Yesterday started early. We left the harbour of Smygehuk at half past six in order to catch a nice NW breeze. We made good speed eastwards averaging close to 7 knots. But it was a very cold wind. Our tactic played out and the wind did not die out until we had rounded the SE corner of Skane – Sandhammaren.

After some motoring a new breeze from E picked up and we were again doing 6-7 knots. The gennaker came up as the wind gradually turned S and lost some of its pressure. We had the sun in the cockpit by then and had shred most of our clothes. It was really nice as long as you stayed behind the sprayhood. But the nose got a frost bite it you stuck it outside into the wind.

We were by now a bit into the bay of Hano (Hanöbukten). It is infamous for its waves and we had a really confused swell from different directions. It completely knocked the waning wind out of the sails. So, instead of a quiet afternoon reach, we had to motor the last few hours to Hano. 12 hours at sea had taken us 74 nm.

That evening we experienced a first for us. We heard someone call “Hello Sally” from the dock as we finished our dinner. “We saw you come in just had to come and see you.” Johanna and Marcus told us about how they have been following our blog for several years. They were on a weekend sail from their home port in nearby Ahus and were themselves planning a similar trip to the Med as the one we have done. We had some nice chats over wine that evening. Over coffee the next day, we asked for local advice on the area and where to go next.

Thus, todays walk got a bit delayed before we eventually headed off to explore the island. Hano has a long history. It was the Baltic base for the English navy during the Napoleon war 1810-12 and there is an old English graveyard on the hill. Our first goal was the northern tip of the island. It is very unusual with its pebble reef. It is called the bean sack and legend has it that a troll living ion the island was going to visit her children on the main lad bringing beans but the sack broke and spilled the beans.

A more plausible explanation is the retreating ice cover at the end of the last ice age. The wonder is that the pebbles stay in place. They are moved back and forth in the braking waves and pushed around by the winter ice. Still they remain in place. The nature of the island is in places quite barren. It has a considerable population of red deer and we saw some hidden among the trees later on our walk. The view from the lighthouse 60 above the sea is magnificent.

Today also started with work but, as it is Friday, we quit early. The rainy, cold and windy weather of earlier this week seems to be on hold for some time now and we were able to sail in pleasant but still chilly weather. Temperatures ashore are quite decent but, as the sea is only around 10 deg C, the wind is cold. Longjohns, hats and mittens are still in use.

The sail started with a fast open reach south with 7-8 knots under main and genoa. What a change from yesterday. But jibing to go east after Falsterbo put us dead downwind under main and genoa wing and wing with more moderate speeds.

We sailed past the southern corner of Sweden today passing two capes; Falsterbonaset, with its long and dangerous reefs is the SW corner and following that, the breakwater in Smygehuk, the southernmost point in Sweden 55 deg 20 min nortth. We decided to stay in Smygehuk for the night and went straight into a pontoon in the small and relatively shallow (2 m according to this year’s almanac) harbour. The echo sounder is showing 1,5 m (out draft is 1,8+ m ) but we seems to be moving so we think we will be OK leaving under our own steam tomorrow.

From her, it is around 850 miles to the northernmost port of Tore (Töre) at 65 deg 54 min north. The summer is probably not long enough to take us there and back home again.

We had a late departure today after work. We left Lomma with a very positive feeling. Lomma was a natural port for customs, shipping and trade a 1 000 years ago owing to its location at the mouth of the river Hoje. Hoje was the main transport link to Skane’s cultural centre at the time, the plains surrounding Lund. Industrial development started 400 years ago with brick making and later cement factories.

The city has now undergone a complete redevelopment as a pleasant modern suburb to Malmö. Our dock was conveniently located with healthcare centre, library, restaurants, fishmonger, bakery, butcher and grocery within a few hundred meters walking distance.

We motored for a few hours in very light winds down the Oresund and under the impressive bridge connecting Sweden and Denmark until a light breeze allowed us to sail down to Skanor.

