Two pirate aspirants joined us to explore life onboard FF Harry. Their plan was to spend a couple of days with us. They left this morning, having given us close to two weeks of their valuable time. As observant Captains it is our strong belief that they learned a bunch of new things about themselves, made some strong friendships and gained necessary knowledge about the world we live in. It wouldn’t surprise me the slightest bit if they both quit school and come back knocking in a few months.
We are docked in Sjötorp. At the very start or the end of Göta Canal. This small little village seem to survive on visitors like ourselves. We are waiting for our colone to take is through this long waterway that eventually will take us to the open ocean. Tomorrow morning at 8:30 we will embark on this 5 day journey where we will average 40 kilometers every day out to the sea.
The last few days have been a lot of fun, but also a lot of work. We still need to rise quite a bit of cash for our new ship that is waiting for us a miles north of Stockholm. Many people have contributed and we are forever greatfull! At this moment we are at 11326 kroner and we have still a few weeks left before we are supposed to take over the ship. We are very confident about making this happen. But all help you can give us will take us a long way.
Please check out our fundraiser HERE and feel free to help us out with as much or a little as you can. Please don’t be shy, we really do need your help as soon as possible!
We met up with a new friend in Säffle. He had seen us from his car as we were sluicing down one of the locks of Dalslandscanal and invited us to visit his cabin for food and drinks. How could we say no.. Of course, there was this journey of crossing over from Åmål. We tried one time first but the waves was just way to high for our overloaded pirate-ship. But about four five hours and a couple of six-packs later the weather had cleared a little-bit and all we had to deal with was 1,5 meter waves and a bottle of gin. Usually we should be able to sail this distance in about an hour – we spent four hours and didn’t get into the harbour until midnight. Way too late for our friend Jens Petter.
But the next morning he showed up during breakfast. The sluice was sadly closed for the season, but we left Harry alone and took a ride on Jens Petters boat. Besides: we planned to cross the infamous lake Vänern’s hard-to-ride waters at night, in hope that the winds would have calmed down enough for us to make a more pleasant crossing than the night before. We had a great time with our new friend, it was nice with a little execution with nice talks, time to reflect, good food and a plastic glass of wine.
The night crossing went well, but it took way longer than expected, so after about eight hours we decided it would be smart to rest for a few hours. We therefore made up camp on a rocky island about halfway across the lake. Of which most of we never saw anything. It was pitch dark and impossible to navigate by anything but our cellphone-draft. In the morning, after a nice little breakfast we ventured the rest of the way, and six hours later we anchored here; in Sjötorp.
Since the high season for the canal ended a few days ago, we are now in what is referred to as to booking season, meaning we are now waiting for our convoy, the first available. It was a little pricey, we paid 3560 kroner, about 350 euro to go all the way through. But then again, it is supposed to be an extremely beautiful journey, and we have been looking forward to it all summer long.
Best of luck to all you wonderful readers for the next few days. We’ll be back with the tale of Göta Canal as soon as possible. Probably with an update before we get all the way through.
Captain Jack
If you havent allready visited our fundraiser, this is a good time. Just click HERE and it will open in a new tab so it’s easy for you to keep reading ; )
Harry Floats 