Daysail to Rosättra

Since I’m back to daywork it is now only weekends that we can go sailing on Meritaten.

Saturday had beautiful weather but there was absolutely no wind. Dead-flat sea in Norrtäljeviken. I attended some house-keeping procedures: cleaned the deck from spider nets and birds’ crap, cleaned and pumped-out the bilge etc.

After heavy rain there was water on the mast step so I wrapped the mast collar on deck level with tape.

Ugly as hell but should work fine. It’s not visible anyway, hidden under my home-made mast collar.

Mast sliders, from stainless steel, which came with the new main sail do not slide well so I replaced them with old nylon sliders which sat on the old sail. Hopefully they will work better and not jam while rising or dropping the sail - most annoying, especially at hard wind. The problem is that my mast profile is so old that there is no way to buy nylon sliders for it any longer. Together with Polish sailmaker we found these steel sliders as closest fit - and I re-worked them to fit the profile but anyhow some sliders were jamming on flogging sail. Nylon should work better.

Around 14:00 there came wind - land breeze. It was too late for me to start sailing so I took a long walk home, enjoying this beautiful summer day in my city.

Advantages of not driving to the harbour - one can take a beer on the way home, with the view on ones boat!

The city centre, previously occupied by old and non-functioning cargo harbour, is now rebuilt into residential district with few pubs and restaurants. One pub serving our local brewery beers. What not to like?

With Meritaten prepared for sailing I went home with the plan to do some day-sailing on Sunday.

Indeed, weather was even better today - and on my way to the harbour I could feel the wind already at 11. Preparing the boat for departure took a bit but we left the harbour just before 12. My goal was to sail to Rosättra, to check on my workshop there - and Glypto which I renovate inside.

Most of the way I had southerly, half-wind of moderate strength so we could sail under full sails. Average was 5 knots with peeks around 6 knots - really nice indeed. Down in the channel to Rosättra I had to drop sails halfway since the wind died or was blowing from random directions.

As always under this bridge I wonder if the mast will clear the bridge. It did this time.

We went on engine to the harbour where I took the free place. Jim apparently is sailing as Kaika was not in her slip.

I’ve check my workshop and went on a walk around the boatyard and Rosättra shipyard. Not many people at this time of day.

Back on Meritaten I’ve made myself a lunch, smoke a pipe and prepared the boat for departure. As it happens often now the wind was strong here and was pushing the boat into the berth - we had some difficulties in leaving the place back on engine - my boat does not listen to the rudder when backing and propeller is very poor for backward thrust. With engine full-ahead flank we’ve managed finally to leave and turn, without damaging multi-million crown boats in vicinity.

All the way back through the channel we were going on the engine - the wind was moderate to strong but directly into the face. Sailing against the wind in this narrow channel would take hours (I’ve tried that last year when I had the engine failure here) so relying on diesel power was my choice here. Slow but easy we were going 2 knots all the way to Norrtäljeviken where I could finally rise the sails.

I was hoping for comfortable ride home on the half-wind but unfortunately the wind shifted from South to South-West so we were beating all the way home against the wind. Anyhow the average was 4-5 knots so not bad. Occasional squalls had make the ride even more interesting - showing which parts of inventory were not properly fastened by throwing them onto cabin sole when the boat was leaning to the side.

Around 18:00 we were approaching Norrtäljehamn, all the way under sails. Inside the harbour there was almost no wind so approach on engine was easy. Thomas was at his wooden motorboat and waited for me to help with docking. We had a small chat, I folded sails and prepared Meritaten for sleep in her dock until the next time.

The day was perfect so on the way home I indulged myself with a pint (or two) in my favourite harbour pub. Summer!