27th June 2017 Gallno to Stockholm.

We got up before 0500 in order to get into Wasahamnen as other folk were leaving. The journey usually takes about five hours.
The day started well with the usual preparations of removing the steadying sail (which immediately produced an increase in Badgers head wagging) and then raising anchor. However we had motored less than 200 metres  before the engine overheat alarm started screaming. I checked the engine temperature with my hand and it did no seem very hot so went to check if the cooling water was coming out of the exhaust. That seemed OK too so I decided we had to stop the engine, anchor once again and investigate. This time I used a thermometer that came with a multimeter from Clas Ohlson. This definitely showed a hot engine so we left it top cool while we had breakfast and thought a bit.
I then checked the engine coolant circuit and found not much liquid there so refilled with antifreeze and water. We started the engine, pulled up the anchor once more and set off again with the engine keeping a very steady temperature of 80C.
The wind was adverse but light so we made satisfactory progress lessening as the wind strengthened against us. We passed Grind and Vaxholm without incident and then got into the outer Stockholm harbour where our speed was reduced to 4 kts. and I unfurled the genoa. This increased our speed to nearly six kts. but made the boat difficult to handle. When the wind headed us I tried to furl the genoa again but failed. I just could not pull hard enough on the reefing line. Eventually I resorted to using the genoa sheet winch which is potentially dangerous as serious harm to rig or furling  can result if for example the furling line is fouled. Luckily I was able to furl a little of the sail and continued to furl the sail, which brought it under control and our speed down as well. The result was the tightest and neatest furl we have ever had. By this time we'd been motoring about four hours and soon afterward the overheat alarm went off again. We, of course, were in the main shipping channel into Stockholm, not nice.
Luckily neither ships nor fast ferries were anywhere near so it was a case of refill the engine and continue. There was no finesse. Take off radiator cap with a cloth to protect against scalds. Take kitchen mug, fill with water, pour in water, repeat till full, replace cap and start the engine. This again brought the temperature down and we went on again. I got increasingly nervous in case the same problem recurred, particularly when close to Grona Lund. Here ferries cross and recross incessantly so that collision when motionless would be  a definite possibility. Luckily nothing happened and we made it to a berth without incident.
We then had lunch, snoozed or slept and then had supper and went to bed.
The next morning Kristin and Heather wen to off to look at the Wasa while I tackled the engine. It was in fact childishly simple. When I started the engine bubbly froth started appearing at a hose joint. All I had to do was to tighten the hose clip and refill with coolant.  I then did a test run up to an indicated temperature of 70C and cleared up.
The point worth remembering is that when the engine was hot all that escaped from the leak was invisible steam, which I could not easily and quickly identify. When cold I got very visible bubbles.
Now Heather has left us to return to Totnes and we are sitting out high winds and promised rain in a fair amount of comfort in Stockholm

25th to 26th June 2017 Ingmarso and Galno .

Midsummer day is traditionally reserved for tending hangovers. We had no such problem but preferred to stay in Ingmarso because the weather was poor. The day was treated as a Sunday by the local shop which opened at Midday. We took life easily except for Heather who went off walking.
Monday May 26th
We decided to leave Ingmarso  for Grinda as part of a journey back to Stockholm The weather was not very good and Stockholm more interesting. In the cold weather we had a an early but warming lunch of goulash soup and set off under motor afterwards. It was dry but dull. with heavy clouds threatening.
We made a detour to visit Paradiset (59N28.5,18E48.5), one of our favourite anchorages and very beautiful. Its beauty  has been somewhat marred by the addtion of a much larger and obtrusive landing stage with electricity supplies so it feels more like a commercial guest harbour.
We then turned west and passed close to Ladna, noting with some satisfaction that we had escaped the rain falling to our north. Retribution was swift with an intense cold shower descending on us in a narrow passage between Ladna and Ladnaon. This dampened our ambition to proceed to Grinda and to anchor overnight in Gallno at 59N26,18E39. We were upset to find three other boats there already and even an abandoned floating sauna in one corner. Even so it is a very beautiful and well sheltered place with no buildings visible, just fir and silver birch trees with the appropriate amounts of rock. The weather improved too. We anchored, set the steadying sail and sat down to eat and drink very happy with the scenery.

