Vintersegling i februari

Winter sailing in February Lars-Göran and Marie Nordström have tried winter sailing with their OE 36 "Fiona" whose home harbour is in Nynäshamn. Read about their different sailing experience! To enlarge the pictures, click on the thumbnails. To close the larger picture, click anywhere on the picture. During the second week of February 2002 I was suffering from “sailing abstinence”. I simply HAD to go out and sail. My Australian wife and I had lived aboard since we came home with her to Nynäshamn on November 21st 2001 and for many days I felt like weighing anchor.
	I mean, two months in the same ”anchor place” is just a bit too long. Once the ice began to leave at the beginning of February I constantly thought about how beautiful it would be to go sailing when it no longer looked like it does in this picture.
The first hurdle was to convince my wife, who is used to an Australian winter with a minimum temperature of +15º C (59º F), that sailing in February is incredibly nice and really beautiful, even when the air temperature is 0º C (32º F). I really tried to paint a scene which I really had no idea about, since I, in fact, had never been sailing in winter. But after all, the end justifies the means... The next step, after we had made the decision, was to remove the tarpaulin coverings and stow away everything that was lying in the cockpit and cabin. There was a large number of assorted things, because I had the ambition that I was going to work on the boat over the winter. At any rate, we needed to have a decent trafficable area in the boat, because it doesn’t have to look like the aftermath of a naval battle even before we have left the pier! It took me 1 hour and 40 minutes to remove the winter mooring ropes we had attached to the pier. All of the lines were frozen and it was a difficult job to loosen the knots. I needed to use a heat gun. In addition, several large chunks of ice hung from some of the rope’s ends. But these difficulties were not going to stop me from going sailing! At 11.30 am we were finally able to cast off – very, very well wrapped up – and 10 minutes later we raised the main sail. It was blowing at 3–6 m/s (6–12 knots) inside the harbour region and the temperature was +1º C (33.8º F). But at least it was plus degrees! We quickly came out from behind an island, and we now had winds of 10 m/s (20 knots) and we only needed a small piece of the genoa in order for us to be travelling 6,0–6,5 knots. The sun warmed both of us and the sails showered us with tiny ice flakes. They came from the sails. Evidently, moisture in the sails had frozen during winter. Oh well, we ducked and hoped that we didn’t get hit in the head by bits of ice. The wind chill factor was –4º C (24.8º F) and it didn’t feel too cold as long as we were protected by the dodger. Lambi, our little toy poodle, had forgotten how it felt to be at sea and she vomited. She wanted to sit in our arms for a while until she felt well again. The scenery over Mysingen was beautiful with the sun colouring the trees and making the water give off a fog-like smoke. But where were all of the boats? Why was there nobody out sailing on this beautiful Wednesday the 13th of February? Hmmm. After 2 hours of sailing the sun became completely hidden and it was overcast and a short while later the wind increased to 12 m/s (24 knots) The wind chill factor was now -11º C (12.2º F) and it actually felt cold. I was almost freezing. The sea had sprayed over the boat and there were 2 cm long icicles hanging along the whole length of the life lines. The sheets were completely stiff and slippery but even so, it was magnificent to sail! By 4 pm we were in front of Dalarö, it was already getting dark and when I came up on deck to lower the main sail, I fell straight on my rear end. There was no danger but it still gave me something to think about. When I went up, I hadn’t noticed that the whole deck was covered with ice. No more trotting around the deck without a safety line! We moored alongside the guest pier, to the east of the ferry landing and calculated that we would be undisturbed during the night. In the cabin, I had a coffee and shook the chill away! Little by little, the warm began to creep along our bodies and we were able to begin to peel off a few layers of clothing and it was especially nice to remove our woollen caps, so that we could scratch scalps. Early the next morning when I looked out into the darkness, I saw snow on the pier and the surroundings and the lights were already on in many houses. The light shone warm and golden over the cold, blue snow. The atmosphere reminded me of Christmas with it’s silence and peace. This is winter at its best. The sea was not completely without traffic, even though it was winter. Just now, a motor boat came and I watched it dropped off a school girl and the car ferry came a short time later. Cars drove on and off and there were a lot of people about. During the rest of the day, we saw many boats, mostly working boats passing by here, so that it wasn’t as dead as we had perhaps imagined it would be.