Skanor sits far down on Falsterbonaset, a sandy spit of land stretching SW into the Baltic. It has a long history and some nice buildings in the old centre. It also boasts beautiful long beaches and is a tourist favourite in the summer. But, as with other ports we have visited so far, most things are still closed.

The rain did finally give up late last evening. It allowed us a walk up  to the 13^th century church from which you have nice views. Ven is about as close to Denmark you will get in Sweden as it sits between the two countries .In the old days al of Southern Sweden was part of the kingdom of Denmark and Ven was part of the administrative district of Skana, now Swedish. These were a lot of debate over the Island when Denmark had to give up Sothern Sweden in the 17^th century.

The famous astronomer Thyco Brahe was a Danish nobleman who lived on the island. King Frederick II granted Tycho an estate on the island and the funding to build Uraniborg where Thyco Brahe built large astronomical instruments and took many careful measurements. Unfortunately, it was too late for us to take a look at the museum.

We left early this morning in some rain. And, as yesterday, the forecast was wrong but, this time in our favour. The rain cleared and did not reappear. The passing to the small city of Lomma was wet anyway in strong breeze choppy seas heading us. No tacking today and a relatively quick passage averaging 5,5 knots over ground despite considerable current against us.

There will be a change of crew tonight as Eva arrives and Anders reruns home with our car. Next days will be mostly working for Eva and to some extent also Hakan. We may get some late afternoon sailing if the weather is favourable before we continue on Saturday for a few days.

The start of this season has been a complex puzzle to pies together with work, Corona vaccinations, family obligations and more. We will not be able to sail continuously until last week in June.

We had, once again, an early morning departure in order to catch favourable winds and beat the rain to the next port. We left already 5.30 am and had a glorious sail reaching into the strait of Öresund. Öresund is a narrow channel between Denmark and Sweden. Here, the current is north going almost all the time as this is one of the outlets from the Baltic. The prediction today was for around 2 knots.

We manage to avoid the current and even pick up some back eddies by hugging the Swedish shore, sailing in less than 10 m of water. An easterly at around 20 knots gave us 7-8 knots over ground. But, the current could not be avoided in the narrowest part between Helsingborg (Sweden) and Helsingor (Denmark)and further south. By now, the wind was also heading us and we gained very little on some tacks.

The island of Ven was our goal for today. It lies about 10 miles south of Helsingborg and the forecast predicted rain from around noon. As we approached we had one unexpected/unpredicted good thing and one not so good. The not so good was that the rain started already at 9.30 when we had less than an hour left to sail. The good thing was that the wind died almost completely shortly thereafter making docking a piece of cake.

Here we are, relaxing and listening to the rain. We had planned a cycle tour of the island after the rain but the way things are going, it is likely to turn into a few glasses of wine on board instead. With some luck, we will be able to walk up to the church tonight to look at the view before we go to bed.

Hakan and frien Anders arrived yesterday to sail south for a couple of days. The plan was to leave yesterday but pouring rain and strong winds made us rethink and stay put in the marina.

We sailed today instead. The wind was going to shift from SW (close reach) through S (dead against) to SE (close reach). We decided on an early start to be able to sail a bit in the SW. The alarm was set to 5 am and we left the marina at 5:45. The wind behaved as promised and we manage to sail relatively well along the planned route through the wind shifts with some planning and some luck.

Weather was fine bur cold. We were quite frozen and windblown by 6 pm so we decided to end the day in Molle, a seaside resort with a long history and a small harbour. A very crowded place in the summer but of season, as now, few boats and nothing open.

We took an evening walk after a nice dinner on board. Sleep came very easy this evening.

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We started early on a beautiful Wednesday morning with sunshine and a light northerly wind. The gennaker went up as soon as we had left the buoy. It carried us most of the way through the archipelago of Gothenburg and across the shipping lanes to Gothenburg harbour, Swedens largest port. Luckily, there was very little traffic as it was bank holiday.

