December is here. The deck is covered with frost in the morning and the inner shallow bays of the west-Swedish archipelago is covered in a layer of thin ice all day long. The sun rarely peek through the clouds but we are able to keep up the temperature with warm clothing and electric heat during the windy nights. Life is magical and just as we were running out of fresh food, Captain Tommy came by with a Christmas present of two bags with great stuff to fill our stomachs. For those of you that are long time followers you’ll remember we shared a week with the amazing Captain Tommy as we were traveling in the waterways of Baltzar about 14 months ago.
Due to the short days of daylight and mixed weather we have decided to go a bit slower this last part than originally planned. There is no lack of harbors to visit and since we are out of season most placed don’t charge anything, although showers are lacking. The one we found was one in the corner of an unheated public bathroom – that would have to do for the week. Now also with a bag full of potatoes and a box of creme fraiche we are not stressing anything.
So far the sails have been holding up since the last repair. We are crossing all fingers that the stitches will hold it together for another week. If not, I believe we do have enough diesel onboard to make it anyways. Sailing this last bit is most amazing. We are enjoying great winter winds and are pretty much sticking to the inside fareways. This said, we do need to keep an eye on the strong winds to the north and the ones coming in from east. There may even be another break-day to let some hard weather get through in front of us.
Our journey since the last post have been good. We are visiting plenty of harbors and are not having any concern to how far we go in a day. But a look out the window right now as the time is 16:12 it’s basically already dark and I would much rather enjoy the sights of this landscape. Captain Simen has been awake bright and early this week and have therefor been naturally taking the first shifts. I keep getting late to bed due to some way to interesting crime-series. At night we’ve had no problems finding electricity to keep warm and enlightened.
There have been no luck with our desperate attempts of fishing. But one of these days we are bound to get something big. One of our poles broke to something that must have been a monster-fish, but luckily we have a more poles laying around here somewhere. I am lobbying to get a net onboard and hopefully this can get into our next budget, if of course we can’t find one that is being given away somewhere..
All in all, we are having a great time. We have even secured a dock for our arrival. The harbor master in Lisleby, Petter, have given us permission to use FF Harry’s old spot for the duration of our stay in Fredrikstad.
Captain Jack
Harry Floats 