	Around lunch time we went around and took a look at the Dalarö community. The sun was shining and it was really warm as long as we weren’t in the shade. It was so beautiful with the snow, the sun and the blue water. A highly recommended experience! We stayed a further night at the pier and revelled in the great atmosphere.
At 10.30 the next morning we left the pier at Dalarö and set sail. We were quickly making 5 knots in winds of 5 m/s (10 knots). When we came out of lee, the wind increased to 8 m/s (16 knots) and we furled in the genoa to the size of a tacking jib. The sun was shining from a clear blue sky and we were making between 6 and 7 knots. Fiona ploughed through the water like a train and it felt fantastic. This is life!
	It took us 4 hours and thirty minutes to sail the 23 nautical miles to the island of Möja and we headed into Kyrkviken (the Church Bay) to dock. There was ice still in the inner part of the bay, so we headed out again to the outer pier at the entrance to the bay. We lay alongside the pier, after all, it was highly unlikely that someone else would come along and also want to moor here. The sun was still lovely and warm as we made our way to the grocery store to shop.
On the way back, we were stopped by one of the local islanders who began to chat to us. As he came closer to us we detected a very strong smell of alcohol, but he was quite nice and good-natured. After we had stood there a while and our feet began to freeze, he said he wanted to give us an eel, which he had hanging in a string bag in his boathouse at the side of the pier. We thanked him and now I have seen how an eel is skinned and cleaned. I can’t say that what I saw was very humane. We had thought of inviting him aboard our boat, but we feared that he would stay for the rest of the evening and repeat the same stories over again, so we remained on the pier and continued chatting. We stayed there the next day and we went around and looked at Möja for a while and relaxed onboard reading books. It was a totally pleasant tempo. No timeframes and no fixed agendas. The cloudy weather was another reason for mostly staying indoors. On Sunday at. 9.30am we set a course for the nearby island of Sandhamn. The winds were 6 m/s (12 knots) it was sunny, and the three hours it took to get to Sandhamn flew by quickly, as though we had just sailed around the corner.
	When we arrived in Sandhamn we were struck by just how deserted it looked. There wasn’t a single boat at the guest harbour and only pilot boats and archipelago ferries were still working. It was also completely safe to moor alongside the pier even here, so we did.
I went up to the guest harbour office but seeing that it was unmanned, we didn’t need to pay the harbour fee. There was absolutely nothing around us, we couldn’t even obtain any fresh water or diesel. That is probably the biggest problem with winter sailing. All of the taps are closed and the filling stations generally have very restricted opening times, if they open at all. You have to take the opportunity to fill up whenever you get the chance and preferably before you leave on your trip. It isn’t always certain that you will find water or diesel anywhere. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and the following day we went around the town and I felt that I was better able to see the everyday life of the people lived who here permanently, now that the boat people and the tourists had gone home. The little grocery shop was open, even though they didn’t have a great selection of goods. Understandably, the prices were higher than in the mainland communities, but when you consider that only about 160 people live here on the island, you have to be grateful to get anything at all. We savoured that wonderful feeling of being able to wander around this popular and normally crowded summer destination and to have it all to ourselves. After all at the moment, it was hardly crowded! We woke up on Tuesday morning and it was cold in the boat. We saw that the diesel that powers the heater was empty. Once we were dressed and had coffee we were at any rate a little warmer. The filling station was closed and the only filling station that we knew would be open, was the one at Dalarö. We sailed there. Just as I had guessed, the Dalarö station was open and we could get the badly needed diesel. The staff who came and helped fill the tanks and drew out a water hose for us, said that we were the first leisure boat for the season at Dalarö. We were really happy with the excellent service we received, and once we had a coffee our spirits rose. All of the people that we met this week had been so nice, I guess that may be because they have had a chance to rest since the last very busy tourist season. On most of the trip home from Dalarö we sat under the dodger and let the autopilot do the work. It was a little cold for this last stretch, but when we entered the warm cabin at 6.30pm, after mooring at our home pier, we felt happy and cheerful.
	Once again, we were moored at the pier. Winter sailing? Yes, absolutely!! Lars-Göran Nordström