Artipelag, 1 December 2019

Artipelag is always an interesting place to go to for an exhibition, a nice walk in the nature, and eventually very good meal!



These days, and until the 26 January 2020, there is a fantastic Fornasetti exhibition Inside Out Outside In...

Wintering in Wasahamnen - 10 November

Finally, mid-November, we place Belisama in her winter quarters in the centre of Stockholm, alongside the quay where the new Viking museum is located...

4 November - Lid and Floda churches

Lid church

Floda church

A weekend to visit two new churches decorated by Albertus Pictor...

Steninge, 15 Septembre

Steninge palace situated in a park on the bank of the Mälaren. The palace itself cannot be visited but the park is opened to visitors. The architect that built the palace is the same as the one who conceived Drottningholm in Stockholm.

Skokloster, a Baroque guest pier, 14 September

Skokloster castle is one of the most famous Swedish baroque castle built in the 1650s'. Its architecture was probably inspired by the Warsaw's Ujazdów Castle. Since the 1970s', it is a national museum. During summer, the castle is open for visits, weekend only in June and September. There is a cafe in the castle where salads and sandwiches can be served. In addition, there is an old vintage gas station with a small grocery shop and café. The entrance is free but the armoury and the top floor can only be visited as part of a guided tour for a fee.

One more Pictor Church, Täby, 10 September

After a couple of unsuccessful attempts, I made it to the Täby church, one of the churches with best preserved paintings. This painting by Albertus Pictor is famous as it is unique and was the inspiration for Ingmar Bergman scene of the knight playing chess with death in its Seventh Seal movie.

Albertus Pictor cheesecake game with death, Täby

Bergman The Seventh Seal chess game scene. See copyright.

More pictures on BalticSailors...

A visit to Carl Eldh, 6/8 September

On 6 September, I paid a long due visit to the "Ateljémuseum" of Carl Eldh in Stockholm, the "other" famous sculptor of the XX century, with Carl Milles.

The place is a heaven of peace, full of history and emotion. One place not to be missed while in Stockholm!

Yesterday is the same as tomorrow, 1 and 7 September 2019.

Another mushroom weekend around Gripsholm castle in Mariefred area. We went back to the same place where we went last week. And this time, the harvest was even better! Amazing to see how fast are the mushrooms growing as we did not leave much behind us last week. And this time, they were all fresh, young and without bugs!

1 September 2019

7 September 2019

A real pleasure!

A good start of the mushroom season, 1 September

Two days ago while on Stallarholmen in the Mälaren, I had a good boletus risotto, having found few boletus mushrooms along the way while biking in Selaön. We decided for the weekend, to get back to this forest to explore a bit more its mushroom resources...

This is the harvest after a few hours in the forest...

And they proved to be huge!

Back to Stockholm,31 August 2019

Back to Stockholm after ten days of sailing along in the Mälaren. This is closing a three month period of sailing onboard Belisama.

Passing Hammarby lock...

Tough land sickness expected!

A hidden treasure, Stallarholmen and Selaön, 28-30 August 2019

When sailing in the Mälaren, Mariefred and Strängnäs are two of the most visited spots. But in between, there is an opening bridge at Stallarholmen that very few sailors would consider for a visit. Yet, Stallarholmen is the entry point for the Island of Selaön, the largest lake island in Sweden, and a real coup de coeur!

The Överselö medieval church on Selaön

Judge by yourselves! Two decorated medieval churches, one of the largest viking grave field with plenty of rune stones and a stone ship, the Mälsåker castle, and a lot of nature and forest, full of mushroom at this time of the year.

I let you get a look...

A visit to the ancestors, Birka, 21-23 August 2019

Birka, is considered as the oldest city in Sweden. It was founded around 750 AD and abandoned 250 years later. At the peak of its activity, Birka comprised up to one thousand inhabitants. Birka is located 30 kilometres west of Stockholm on lake Mälaren. It is a popular day excursion from Stockholm. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993.

Birka guest harbour?

To Nynäshamn, via Sandham and Utö... 28 July - 1 August 2019

New crew this week to get back to Nynäshamn, Sweden, with Gérard, an old friend sailor, who wants the type of "heavy sailing" that his family is reluctant too... Plans are set to sail through Gotska Sandön or even Gotland, but in fact, the excess of wind will make us revise them, as it would not be safe to anchor in Gotska Sandön with 30 knots of northerly winds.

The new itinerary finally sees us going from Mariehamn to Lido's, then to Sandhamn (not Svenska Högarna as expected because of strong northerly winds), then Utö, before Nynäshamn.

