £450 in total which seems pricey. The new sails cost about £700 each. Most of our baggage is in the car. Badger gets lifted out of the water on Friday morning and we will be off to Copenhagen to see our friends Sten and Rosemarie on Saturday. Our Journey home will continue via Lubeck, Quedlingberg, Goslar, Lemgo and Veurne courtesy of the book Birgitta and Paul gave us.