The wind had been steadily increasing and it was time to go from gennaker (only) to main and genoa wing and wing as we reached open water south of Gothenburg. We have learned the hard way in the Med (see Porto Kayio and Aguadulce) not to keep the gennaker up to long in an increasing breeze. It was, even in the moderate 16 knots we had, hard work to furl it.

The trick we use is to run the engine quite hard to reduce the relative wind while we furl. And in the end, we often find as we did this time, that the speed down wind is only marginally reduced when we have the main up and the genoa on the boom. The clouds had been building from the south and we sailed through a rain front before arriving. We heard the thunder but, luckily it strayed inland.

With following winds all day, we sailed the 50+ miles down to Varberg in 10 hours. We were greeted on the dock by friends Lars and Anita on the ketch Tindra.

We spent a day here yesterday exploring by bike. The surroundings are beautiful and Varberg is a very nice old town. The centre still has many of the small wood houses left since early days. Many nice cafes and restaurants and all the shopping you need. Hakan finally got himself a new windbreaker, his beloved old Hery Loyd died of old age a year ago and has been missed ever since.

Varberg is a favourite of ours. The city has a history of being a garrison town with its fortress guarding the harbour. Later it became a sea side resort and it is still home to some nice spas. There is a lovely sand beach just outside the old harbour. We were lucky to experience it on a sunny day.

Fog rolled in in the afternoon and it has been raining cats and dogs since last night. We will leave Sally today for a week of work and family gatherings. Hakan is planning to come back Saturday with a friend to continue south on Sunday, weather permitting.

Today started rainy but it stopped shortly after breakfast. We left the old shipping village Skärhamn around noon after a short walk and a couple of hour’s video conference for Hakan.

We were able to sail most of the narrow channels with the wind from SW.

By then, the clouds were gone and we had a rather slow but pleasant sail through the small town of Marstrand with its nice old houses. In part, we followed the same route we followed four years ago heading for the Med.

We found a free buoy at Hogo after only 11 nm and decided to spend the night there. The Swedish cruising association (SXK) have put out a lot of these around the coast and they are free to use for one night if you are a member with a registered boat. All you have to do is to fly the boy-flag that comes with the mail every spring, this year it is yellow.

’Tomorrow is, as always, another day. According to the forecast, the winds will be more favourable and there will be no rain so, we expect to cover a lot more miles. Click on “VAR ÄR VI” on the top menue and follow one of the links to see our position “live”.

At ten today, we left our home port. Our plan is to sail to and in the Baltic this summer. A head of us lies close to 1 200 nautical miles of Swedish coastline. Time will tell how fare we will go, knowing that the sail back is just as long.

Having had the first shot of Corona vaccine, and the next to come in early June, we are hopeful to be able to sail also in Finland in July.

Hakan started today with a friend on board for a daytrip. A very un-photogenic sail as the rain was pouring down most of the day. We stayed relatively dry and warm under our helmsman’s awning and managed to put in some sailing but with very weak winds the engine had to do most of the work today. Now Eva is on-board for a long weekend.

Sorry for keeping quiet for so long.

We are finally back in the water after a long winter and very cold spring on the hard. A number of electrical heaters and a large 20 kW diesel heater helped us create the necessary temperatures to allow us to finish the epoxy work on the bottom in time for launching April 24^th.

We could finally, on the last day of April, leave for a first shakedown cruise over the weekend. We sailed around the island of Orust. A nice, and mostly sunny, trip in freezing temperatures.

We filled the fuel tank and put up all the sails. This year, we have a brand new mainsail. It looked nice on the first try but, we really never got to test it in anything but light winds.

We have been working hard to finalise some works and repairs and to carry everything back on board again ever since Sally went in the water. We can now see the light in the tunnel. So, if the weather is not to miserable (it has been raining cats and dogs the last week…) we will leave for the first leg of this summer’s adventure on Tuesday. Will try to keep you updated on progess…