Mariehamn, 27-28 July 2019

We conclude the week with Johan and Suzanne by getting in Mariehamn where they will be catching a ferry to get back to Stockholm. We chose to moor in the Österhamn marina (60.100136, 19.950013) for having had problems in the past in getting free berths in the Västerhamn.

Belisama (last on the left) in the Österhamn in Mariehamn

Föglö, 25 July 2019

Föglö, the "Bird Island", is a group of islands with 530 inhabitants. Two main marinas are located on Degerö, one of the island of the group. This is our second visit to Föglö, a convenient stopover on the way tp Mariehamn.

A view of the Degerby from the guest pier.

Kökar, where the summer started..., 24 July 2019

Kökar is a group of relatively large islands in the south of the Åland archipelago. There are three marinas available there, one in Sandvik (59.940675, 20.883422), one in Hellsö (59.950326, 20.923333) and one in Kalby (59.92114, 20.912465). We chose the one in Hellsö and moored on a stern buoy, bow to the pier.

Belisama on the Kökar guest pier at Hellsö.

And here, we started experiencing the real summer, with temperature above 25°C during the day, and limited wind...

Sottunga, 23 July 2019

Sottunga (60.109718, 20.682106), with 90 inhabitants is the smallest municipality in Åland. Only three of the islands around are inhabited. Sottunga got inhabited in the 11th century. The original church was built in 1661, but the one we can see today dates from 1728.

On the island, there is one bank, one school and one post office. One wind mill provides all electricity needed for the whole island.

Torsholm, a supposed guest harbour in Kumlinge, 23 July 2019

Upon leaving Gladalaxen guest ham, we decided to get back to Kumlinge on the east coast, in the guest harbour of Torsholm as indicated on the SXK cruising club pilot book. Tyvär as they would say around here (too bad in English), the big guest-pontoon just disappeared and we had to revert to an old abandoned wooden pier from a factory looking as having closed in the previous century... A good night swinging as the ferries were landing close to us, but overall fine as we wanted to have a chance to visit Kumlinge again since it has so mucho offer...

Kumlinge church.

Glad sailors in the Glad Salmon place... 21 July 2019

In Swedish, a glad salmon is called a gladalax. In March 2019, as we were preparing for the sailing season already scheduled to take place in the gulf go Bothnia and in Åland, we went to the boat fair called "Alt på sjön", held in Stockholm during the first week of March. There, we passed by the Åland stand and ask the guy handling the stand where should we go while sailing in Åland. He told us, in many places, including mine, the Gladalax marina (60.30392, 20.743668). We connected immediately with a post in the blog of François and Valérie on Cybèle 17, indicating how much they appreciated their stopover in his happy salmon place. The connexion was established, and we ended up there with our fiends Johan and Suzanne...

Johan and Kaja on the way to the Gladalax guest harbour.

A ride to Kustavi to welcome Johan and Suzanne onboard, 21 July 2019

Today was quite an important day as it was the day we completed our tour of the gulf of Bothnia. Our aim was to reach Kustavi, in the Turku archipelago, in order welcome onboard Johan and Suzanne, two months (and 1000 miles) after having departed from Stockholm.

After a month of favourable back winds, we experienced no winds for the first time, around 0.3 m/s on average for the day. A full day on engine then, for a 47 nautical miles...

Rauma, a must, 19-20 July 2019

Rauma (61.141226, 21.472628) is the most interesting stopover we had in Finland this season. Rauma is a city with a long tradition of sailing.

Tatoo exhibit in the Rauma maritime museum.

Reposaari, on the way to Rauma, 18 July 2019

Reposaari (61.617557, 21.442394) was not planned as a stopover on our way to Rauma as we are running a bit short ofttimes to be in Kustavi on Sunday morning to welcome Johan and Suzanne for a week onboard. But there was no wind and we decided to stop there while waiting for better trade winds.

And we liked it. Just have a look...

Kaskinen, a ghost town? 16 July 2019

With rain and no wind in Rönnskär on 15 July, we were ready to spend a second night there. However, the updated weather forecasted indicates a gale for 16 July. North-East winds, 10 to 12 m/s are forecasted for the night. Fearing to get trapped in Rönnskär during the gale, we decide to depart at 22:00 for an overnight 48 mile ride to Kaskö (Kaskinen). We arrive by 4:00 (8 knots on average), just in time for the sunrise and before the gale... 

Sunrise at 4:00, just below the clouds

Rönnskär, 14-15 July 2019

Rönnskär (63.061065, 20.804973) is a small set of islands in the outskirt of the Kvarken archipelago. The guest pier is not indicated in the Svenska Kryssar Klubb pilot book, but you can find the list of the guest harbours in the Kvarken outer archipelago on the Kvarken web site.

The pilot station and the beacon on Rönnskär

 However, how to get there is a question...

