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.
Saturday, 24 June 2017
Saturday, 17 June 2017
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.
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.
Thursday, 15 June 2017
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.
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.
Wednesday, 7 June 2017
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.
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.
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.
Tuesday, 30 May 2017
Badger Report 2017. Journey out
We had a rather harried time before leaving for Sweden because of planning for the autumn re-roofing of the garage and items to be bought with long lead times. One result was that packing was hurried but I hope we did not leave anything important behind.
Anyway we left on 15th May and duly got the DFDS ferry to Dunkirk. My only real angst was to have missed buying good sandwiches from Waitrose at the M3 service station and instead to have got inferior ones on the M25. The ferry was as usual extraordinarily boring but uncrowded and our Tomtom, impressively led us directly to the carpark of th eOld House in Veurne which was its usual efficient and friendly self. IT started out as a 17th C. orphanage but has very modern bedrooms and bathrooms, alos excellent breakfasts. We ate at De Plakker as our favourite restaurant OOgappel was shut. We there had marrow bones for the first and probably the last time and then I had an excellent Flemish beef stew.
16th off to Den Bosch or 's Hertigon Bosch (sic) as Carnegie's Cottage hhas turned into a 5 day a week hotel, mainly to allow staff to have two days a week off instead of none. We like Den Bosch and its Catholic Cathedral but thought the Art Gallery expensive though it had some nice Breughels. It was only in Bath for the Bachfest that we found a Breughels Exhibition that we saw traced out the Breughels, at least four of them painters with other known painters allied by marriage. The Den Bosh Gallery also had some good paintings by a man whose surname was Nitt and who had some lovely studies of back lit trees in sunlight. The Nieuw Uilenberg hotel was indeed new, indeed a boutique hotel in the oldest pard of the city where it would be unwise to take a car; the steets are very narrow but charming. Many of the Den Bosch canals are covered over but one can take a subterranean boat tour.
17th May Shortish drive to Otterloo and the Kroller Muller Museum once again. We had a lovely group of Van Goch paintings on show with a lot of his very early and sombre portraits. The Kroller is said to have the second best collection of Van Gochs in the world and I certainly saw some I had not seen before even in reproduction. We proceeded then to Carnegie Cottage which was apparnetly doing well on five day opening and enjoyed it enormously as always. It is right on the edge of the Hoch Velue National Park, the chef is the husband of the owner and knows his trade and dining room is an Art Gallery. The rooms are good and we stay whenever we can.
18th May Long drive 500+ kilometres to Lubeck and Der Alten Statdmauer another favourite. The rooms are very orange and cheerful but it is quiet, clean and friendly - also parking is cheap.
We ate in a brewery where the equpment was large and mainly copper, the food was Ok but the beer good.
18th May After booze shopping we left for Rostock and a cheaper ferry crossing. Rostock too was a good place to visit and we found a superb fish restaurant for supper. Te day ended badly with the expected TTlines ferry replaced by a Scandlines one. They catered almost entirely to the truck trade giving them the best seating and providing the worst of thrucker grease food. They claimed that shortness of staff was the reason we had to have a row to get fresh bed linen - not recommended.
19th May godd sunny day and another long drive to Nykoping but less traffic and stress. We did a little unloading - car to boat - and went on to stay the night with great friend martin Morris. After shower, barbecued salmon and wine the world seemed a much better place
Anyway we left on 15th May and duly got the DFDS ferry to Dunkirk. My only real angst was to have missed buying good sandwiches from Waitrose at the M3 service station and instead to have got inferior ones on the M25. The ferry was as usual extraordinarily boring but uncrowded and our Tomtom, impressively led us directly to the carpark of th eOld House in Veurne which was its usual efficient and friendly self. IT started out as a 17th C. orphanage but has very modern bedrooms and bathrooms, alos excellent breakfasts. We ate at De Plakker as our favourite restaurant OOgappel was shut. We there had marrow bones for the first and probably the last time and then I had an excellent Flemish beef stew.
16th off to Den Bosch or 's Hertigon Bosch (sic) as Carnegie's Cottage hhas turned into a 5 day a week hotel, mainly to allow staff to have two days a week off instead of none. We like Den Bosch and its Catholic Cathedral but thought the Art Gallery expensive though it had some nice Breughels. It was only in Bath for the Bachfest that we found a Breughels Exhibition that we saw traced out the Breughels, at least four of them painters with other known painters allied by marriage. The Den Bosh Gallery also had some good paintings by a man whose surname was Nitt and who had some lovely studies of back lit trees in sunlight. The Nieuw Uilenberg hotel was indeed new, indeed a boutique hotel in the oldest pard of the city where it would be unwise to take a car; the steets are very narrow but charming. Many of the Den Bosch canals are covered over but one can take a subterranean boat tour.