Anchorage in Gallno

Evening light after rain

22nd - 24th June 2017 Stockholm to Ingmarso marina

We were both up at about 0440 to bright sunshine to take off the plastic tent we usually use to keep out the rain, to stow away the shore side power supply and it took a surprising amount of time. We eventually slipped at 0545 and motored off in almost zero wind through Stockholm harbour almost alone. The harbour itself was empty too, which we guessed was partly due to the impending midsummer. It was very pleasant to be able to proceed without the constant disturbance of passing power boats and ferries. We manage to spot the big ships starting to arrive in the morning convoy in good time but were nevertheless thankful to reach Vaxholm and be out of their reach for a time. That annoyance was replaced by that of the short range ferries which constantly cross between Vaxholm town and the neighbouring island carrying lorries, commuters and Midsummer visitors across our course.
Just north of Vaxholm is a splendid little wriggly passage out into open water with rocks close at hand. Here I was very pleased not to encounter an island ferry as space is very tight indeed.  Once out into open waters the big ship menace returns in force. The shipping routes into Stockholm are amazingly sinuous so that seeing a ship crossing  say from Starboard to port in the distance is no guarantee it will  not, while hidden behind an island, suddenly change course and approach at speed.  The Aaland ferry did just that but we only had to slow down a little for it to pass ahead and vanish down the very narrow channel at Oxdupet. As time wore on the temperature rose towards the tolerable but the sun began to hide behind clouds. We went on past Gallno into more and more beautiful seascapes of rocky islands and pine and birch trees with very little in the way of habitation. We also passed several islands used and probably owned by boat clubs. These are usually pretty civilised places where the members have contrived, often over several generations, build up the infrastructures of landing stages, a clubhouse, inevitably a sauna and so on.
We arrived by 1100 and found a place to moor.
One of the main reasons for coming to Ingmarso was to attend the midsummer eve festivities so on the Friday we checked out the situation:-
0900 Decorate summer pole and erect it. We decided to miss that and have a leisurely breakfast.
1500 Dancing and singing round the summer pole.
We got to the village school where the pole indeed had been erected and sat in sun or shade according to taste watch people and the ceremony of fixing up the PA system. This took a long time as it refused to work until an expert found the right connector. In the meantime the festival leader, probably the school teacher, with blonde hair and a bright red dress, looked crosser and crosser. People gradually arrived including a group of young men with a crate of beer who took no part in the event at all. Eventually there were, I guessed, about two hundred present.
Eventually the PA began to function and it, the mixing desk, loud speaker, Ipad and technical man were placed round the pole with a power lead taking a long route to the nearest power point in one of the school buildings.
The Leader proved to be both energetic and a good leader and we had a better programme of songs and dances than we had ever seen before. I don't know how many were dancing. You can see from the pictures that there were quite a lot. You can also see that many of the women were wearing wreaths of wildflowers in their hair.

 We enjoyed watching a great deal but eventually decided to return to the boat. The alternative suggested wa sto dance down to the quay to welcome the next steamer.
The evening turned wet and we were glad to be home and in shelter.
The pictures above show:- A collection of propellors ruined  by hitting rocks; a useful warning to all, The habour itself and an air ambulance taking off from a field behind the harbour with a casualty from one of the boats.

18th to 21st June Stockholm

For these few days we tidied ship and made ready for the arrival of our dear friend Heather. Boat maintenance went on as well with a lot of throwing away of unused kit. The new switch panel I installed together with a digital panel meter has proved a distinct improvement and yes, the plotter still works.
I met Heather in due course at Stockholm central railway station after chasing between rendevous point and platforms, with the result that Heather had to wait for me to arrive from one of my unavailing searches. One we'd met it was a pleasant journey on the tram to the marina. Kristin cooked a wonderful welcome meal and we decided to go off immediately the next morning to Ingmarso whwere we hoped to witness their Midsummer celebrations. 

7th to 17th June 2017 Rest, recuperation and maintenance.