A technical and cultural stopover in Vaasa, 14 July 2019

A week after our stopover in Oulu, we are in need for a decent marina with services, electricity, and the city life, restaurant, museums and more... So we went to Vaasa. Like in most of the cities we have visited in the Bottenviken, the city skyline can be seen from far at sea. First, the "fumulus" created by the factories, then the chimneys, cranes, poles...

Vaasa skyline from the sea

 But Vaasa has more to offer...

Mässkär, Kummelskär, 11-12 July 2019

After the two days in Tankar, we continue our descente along the cost of Finland in the Bottenviken through two small interesting islands, Mässkär and Kummelskär, in the pouter Kvarken's archipelago.

Departing from Tankar

Stuck in Tankar, 9 to 11 July 2019

Tankar (63.949918, 22.850983) is a small lighthouse island as we love them, located at the entrance of the pathway to Kokkola. It used to be a busy pilot station and even though the station moved to Kokkola, pilot boats are still stopping over in the old pilot basin between assignments.

Tankar pilot basin, with Belisama on the right and Anitra on the left

The approach is straight forward. There are 15 guest mooring in the harbour, including the old pilot basin where one can moor except on the west pier still used by the pilots. The draught is three metres. The north and east pier of the pilot basin are equipped with electricity. Staying overnight costs 10€, 15€ with electricity, to be paid at the café.

To Ohtakari via Raahe, 7 & 8 July 2019

Leaving Oulu, we go through documented pathways to Raahe (64.688209, 24.470265). Pathways are well marked on the Sailmate free nautical charts available as an app but we will discover that the height indicated does not correspond to what we get from our sounder. After a few researches, we realise that the sea level amplitude of variation around Oulu and Kemi can reach three metres, according to wind direction and atmospheric pressure (1 cm variation by mbar). The Finnish meteorological site gives values and prevision of sea level and indeed, the sea level on that date was more than 20 cm lower than expected due to persistent northern winds in previous days, which counts when sailing on a 1.5 metre deep pathway.

Belisama on the guest pier in Raahe, 1.1 metre deep on the sounder

A pause in Oulu, 5 to 7 July 2019

We arrive in Oulu after a 50 nautical mile crossing with most pleasant back side winds. We find a spot alongside in 1.3 metre of water, thanks to the centre board.

Oulu guest harbour

Now heading south, to Maloren and Sandskär, 3 July 2019

Maloren was one the highlight of our summer, at least in the list of places to visit in Bottenviken. Maybe because it is on the cover page of the SXK pilot book, or because of the post of Cybèle 17... We did go there, with 12 m/s (25 knots) side winds, to realise that it would not be a good idea to force our way to the old destroyed harbour in those conditions. Very frustrating indeed,  but certainly wise given the recent experience in Rödkallen.

Maloren, from a distance...

 So, we moved along...

Beaching in Seskarö, 2nd July 2019

Beaching on a sand beach is not something that you will do often in Sweden. However, in Grotviken, Seskarö island, this is the practice as there is a sand ridge on which sailing boats can beach, even if they have keels, as the slope is stiff. You therefore need to draw an anchor on the back...

But then, what an experience during the midnight sun nights. Despite the mosquitoes...

Further north, Renskär, 1st July 2019

Leaving Luleå on Mon,day 1st July, we make small journey up north to Renskär (65.650473, 22.972627), a small natural harbour equipped with a pontoon.

The pontoon at Renskär

 A very nice stopover after these busy days in the "city"...

A pause in Luleå, 27 - 30 June 2019

Luleå, a pause on our summer transhumance, after already 626.3 nautical miles in 5 weeks. Stéphane is getting back home after more than four weeks on board, and Kaja and Mišo are getting in for the next couple of weeks.

The new crew

As you can imagine, this is the opportunity to shop, to wash, to fix things, to clean, to recover and enjoy for a few days staying still. But Luleå has more than that to offer...

Rödkallen, 27 June 2019

Rödkallen (65.311784, 22.371747) is another of these outer islands where fishermen were coming since the middle-ages to fish herrings.

Rödkallen and its lighthouse

But it is not easy to get there...

Wild wild Stenskär, 26 June 2019

Stenskär (65.134695, 21.718469) means the "Stone Island". The island is equipped with a floating pontoon in borderline conditions that provides good shelter unless strong northwest winds. 

Stenskär is a very popular destination in nice summer days, because of its extended sandy beaches, lagoon type bay and picturesque fishermen cottages.

Pite-Rönnskär, 25 June 2019

Pite Rönnskär (65.036346, 21.55612)is an island in the Bottenviken located at the border between the provinces of Västerbotten and Norrbotten. The small harbour is well inside the less than 3 metre depth of the nautical charts, and even of the 0.5 metre of the Navionics sonar charts. Yet, there is an alignment to reach the harbour safely, at least for an OVNI with the centre board up. Room for 2/3 boats on the pier.

