Stendorren 58N44.55,17E23.4

We paased through Stendorren yesterday and it is worth a word or two. Stendorren, meaning "stone door" is a noteworthy hazard on an important and ancient coastal route fairly close to Stockholm.
It is marked by a small black and white hut supplemented by a number of buoys and must have presented problems to old sailing ships. We approached on a north westerly heading, changed course round a green buoy to go just south of east and then NNE after just 100 metres  at a red buoy to make our escape past three more green buoys. All other choices would have brought us onto the rocks.
Without the buoys and with inadequate charts it would have been very frightening to the stranger.
Usually the hut stands surrounded by water. Yesterday, because of prolonged high air pressure, it was surrounded by a flattish rock about 25 metres across. In about 14 years cruising we have not seen this rock shelf before. It usually lurks just under the surface. The high pressure als presented problems at Trosa. We moored in the river but found we had gone aground in the mud and could not get the stern alongside  so we are sticking out slightly awry.
Trosa itself is barely awake yet. the harbour office will not be opened till 28th June and few of the normal tourist facilities are yet available. there is a little light drizzle and we are resting, reading and trying to get cught up with our chores. We have found the cheese shop here has much improved and have bought two splendid strong Swedish cheeses for lunch and supper.

Report from Trosa 58N53.35, 17E33.13

I've been asked to include position data so there is the first example in the title. The first bit means North 58 degrees and 53.35 minutes. It is a pain to try to put in the correct diacritical marks.
During the week we continued working on the boat fittin boom, sails, lazy jacks and so on. We rejigged the exhaust system refitting a Vetus waterlock that had leaked badly last year when it lost an "0" ring. We hoped this would quieten the engine down. We did a certain amount of junking stuff we did not need and also dumped tools into the car which we normally use only at fit-out time. We were entertained ( and retaliated  ) by David and Patricia from Patricia Elaine which spent the winter in the same Varv as Badger did but in a different hall.We also at long last got our new Myfi system operational
We have been suffering from strong cold northerly winds which make working outside painful and discourage sailing entirely.
However I had a sudden attack of stir craziness this morning. The sun was bright and the weather a little warmer so we upped and left precipitously, leaving the car behind the marina building - so I have to go back and store it properly. Was it worth it? Well probably. We had a somewhat hard motor into the wind for 6 hours with the wet log reading 28 Nmiles which is probablly due to a pronounced S going current set up by the winds. The weather was sunny and reasonably warm but the breeze was persistently strong and is affecting us now in a little S-flowing river at Trosa. The countriside or islandscape was very beautiful with many of thewaterlines painted with a uniform 15 cm. high band which contrasted nicely with the pink granite dark green trees and blue water. The yellow was due to enormous amounts of silver birch pollen. This gets into clumps, sicks to bats, turns brown and is anuisance but as a paint trim it's lovely. There are few boats about even though it is a public holiday ( Ascension Day)  and few amenities are open in Trosa. The Marina offices and the smoked fish stall are not operating - the latter to ur great regret.
The motoring day was a considerable success with a much quieter engine sounding happy, good thrust from the impeller and good speed when the wind dropped. When it rose it could reduce our speed to 3.5 kts..
We are having a quiet time till supper which will be Mexicchicken and red wine at home.

Living on the Water - at last.

Badger was launched on Friday at 9:30 am as arranged and the mast installed immediately afterwards. Jet and Totta, who do this work, appear to amble about slowly but suddenly the work is done. We turned the boat by hand to face the breeze as going backwards under control is not Badger's forte and st off on my solo voyage of the year - one kilometre to the marina. The repitched propellor seemed to be working well and we berthed in time to go to lunch. We invited old friends David and Carol of Skimmer to join us and they were joined by Burt and Lidi, a Dutch couple who enjoyed with us Lunch at the Catering college and a lot of conversation. We had to convert to the waterborne existence, meeting harbourmaster Mikke and exchanging news, but also stocking up with food and stowing more of our gear on board and removing unwanted kit to the car. We also "tuned" the mast, tightening the rigging and setting the mast upright. We had an early supper at Tres Tapas and then an early bed.
This morning we fitted on boom and mainsail
, found and raised the ensiegn, courtesy flag and club ensiegns, fed the deck wiring through to the inside of the boat, did fureter organising and stowing and fell asleep in the afternoon . In general we are getting ready but not able to depart yet whiile the Dutch couple and Skimmer made off this morning leaving us alone again.

