360 nautical miles from Lomma to Stockholm in 4 days

My dad and brother made a real deal – they bought a Wasa 31 cheap with a lot of new equipment and new sails. The boat was docked in Lomma, just outside of Malmö. This was a great opportunity for Christine and I to practice some sailing on the ocean.

The wind was with us all the time, but at first there was hardly any strength in it at all. The first night we sailed with the engine on – we didn’t move fast. We sailed in shift of 3 hours to keep awake. Sailboats are made for sailing, from earlier experiences it doesn’t feel like the engine at sailing boats should be used too hard (remembering our sailing trip from Colombia to Panama when the engine broke down and we got stranded on the Caribbean Sea). Our engine had a problem, it started to smoke like crazy at several occasions, and then it was almost impossible to shut it off. We decided to go to the harbor at Kristian Opel and have a good night’s sleep the second night. Fortunately, the wind was stronger the next day so we could sail and let the engine have a rest.

We stopped in Kalmar to refuel and tried to fix the engine before moving on to Byxelkrok, Öland. I was standing in the kitchen, it was pitch black outside and we were soon to arrive the harbor. Then we drove through a large field of fishing nets that were not lit, it was completely impossible to see them! It was very unpleasant, we passed a lot of nets and it was really lucky that we did not had the engine on. We arrived safely in the harbor after all, and got us another night’s sleep.

The next day the wind was around 14 m/s and the waves pushed right into the harbor. It was a little uncertain if the engine would work to get us out of the harbor, otherwise we would had crashed back on land. We prepared the sails for heavy winds, as well as an anchor we could use if the engine was going to give up. But it all went well, we got out at sea. We sailed fast, around 11 knots we surfed among the waves. After a full day at the sea we came to Arkösund. We slept a few hours before the Christine and Oscar went up very early for the first shift to get us home finally. The last day went slow but when we came home to Ekerö we were met by friends who welcomed us from boats and docks.

It was a very instructive journey. Both the sailing and how to live together on a small place in tougher weather conditions. Great experience for our upcoming Expedition Lofoten project!