The Pite-Rönnskär guest pier, with electricity. 100 kr/day

Peaceful evening in Halsön, 24 June 2019

Halsön (64.887185, 21.239319) is az nice stopover between Gåsören and Pite Rönnskär. As usual under these latitudes we feel very lonely at the pontoons fully equipped with all facilities. 

Tnhe pontoon at Halsön.

Gåsören, 24 June 2019, what else can you expect?

Gåsören is a tiny island off the Skellefteå coast. The lighthouse was built in 1881. The island is a SXK harbour equipped with a buoy just outside the small harbour.

Gåsören, from Belisama drone...

Smoking salmon on the way to Bjuröklubb, 23 June 2019

Bjuröklubb (64.462583, 21.571655) is 40 miles north of Ratan. It is a bay sheltered from southern winds and equipped with a SXK buoy. There is a small harbour, but clearly not suitable for a boat like Belisama.

On the way to Bjuröklubb, we decided to test the new smoker bought in Clas Ohlson in Umeå with some fresh salmon from there as well...

Ratan for midsummer, 22 June 2019

Ratan is a small island 20 miles north of Umeå and providing a good shelter for most winds. This will be the first time in almost a months that we see more than one boat at a time. Yet, none of the boats in Ratan are Swedish!

Belisama dressed for midsummer 

 This is the first time that Belisama pavoise. It took me a while before identifying the correct order on a French boat for displaying the flags... It should be:
           - from the foot of the jackstaff to the masthead: E, Q, 3, G, 8, Z, 4, W, 6, P, 1, I, Apercu, T, Y, B, X, 1er substitute, H, 3ème substitute
           - from the masthead to the foot of the flagstaff: D, F, 2e substitut, U, A, O, M, R, 2, J, 0, N, 9, K, 7, V, 5, L, C, S

Note that order changes according to countries and some countries do not specify an order.

But we were not in Ratan just to show off...

Norrbyskär, 19 June 2019

Norrbyskär is our last stopover before Umeå. This island was once in the XIX century and up to the 1950's the largest steam powered sawmill in Europe.

A surströmming experience in Skagshamn, 17 June 2019

Up north again, we make a stopover in Skagshamn, interested to further understand how the surströmming is prepared. Who knows, maybe Belisama will enlarge its fermented stuff menu by adding surströmming?

Hail in Skaghamn

Back to Ulvön, 17 June 2019

Leaving Barsta and Bönhamn, we continue up north for a short ride to Ulvön, still deserted at this time of the year, before the seasonal peak.

The Ulvön bay

Sundsval, Härnösand, Barsta - 13-16 June 2019

After a week of canicula, we experience a complete change of weather, with head cold wind obliging us to tack our way, day and night, with significant swell. To make it worth, the small harbour where we had plan to rest for the night has been damaged by the January storm and is no longer safe for mooring. The plan B marina has a jetty more like a swell breaker and inappropriate for mooring in such weather. We therefore continue to Sundsvall where we arrive 2:00 at night.

Picture by Stéphane.

Third stop in Kuggören - 12 & 13 June 2019

Kuggören again. We stopped there twice in 2016 on our way to Umeå, and we liked it so much! So we stopped again this year on our way up north. It remains a must stop coup de cœur for any sailor passing by.

The bay of Kuggören

Gävle - Synskär, 10 June 2019

Once Belisama fixed, we needed to get back on our schedule in order to be in Umeå on 20 June as expected. Very pleasant first bit from Gävle to Synskjär, where we will moor on the SXK buoy.

Sailing up north to Synskär

Replacing the stern gland, Gävle, 10 June

On the post about the start of the 2019 season, I was showing Belisama being lifted, antifouled, and put back to waters. At the time, I did not do a good job in purging the stern gland (the seal on the propeller shaft), and a few days after getting back to waters, we got into a crisis with hundreds of litres of waters in the hull.

What sounded at the time as a major crisis that could jeopardise the start of the season, ended-up smooth and easy as we happened to be passing Gävle...

Belisama on the good care of Christer in Gävle Fliskärvärket

Gravad lax on board - 7 June 2019

Gravlax (or gravad lax) consists of salmon cured in salt, sugar and dill. It is typical of scandinavian cooking. It is very easy to do, can be kept for couple of weeks after curing, and is agrementing our lunch salads on Belisama on a routine basis. It is a very good food to bring or make in a boat, as it can be kept safely for couple of weeks and will complement salads and aperitif in a very nice way.

It only takes few minutes to prepare...