The Onshore work is done

Badger is now ready for launch at 0930 tomorrow. I just have to put the tricolour and aerial on the mast. We've tested the engine - it works. We've AF ed a couple of patches on the hull and ad a healthy salad lunch. The alternative was korv Stroganoff where the korv is a sort of pink spam. Starnholm is full of Christians, some of whom made a racket at midnight possibly drunk and certainly merry. We will be sleeping on the boat tomorrow and putting on boom sails etc.

A Good Day for Weather and work

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We began with a pleasant breakfast at Stiftsgarden with meusli and fil followed by bacon and egg with a little herring as a side dish.

Kristin was coughing badly at breakfast but is sufficiently improved to have washed the boat and removed stains from the whole above water hull. ~We then tried to apply a waterline stripe but failed utterly to get it to stick down smoothly in the place we wanted it to be. The result was frustration and we abandoned the idea.

In the mean time I’d been working on the under kitchen Blakes seacock which had stuck. It’s almost impossible to get at the locknuts keeping the securing bolts tight but I did get there in a very uncomfortable position and a curse or two.

I then sampled the fuel tank finding a little water and some rather cloudy fuel at the bottom but less than half a litre so I’ll just add more anti bug treatment. The prefilter looks fine. The use of FAME in diesel fuel makes this problem endemic nowadays. Another  routine job was to change the gearbox lubricant which would have been easier with the boat upside down. I’m no longer happy to work doubled up. There’s too much of me in the way.

I did more work on the mast and had a tug at the aerial lead wire finding it surprisingly easy to move. Now the yard had damaged the aerial making it pretty ineffective a year ago so I needed to fit a new aerial but had been frightened of the risks of changing the aerial lead up the mast. It is very easy to break the cable or the auxiliary string.

Anyway, finding the lead movable I cut the old lead off at the base of the mast, spliced it to a piece of thin cordage and pulled the old cable out of the top of the mast followed by all the spare cordage as Alan Burwin had once told me so as to have a remedy later in case of accident. I then attached the new aerial lead to the cordage and started pulling it down the mast. This proved difficult. The problem was excessive friction at the top of the mast caused by bending the new lead on entry. It proved beneficial to prefeed the new cable in through the hole at the top of the mast. Even so it was hard work and became impossible when I started to pull the old cable back down the mast with the new one. The extra cordage length was insufficient. I cut off the cordage and resumed pulling only to find the new lead was fouled on other cables inside the mast at the exit hole. I managed to clear this by the high tech method of prodding with a pair of scissors and the aerial lead then emerged. We then had to push and feed the next 15 metres of cable through the mast to get the full length needed to reach the VHF radio. We were very relieved to get that far. In addition Totta has accepted my plea for a later launch on Friday so we can have breakfast at the hotel and leave in time to attend the launch at 9:30 a.m.

We are having a rest now and then going out for more Suchi for supper.

More work on Badger

Progress a bit slow today as Kristin unable to do much. The antibiotics are beginning to work and she is coughing less. I've finished installing the liferaft cradle and it seems firmly fixed - which is distinctly important! I've also checked and reset the raw water pump impeller and checked over the seacocks. One really needs re-greasing. Jet and Totta have got the mast out and I've started preparing it for repacing on the boat on Friday. We went to lunch at the Pud School as usual but were waylaid by Anka, one of the teachers there, and invited to a full service two course lunch which was an examination for the students concerned - quite a compliment really and we were very scruffy from boat work. The food was good - rather nice mango drink with crushed ice then flat fish with wine sauce and asparagus ( all good) and carrot puree ( rather over spiced and almost too runny to eat with a fork. This was followed by rhubarb pie ( too sweet with marshmallow foam on top) or rhubarb icecream with crunchy biscuit and strwberry coule ( all good). Time is running out for work on shore before launch.