After the end of the Music Festival one feels down and a bit depressed. So much to remember and I forgot to mention the songs, dances, and costumes of a group of aboriginal Taiwanese musicians.
However there is maintenance to do. First is a visit to the doctor to get routing blood tests done and to get our TBE reinoculations ( For over 65's it should be done every three years). Next come doing the washing, cleaning the boat and starting on the boat improvements planned for the year.
Toilet Mods
The previous year's installation of the new toilet and tank system created problems by omitting a vented outlet loop which made it likely the toilet would flood and potentially sink the boat. A second problem was wrong labelling on one of the valves which made pump-out impossible and which we only recognised at the end of the season. The first problem was corrected by installing said vented loop but this brought problems in its wake. The sanitary tubing used needed heating to make it possible to get it onto the various tube ends. Boiling water was useless so Ihad to heat it over the gas cooker.  My first efforts resulted in a leak and I had to improvise a former to push down inside the hot pipe to expand it. It still leaked until I applied a second jubilee clip and Sikaflex. Job done; eventually. Relabelling and a certain amount of practice has solved the second problem - but - operating a toilet system with at least two pumps and five valves is inevitably rather complicated.
Upgrading Switch Panels
Over the winter I bought two six-way switch panels and a smaller connection panel from Minilin. I had several problems with this job. The first was in cutting neat holes in the panel and this required that I buy and learn to use a coping saw. It is a pain to learn how to assemble the saw and blade while the blade is threaded through a hole in a piece of wood. I needed at least two more hands. The second was in making more room behind the panel to contain the new wiring a nd large switches. Cutting holes and sawing the fibreglass cabin liner was not one of the nicest jobs.
The re-wiring, by contrast was fairly easy except for a revised connection to the mast-head light where I needed to include a two pole, two way, switch to allow the masthead light to be either a tricolour or an anchor light. I finally got the system to work but only after realising that I'd fitted the mast cables the wrong way round. The steaming light really did not care which pole was positive which delayed things a bit.
I also included both a cigar lighter and a smaller similar socket plus a small digital volt-meter which is proving surprisingly useful.  Each time I switch on a load ( light, pump etc.) the voltage drops.
Excursions
We've also done a number of smaller jobs as always but also found time for pleasure.
Ingela the, harbourmaster's partner, invited us to see both his and her houses and this proved superb. Both live close to water with large gardens and beautiful tranquil forest and water views. We had our wild-life moments too. We watched a pair of grebes who had built a very messy nest in the water close to a drt rock. The hen eventually moved in and was promptly mounted by the cock. He stood quite upright on her back and exited forwards over her head which we thought rather cruel. Undeterred by the quacking ducks upbraiding him he repeated the process.
Later, a pair of roe deer rushed twice round the garden and then ran off, presumably on the same errand as the grebes. We went to the Botanical Gardens near Stockholm University on a beautiful area next to the water in the north of Stockholm. We walked through a wetland area with lovely flowers and equally lovely and fairly confident Brent geese and goslings and then into several specialised areas including a very Swedish version of a Japanese garden. We much enjoyed the tropic house with a collection of Victoria Regina lilies.  I had not previously realised that they have nasty thorns on the backs of their leaves. Our return from the park was marred by an intense cloud burst which marooned us in Ostermalms square dodging from cover to cover. I finally realised we could get by underground train to Karlaplan where Kristin could get her watch battery replaced. I bought a cheap umbrella there, so the rain immediately stopped.  We are still in harbour awaiting the arrival of our friend Heather and enjoying the sunshine.

