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The passage plan was to take PEGASUS from Kalmar to Copenhagen in 8 days, a distance of some 200 miles in a roughly South Westerly direction, with the expectation of the prevailing wind being South West! And it was.
17 August
The crew arrived by various routes, the skipper was in Kalmar to greet them all as he had been on the previous leg.
The boat was victualed (much gin had been brought from England due to the price of alcohol in Sweden), and a pleasant meal taken in a rather dark and wet Kalmar
18 August
The following morning saw fog and a complete absence of wind, but the forecast was for a light Southerly later, so we set off with the intention of stopping overnight at Kristianopel which has a very good write up in the Gasthamns Guiden 2004.
The buoyage can be a little difficult to spot and at one stage the crew were completely fooled by an Easterly cardinal.
Infact we motored for about 4 hours and when the wind arrived we decided to sail on to Sandhamn, about 12 miles further on. Sandhamn enjoys a moderate write up in the guide and is lucky to get that.
19 August
The next day the wind was a force 4 from the SSE and we set off for Karlskrona, a base for the Navy and Coastguard. We had a very good sail the 25 miles taking only 5 hours. We went to the Tallebryggan “marina” which is much larger than the alternative and closer to the town.
20 August
The wind was a bit fresh ie a force 5 from the SSW. We set off for Hallevik, pretty much due West of the entrance to Karlskrona. Approaching Hallevik the wind went to S and we managed to pass the island of Hano without another tack. Due to the need to tack the passage was about 54 miles (9 hours) and we did not have time to enjoy all that Hallevik says that it has to offer ie two fish smoking plants, pubs, clubs restaurants. However, the next morning we did buy some excellent smoked fish for our lunch.
21 August
The wind was still SW but a force 4 so setting off for Simrishhamn (roughly SSW) required a tack to the West and then one to the South. None the less a good sail but mainly on starboard. For the first time we found the marina relatively full, mainly Germans and a few Swedes. That night we enjoyed a pleasant meal at what can best be described as a fish and chip restaurant on a converted fishing boat.
22 August
Our old friend the SW wind was with us but now a force 6/7. But being stout British sailors we got ready for our next leg to Ystad. As we took the water hose from a nearby German vessel the lady crew expressed some deep concern at our apparent folly. Did we not know that with a strong SW the seas in the Bornholm Gatt could run to 2 metres plus around the headland just to the south they were even worse. We were then approached by a concerned Swedish skipper, who had tracked us the previous day (or tried to as we sailed slightly faster), who repeated the warning, explaining that the seas have a fetch of about 150 miles. Faced with such sound advice we decided to spend the day at rest – it was Sunday after all.
It being a sunny day we set off to enjoy the much-advertised “Swedish right to roam” which apparently means you can wonder across anyone’s land as long as you keep a reasonable distance from the house. In fact we ended up in a field confronted by an impassable river and had to back track.
That night we enjoyed the best meal of the trip. Taken at a nearby restaurant, attached to a smokery, we had herring fillet then roast lamb followed by ice cream and strawberries. Excellent. We even lashed out on a few beers although the skipper opted for pear cider – a speciality of the region and not bad.
23 August
The wind was of course SW but only a force 4. We tacked a bit West of South then WNW arriving off Ystad in good time. However, as we had lost a day we passed on to Gislovs lage, but did the final four hours under engine pushing more or less due West. Gislovs lage lies just to the east of Trelleborg, which is a major ferry port and not open to yachts. It is very quiet. Our main task was to use all our Swedish coins, we off loaded about 60 Kr to pay for the berth but we were left with 13 Kr (of which more later).
24 August
The next leg would take us to Copenhagen (Kastrup), around 50 miles. We got a good wind shift to ESE and it blew a steady force 6 with an occasional excursion upto force 7. Rather than hug the coast and enjoy the bounce often experienced in shallow waters, followed by a crossing of some very busy shipping lanes we opted to “go outside everything” ie almost due west crossing the lanes before they become separation zones, and then north to the Drogden Channel. We set off with one reef in the main. Realising that although 8 knots was a good speed it was not sustainable we put in another reef and then a third settling for a steady 7 knots. Probably the best sail of the trip taking only 8 hours to get to Kastrup (54 miles) and using the engine for only 50 minutes – of which 30 were spent exploring Kastrup marina for a berth.
25 August
One of the crew wanted to visit the Viking Ship Museum at Roskilde so we sent him on his way and set off for a short trip upto Ven (Backviken), not much wind but only about 10 miles away. We stopped for lunch and as this was Sweden again 12 Kr were spent on an ice cream! The plan was to sail back to Copenhagen and try to get a photo of the Little Mermaid, however, the wind went SSW and it rained so we dropped that idea. Back at Kastrup we met the returning crewmember, much pleased with himself as he had actually steered a replica Viking vessel.
On the trip to Ven and on the return we passed the very elegant offshore windfarm. It appears to cause no problems for pleasure craft or for commercial vessels. Very quite and a joy to see – so what’s the problem with having one off the East Coast?
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Fuelled up, dined and slept.
26 August
One crewmember left early for the trip back to Stansted, the rest left at around midday. Total distance logged about 300 miles and some very good sailing.
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