Work has started on Badger

Breakfast at the Slott was good with meusli and sour milk ( fil) - we do miss it at home. We spent much of the time getting kit from the car into Badger. Since Badger's deck is about 3 metres above he ground this requires climbing and hauling on ropes. Once the kit is on board it has to be stowed by Kristin who is feeling pretty grotty and has got Bronchitis. We went to the "Vard Centrale" and Kristin got to see a doctor and was prescribed antibiotics. We almost missed our lunch at the Pud School but managed to get some salad and greetings from old friends among the staff on the lines of "It must be summer". In fact is was raining but warm and muggy. We were also greetecd by the yard crew of Jet and Totta.
Ive adjsted the pitch on the propellor, removed the old life raft cradle and started installing the new one and also fitted the new Rocna anchor. We quit around 5.30 pm. and found our way to Kohiro for suchi. IT was even better than we remembered it and we were thoroughly welcomed by the owner and his wife and given free coffee and a sweet.
We are now back in the slott and resting ready for more work tomorrow. The launch is to be at 7.00 on Friday so we have just 3 days work left - its a bit daunting.

Arrived Nykoping

From Oyten we had an easy run to Lubeck, even the Hamburg ring was innocuous although there was a little sting in the tail with 3 lanes going down to 2 where a sort of tent hanging from an overhead bridge on the closed lane. There were sounds of drilling - very mysterious. This happened twice.
Finding our hotel Alte Stadtmauer requires us to defeat the Tomtom and remember what we did a year ago. We made it with only one small loop round but had to park in the only possible spot - the middle of the road to unload kit and get the key to the carpark. By the time Ireturned a large lorry was just behind!
Once sorted, Kristin wnet to bed with her cold while I had a wander. We lunched in an upsteirs cafe by the Townhall - very romantic and with great ceilings. After that the pattern repeated and I renewed acquaintance. One novelty I enjoyed was seeing a man with bright yellow elbow crutches which were fitted with red reflectors - a good safety aid.
We followed Amanda's advice for a light supper by going to a somewhat scruffy Italian restaurant halfway up one of the city's defensive round towers. The decor seemed to be from a battered night club but the mixed antipasti and the pizzas were excellent as was the wine.
On the Saturday we moved out of Lubeck to Travemunde but found it very crowded, sunny and not very interesting so moved off the Timmendorfer Strand which was terrible for the car borne. We ended up at a bird zoo in a swamp which gave very pleasant entertainment. I had planned to Take Kristin to Buddenbrooks as a prebirthday treat but she wasnt fit enough for the struggle so we suppered fwirly simply and then had a very long wait till sailing time at 0030 on Sunday. I was ver relieved to find it was possible to get to a looo in Travemunde Scaninavienkai as otherwise the wait might have been painful. The port deals mainly with freight lorrise and we were packed in with them slowly so it was midnight before we got to bed.
Monday
We got off the boat a little before 10 am - it is interesting to see enormous lorries steering down very tight holes but also anxiety inducing.
The three hundred mile journey to Nykoping was tiring and boring but not difficult with both Kristin and Itaking hourly stints at the wheel.
We are at Stjarnholm Slott till Friday morning when the boat will be launched. The slott is a stately home run in part as a hotel or more a B&B with extensive grounds, a sculpture park etc. We have a room in the attic with a two metre high porclain stove in one corner.

Thursday 15th May at Oyten

Hazards for the pedestrian in Amsterdam
We found ourselves continually at risk in Amsterdam while on the street. The typical Amsterdam road is complex. It may have two tram tracks down the middle - the nearer one has trams going to the right. Outside the tram tracks on either side is a single lane for ordinary vehicles - but taxis, police cars and the like also use the tram tracks. Outside the road lane is a cycle track on each side which may have cyclists going either way. Outside these are the pavements, also used by cyclists but mainly used as dumping grounds for household rubbish, gardens and, above all, bicycles in their thousands. The only reasonable place to walk is on the cycle path where you get shouted at. In canal streets where the canal replaces the tram life is  littlle more complicated as any car that cannot get down the street the right way, reverses back the wrong way at considerable speed so that it  is not trapped. Here the pavement is further obstructed by house entry steps, tables and chairs, the occasional sofa and advertising stands. The speed hump smake for an extra trip-hazard and of course the cyclist in either direction is probably texting with one hand at least.  Cyclists also cut corners at intersections using the pavements and weaving between the poor pedestrians.
Luckily it is possible to buy Belgian beer to reduce the pain and fear to reasonable proportions.