Stockholm Early Music Festival 1st to 6th June 2017

We went into Gamla Stan on the last day in May to pay for our festival passes and had a great reunion with the organisers. It has become a habit to be the first customers through the door. Purely by chancw we' met a couple of friends we'd met on our Turkey trip. Sadly they were going on elsewhere and could not enjoy the festival. Further friends emerged for the first concert, much to our pleasure and we felt very much at home.
We went to twenty events,concerts and talks, whic would be tedious to read about in detail. Various themes ran through the series. One was female composers. Peter Pontvik, the artistic director has been consistent in recognising the influence of female composers, often supressed under the 'anonymous ' label by replacing the word with 'anonyma' and one of the concerts and a talkwas by a female group singing works by female composers. The music was good but the concert was marred by the ego ( another theme of the programme ) of the group leader who was clearly somewhat insecure and not singing very well. She would have been better restricting her role to conducting. as it was, her pushing other singers about and nearly hitting a neighbouring singer with her conducting was rather disturbing.
Ego alsoshowed up with the Swingle Singers, hired to provide a programme of early music, who insisted in showing off a lot of their modern repertoire. Their music was enjoyable but paled markedly in comparison with other and more period concerts. We did find the  talk given by their leader on the technique used to produce instrumental accomplements very interesting, particularly in blending singers to produsce a continuous series of notes over several breaths. The counter example was a more exciting concert by "Trinfo di Piffari" a group of shawm, dulcian, sackbut, organ and percussion players who were loud, confident and possibley the best concert of the series. This concert happenned in the Knights church, a place without heating or any toilets, knights presumably men of steel, albeit with rusty armour. Another excellent concert in the same spot was "Gamba Forte" a duo of gamba and forte piano, the viol da gamba being several hundred years old and with a wonderful tone. The best piece was the first, JS Bach's Sonata in D major. There was though an example of virtuosity and ego getting in the way of music in a later piece. In a very fast section the viol player showed incredible virtuosity in the work of both hands but very little music actually emerged. The tune was carried by the piano. Yet another concert in the knights hall brought great delight; PterPonmtvik conducting, where necessary a choir in Sweden's oldest mass. The excellenet singing and unobtrusive conducting gave enormous pleasure.
The last concert was good in parts by a folk singer Lena Willemark, a little past her best and Ale Moller, a prolifice instrumentalist and singer. They played very old Swedish folk music and were great fun.
We said goodbye to our concert friends and went home, earlier than usual to bed in Badger feeing rather sad that the experience was finished for the year and hoping very much to be able to return in 2018.
The whole experience is very intense, leaving us with occasional periods with nothing to do when we try to find a quiet place in the sun to rest up and read from our Kindles. As a final comment I must note again the pleasure of going home to bed each evening, travelling by ferry across Stockholm harbour and looking at the yellowish green light of the Northern night sky. Perhaps that is the best bit of all.

Nyoping to Stockholm 27th to 28th May 2017

We left our berth in Nykoping backwards and kept going in reverse out of the harbour. The wind was westerly and the route out of the berth was westerly as well. Badger's bow tends to go downwind so going backwards is the easy option even though steering is uncertain. Out in clear water we opened up the jib and set of east and northeast in bright sun The forecast had been for southerly breezes but we got west veering northwest and decreasing. We motor sailed and took the chance to try increasing engine revs above the previous practiaal maximum of 2400 rpm. Anything above that tended to lead to ever increasing engine temperature until I took fright and lowered the engine speed again. This time we managed 2600 rpm without problems. Clearly the new thermostat was being helpful. Unfortunately the noise level was up also but we needed to make progress. Ideally we should be in Stockholm in two days as the Stockholm Early Music Festival started on the 1st of June.
The sail from Nykoping to Sweden is always beautiful and today was no exception. Although the wind was feeble and gradually becoming adverse the sun was hot. Indeed it was so hot that Kristin had to take a spell in the cabin to cool down and rest. The scenery was at its best with new paler green leaves to enjoy and great drifts of silver birch pollen on the water. It made tiny clumps up to a centimetre in diameter and pale yellowish green in colour. As the boat's wash touched the patches they sank and made clouds in the water. Pilotage here is intricate and needs attention even though we know the area well.
We were passed by another sailing boat which went ahead and to our starboard side. We were approaching a tricky passage between two islands where the passage indicated by two towers at the the adjacent ends. The boat appeared to be directly in line with that passage. Unfortunately the marks are deceptive as a large flat rock lies just below the surface in front of the space between the islands. One must head considerably to the port side of the shore marks where there are two inconspicuous but essential buoys to lead the boat on a big dog-leg. We used our fog horn and pointed and eventually the other boat changed course much to our relief.
We continued on....and on and on enjoying the scenery and more interesting pilotage. Eventually we reached a marina at Skansholmen, rather run down but ok for an overnight stop and rather tires, ate on board and went to bed. Our day's run was 36.5 miles.
28th May
Woke early and headed up the long inlet leading to Sodertalje. As it is a route for big ships we have to watch out astern as well as ahead as big ships cannot leave the deep water route and usually have tight schedules involving locks and harbour berths. Approaching Sodertalje we were passed by a touriststeamer that crosses Sweden and also found a big freighter ahead of her. We followed them up to the lock and waited. Oddly enough we, together with other leisure craft were calle dearly for th elock opening at 0915 rather than the usual 0930. We guessed that they needed the 0930 slot for something large and so got rid of us early.
a few hundred metres after the lock is an opening bridge. Badger is sufficiently small to slip underneath the closed bridge and there is always a guilty pleasure in being able to get away from a larger boat that has to wait for the opening. This day too was sunny and we motor sailed again. This part of Lake Malaren is lovely too but closer to the city the water is constantly cut up by fast motor boats which makes for a very rough and tiring ride. We were glad to get to the Hammarby lock  and near our journeys end. This lock is a pain. very short ropes hang down from the lock side and one is expected to steady the boat by holding onto them and combat the water surging through the lock. At the same time one is required to insert a credit card into a portable machine an punch in the pin-code; which also requires two hands. It really is not much fun. We survived and poodled towards another opening bridge called Danviksbron. Life was further complicated because huge construction work at Slussen in the centre of Stockholm has seriously hampered local rail traffic so many more busses are needed and Danviksbron only opens once per hour. a Period we spent tied up to a stone wall being bounced by incessant motor boat traffic.
We had discovered on the way that Wasahamnen, our destination was hosting alarge meeting of vinntage boats so worried if there would be room for us. There was and we tied up, pausing to admire really lovely vintage motor boats with very fine lines before greeting friends from former years. We had arrived in time and were able to relax after two hard days motoring and several more days of preparatory work before that. We were comfortably in time for the Music Festival.