17th May Shortish drive to Otterloo and the Kroller Muller Museum once again. We had a lovely group of Van Goch paintings on show with a lot of his very early and sombre portraits. The Kroller is said to have the second best collection of Van Gochs in the world and I certainly saw some I had not seen before even in reproduction. We proceeded then to Carnegie Cottage which was apparnetly doing well on five day opening and enjoyed it enormously as always. It is right on the edge of the Hoch Velue National Park, the chef is the husband of the owner and knows his trade and dining room is an Art Gallery. The rooms are good and we stay whenever we can.
18th May Long drive 500+ kilometres to Lubeck and Der Alten Statdmauer another favourite. The rooms are very orange and cheerful but it is quiet, clean and friendly - also parking is cheap.
We ate in a brewery where the equpment was large and mainly copper, the food was Ok but the beer good.
18th May After booze shopping we left for Rostock and a cheaper ferry crossing. Rostock too was a good place to visit and we found a superb fish restaurant for supper. Te day ended badly with the expected TTlines ferry replaced by a Scandlines one. They catered almost entirely to the truck trade giving them the best seating and providing the worst of thrucker grease food. They claimed that shortness of staff was the reason we had to have a row to get fresh bed linen - not recommended.
19th May godd sunny day and another long drive to Nykoping but less traffic and stress. We did a little unloading - car to boat - and went on to stay the night with great friend martin Morris. After shower, barbecued salmon and wine the world seemed a much better place
Sunday, 31 July 2016
July 2016
Because of my pneumonia and natural idleness we spent a lot of time in Stockholm, visiting museums and eating out. For much of the time I was sleepy. However we finally got going on 3rd July. We were impelled to do this because a huge sailing race was due to start in the morning and the whole harbour would be closed. This it was a case of get up at 0445 and away at 0520. We had already said our goodbyes to our friends at Wasahamnen so were free to leave in bright sunshine and no wind. We refilled with diesel at Fjaderholmarna once more and made for Baggenstacket. We had little harbour traffic at this hour except for a couple of large ferries probably arriving early to avoid the harbour closure. We had some wind assistance ( SW beaufort 1-2) but motored on to Malma Kvarn and the restaurant, arriving at 1030 and settling easily into a berth. The restaurant was now open and we had good food; leaving on 7th July when we had to change our berth.
While at Malma we had some success picking wild strawberries and while doing so saw a red deer above us on the hillside at very close range. It seemed quite unafraid. We were equally impressed with its athleticism, leaping up substantial rocksteps. We left on 7th July when we had to change our berth. This was omething we were reluctant to do in the rather fresh westerly wind and crowded conditions.
We made unsurprisingly north to Gallno to our favourite and very sheltered anchorage. Here we stayed for three nights mostly in sunshine and swam from the boat in water around 20C; not ideal but refreshing and cleansing.
Here we inflated the dinghy and made cautious use of the electric outboard. It is very pleasant to travel almost silently. I was cautious as I have no real idea of the range available from the battery.
We have a pleasant path from our landing point through pine woods and pastures into the village "centre" which consists of shop, resaurant and cafe. It has a reasonable stock including strawberries and the restaurant serves good food.
We needed to change the scenery and moved a scant six miles to Ingmarso a harbour we love. It is not well sheltered and the ferries disturb the water but it is in a beautiful spot with a superb and theatrical huge sloping smooth rock face as backdrop.
While at Malma we had some success picking wild strawberries and while doing so saw a red deer above us on the hillside at very close range. It seemed quite unafraid. We were equally impressed with its athleticism, leaping up substantial rocksteps. We left on 7th July when we had to change our berth. This was omething we were reluctant to do in the rather fresh westerly wind and crowded conditions.
We made unsurprisingly north to Gallno to our favourite and very sheltered anchorage. Here we stayed for three nights mostly in sunshine and swam from the boat in water around 20C; not ideal but refreshing and cleansing.
Here we inflated the dinghy and made cautious use of the electric outboard. It is very pleasant to travel almost silently. I was cautious as I have no real idea of the range available from the battery.
We have a pleasant path from our landing point through pine woods and pastures into the village "centre" which consists of shop, resaurant and cafe. It has a reasonable stock including strawberries and the restaurant serves good food.
We needed to change the scenery and moved a scant six miles to Ingmarso a harbour we love. It is not well sheltered and the ferries disturb the water but it is in a beautiful spot with a superb and theatrical huge sloping smooth rock face as backdrop.
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