On the road Again
We left Amsterdam early today to drive to Oyten near Bremen, a matter of 230 miles. The Amsterdam rush hour was perfectly reasonable and the Dutch motorways quitr OK but, as always the German A1 was being reconstructed and down from 3 lanes to one in two places with tail backs of about 6 kilometres -very slow and stressful. We arrived in Oyten to found our little hotel had lost our booing but had a room for us anyway and a pleasant one at that. So we have settled down each with a rather boring Becks beer to snooze till supper. The weather has improved and it is sunny outside to our considerable pleasure.

Amsterdam 14th May

Kristin has pointed out that we found many more Van Goch paintings on show at Kroller Muller Museum than we had ever seen before and she had been told many of the paintings had recently been "returned" to KM. This might explain our previous memory of many Van Goch paintings in the Van Goch museum on our 1976 visit and disappointment this May. Certainly the KM has many more of the spectacular late period paintings than the Van Goch museum has on show. It is of course possible that many more of the Van Goch museum's paintings are undergoing restoration or are visiting other shows. At present the Van Goch museum is fairly poor value.
The Van Goch museum has a large building site beside it with a new entrance building under construction with a large hole beside it. I have no idea why it should need a new entrance building unless it means to provide under-cover queuing.
On the building sites is a large vertical cylinder about 10 metres by 1.5 metres. From a pipe at the top issues a large amount of fog  all the time. An official said this was nitrogen so my guess is that the ground round the hole ( which is mostly under water is) being frozen with liquid nitrogen to stabilise the hole. Martin might like to comment on this. I also have a feeling that soil frozen like this goes to a horrible mush once thawed.
Kristin stayed in the hotel today feeling weak and with a sore throat while I went out to walk beside the canals one last time. The canals are lovely but the main shopping area of the Damrak is simply cheap, international and nasty. At lunch time she was noticeably improved.
We have at last sussed the tram system which is efficient and with frequent services - however it does change somewhere every day so you have to use it all the time or get lost.

Amsterdam 13th May

Early to Van Goch Museum for entry at 0900. Distinctly unfriendly staff outside keeping the mob at bay. They have an elaborate system of tapes and stands they put away each evening and out in the morning. Presumably it would be stolen if left out overnight..
Once in and, we were first to the pictures, it was a little disappointing. The exhibition was didactic with comparisons with other paintings and emphasis on early works, all very worthy. However there were very few of the great paintings. The Kroller Muller Museum is much better. In 1976 we visited the predecessor to this museum and I think saw more Van Goch paintings. Kristin remembers seeing and enjoying many drawings. These are now considered too fragile to exhibit. I did see one superb sea painting whic I will put on display when I can. This was certainly painted on site as there are traces of sand in the paint surface. Beside it there was a better known painting of fishing boats drawn up on the beach. This was painted in the studio and is lifeless in comparison with the other. We were done with the gallery after about an hour and looking for something else to do.
We walked north and explored some of the southern canal belt, had a light lunch and looked at the great houses on the "golden bend". These are now offices etc. and sterile, while the smaller less glamourous houses on other canals have much more life and interest. We walked north and much enjoyed the Beguinage with the protestant church stripped from the beguines by the anticatholic movement in Holland. Then on to Dam Square and tried to look ad the Oudkirke but resented the idea of paying for the privilege of entering it and so went home for the afternoon by tram.