Fitting Out, Nykoping 21st-27th May 2017

Leaving Martin's lovely house with regret on Sunday morning, we made straight for the boat-yard and got the car close to the boat to ease further loading (car to boat) and unloading ( tools not needed while cruising). That took some time as the deck is about 3 metres from the ground. I left Kristin to stow clothes etc. while I started on outside jobs, scraping the anodes, patching the bottom paint and greasing the Kiwiprop. We've had the Kiwiprop for some years and greased it annually. Sadly the special grease required tends to weep out an oil from the grease gun and, although I'd bought more grease, I just could not face digging out old grease and putting in a new tube. It would have been very time consuming and dirty work. Something to look forward to in the autumn. I also had to check over and grease the seacocks. Again it's not one of my favourite jobs as it requires extreme contortions and a special spanner used for nothing else. We also checked into Stjarnholm to our usual room with a big pottery stove and rather nice breakfasts.
Monday was occupied with fitting a new masthead combination light with a two wire lead. Current flow in one direction gives a tricolour and reverse flow an all round white. This too was troublesome as as I could not drill through the stick Stainless of the mast cap. In the end I had to use existing holes and amixture of pop rivets and self tapping screws.The evening gave us our first visit of the year to Kohiro for a suchi feast.
Monday was hard work with a 170 mile round trip to Taby, north of Stockholm to retrieve our liferaft after an expensive service. The road through Stockholm is busy and complex but Tomtom obliged well. Ekens Naval the service agent had an enormous reversible open liferaft capable of holding 175 people on test. If filled with water it would have been able to hold half a dozen boats the size of ours. The firms personnel were friendly and expert.
Wednesday was launch day and we found that both Totte and his replacement were out sailing Totte's boat so Jet's assistant was Jimmy, the yard manager. Together, they got the launch done and the mast raised and went off to the marina to continue fitting out. The usual routine of mast tuning, boom and sail fitting etc. followed. In addition we made sure that the holding tank could be emptied.
Because of problems with overheating I fitted a new thermostat as a precaution. By the end of Friday we were fit to go and we had a reasonable forecast but a threat of worse weather later.
We made an early visit on Saturday morning ( 27th May) to City Gross to buy food and dumped the car in the boatshed for the summer.
By 1105 we were ready to leave said our goodbyes to Mikke the harbour master and set off for Stockholm.