Amsterdam Monday 12th May

We .did indeed go out into the rain last night looking for food in Jordaan. This area has relly appealed to us even in bad weather and we ate well in "Cuisine Flamande" before getting back to the hotel and eventually figuring out how to buy and print out tickets for the Rijksmuseum. Armed with these we went by tram to said museum and had only a small queue to worry about for the 9am opening. The place is a nightmare for lack of informative signs including emergency exits, it's difficult to find cloakroom toilets and cafe. Thecafe itself has a very limited menu and is far too small. However there is a god free map available and we had the onour gallery very uncrowded for a while though the Nightwatch gallery filled up immediately. We liked the hanging scheme with lots of Nightwatches close together. Rembendts is much the best painting but some of the sitters might have felt agrieved. It also has a faint air of smoke and flames suggesting the people might actually get out and fight.The main 1600-1650 gallery floor is wonderful with so many great pictures. The 1700-1900 floor less so but still worthwhile. We were there for 3 2/3 hours including light lunch.After lunch we returned to the main floor to see the Vermeers we had missed before. There was at least one I have not seen before but the experience was unhappy. We were full already with pictures and the crowds made it difficult to see any of them clearly. Fairly exhausted we went back to the hotel to snooze though I made a side trip to survey a LIDL - not very different from the UK.
We returned to the Jordaan for a Thai meal - very good cooking and had again slight trouble with the return tram. The authorities are digging up track under the running trams and so access is difficult and temporary stops frankly dangerous on a half metre wide strip of raised concrete between cars and bicycles - both rabid.
However we made it home with tickets for Van Goch at 9am tomorrow.

Amsterdam Report

We left home on 9th May in high winds and made a relatively easy run to Dover. Even the M25 was flowing well though there were idiots aplenty. I had great anxieties over the fridge which does not work in the car unless the engine is running - very clever people Mercedes. By the time we got to Veurne almost 30 miles driving) we were pretty tired. The ferry had been OK and did not have trouble with the weather c. force 7 with long streaks down the waves but no small boats were to be seen. The Old House was lovely so we quickly went out for a beer and to consider options for supper. The sun was shining but the wind was very strong. We opted for Oogappell and Kristin had langoustines and then lobster while I had fish soup (inferior to Sonja's) and tournedos rossini. We went to bed happy and got up next day to wind and much rain. The breakfast was good - smoked salmon and scrambled eggs but then we had to get on the road to Amsterdam. The Belgian Mway was murderous, heavy traffic and much standing water mainly due to wear with long waterfilled grooves in the road. When we hit one of these the car tried to slew round. In addition passing lorries was actively dangerous as the spray thrown up was almost opaque. Even worse was on car/caravan combination that behaved like an upsidedown waterfall - presumably emptying both longtitudinal grooves.
Dutc Mways were much better with less standing water and fewer lorries. Again we got to our hotel (Golden Tulip west) exhausted.
We had a snack lunch in the hotel bar, good food but slow service and very noisy Dutch group nearby. We rested till 5 pm. and went off by trqam to the Jordaan finding our supper at a Basque restaurant with pinchos, razor shell clams and tuna and duck liver brochettes - all very nice. Our homeward tram journey led us astray because of a route diversion but we were helped by a very nice local and got home eventually.
12th May today we set off initially to get a tram (not running) then by taxi and passed a hi lift lorry repairing the overhead cable so the lack of tram was explained. We were late at the VanGoch museum so abandoned it for theModern Art Museum with several good exhibitions plus lots of early 20th C art. We returned tired in the tram and continuing wind and rain expecting to sally forth again to the Jordaan which is a lovely neighbourhood.

Packing

We are at home, cleaning the house and packing the car. The car, a Mercedes B200, is new to us and we are continuing to find new places to store small items. A long thin aerial is hidden in the bodywork in front of the starboard rear light for example. However even with this help the car will be very full because we are transporting a new liferaft to Sweden. The old raft had been poorly serviced and could have killed us in four different ways if we had used it. It looks like no Belgian beer supplies this year - sob.
Once in Nykoping, there is a long list of work awaiting us:- service seacocks and other routine tasks, fit new aerial, rejig exhaust system, modify weather station, reduce pitch of propellor ( all of five minutes for the last item).
Once launched there is a second programme, tune mast, fit boom, sails lazy jacks, get provisions and so on before we can get off to Stockholm for the Early Music Festival starting 4th June.
On the way we are stopping in Amsterdam for five nights to visit Art Galleries. Ironically our choice of hotel is governed by car-parking charges. In central Amsterdam its 60 - 80 Euros/night. On the outskirts a more moderate 15.