At the end of August I bought a sailboat in Sweden and solo sailed it home from Norrköping to Turku, 240 nautical miles in five days.
I did check out the boat, a Semona 30 from 1976, in July, and found it to be very promising, but due to vacations it wasn't possible for me to get it at that point. It was splashed in the middle of August, but was lifted immediately again, since the Blackjack propeller shaft seal was leaking. Due to vacations and an acute medical incident it took some time before the yard got that fixed. The boat was splashed again on a Thursday, and I travelled there and arrived the following Sunday, to get the boat ready for the crossing. There was a lot to do, and the bilge had some five liters of water in it, with the shaft seal still letting in a drop of water every few seconds. I tightened the seal a bit further, and for the rest of the season in didn't leak a single drop. I slept in the boat at the yard one night, since I didn't finish everything on Sunday.
I got up early and installed the sails, but still had a lot to do, but had to get going in time for the 9:30 bridge opening.
I soon stopped at the Norrköping guest harbour and went shopping for some more food and tools. Some more things still to fix, but at around 13:30 I finally got going for real. The wind was quite good, so I had some hope of getting out of the deep inlet going to Norrköping. I was almost the only boat out on the sea here.
I did 36.5 nautical miles despite the late start and found a nice island outside Oxelösund just around sunset a little over eight in the evening. This was of course still a bit exiting, not knowing the area and with darkness arriving.
The next morning.
The wind was quite weak in the morning, and I decided to take the open sea route almost straight to the east towards Landsort, instead of staying inside the archipelago with likely very varying wind. Due to the weak wind, I also started immediately and made breakfast under way.
Passing Landsort.
The heading now turned to NE, aiming to go on the inside of the large islands like Utö in the Stockholm archipelago.
I had preliminary planned to go to Mörtö-Bunsön, but it seemed quite crowded (by my standard) with five or so boats already there. I continued for maybe fifteen more minutes and after a few tries found another island to stay at, just around sunset also this time.
It was a fairly long day with 12.5 h and 59.5 nautical miles.
The next morning was equally nice.
Breakfast on the move, as I motored the first hour due to weak wind straight from behind.
I decided to fill up the diesel tank, since I only got around 20 liters when I started. That is normally a lot for a sail boat, but since I needed to make miles in order to get home I wanted more, despite this far having motored very little. It turned out the tank could hold 50 liters, which is a lot more than what I would use in one season.
Being it the Stockholm archipelago, there was the potential for more marine traffic, and the lunch was therefore not anything that would require going below deck. Life is hard for a solo sailor.
In practice there was very little traffic, I mainly kept my eyes open for the infamous ferries going between the inhabited islands. They have a reputation of not caring and behaving very rudely against leisure boats.
The goal of the day was to find a place in the outer archipelago, close to the open sea for the crossing to Kökar the next day. I had three different island groups in mind, and when I noticed that there really seemed to be sailing boats in many places, I took the first one that was empty. Having a boat with shallow draft and and a long bow sprit for nature harbours also helped.
A view to the north. In the far distance a ferry going between Finland and Sweden can be seen.
I actually arrived quite early, a little after three in the afternoon after 38 nautical miles. It was much too late to start a crossing though, since it does get dark at the end of August. Two months earlier when there is no darkness I might very well have done a crossing through the night.
A very Swedish boat dinner.
The next morning was as nice as the others. I was really lucky with the weather, it was pretty much optimal. I got going quite early.
The weather looked very nice for the crossing to Finland. Some risk of fog in the morning, which would be a risk in the open water with all sort of freight ships in the area, but there was still some small islands before coming out into that area.
When I got out on totally open water, the risk for morning mist was probably already gone, so I just continued. I did see the occasional freighter and in one case also altered my course a bit, but in practice I didn't really get close to them. The wind was easy, around 5-6 m on a broad reach, which gave me a speed of around 5.5 knots. I could see some lighthouses and islands in the far distance, but since I only had a smartphone as a camera there isn't much to show here.
Maybe a picture of the simple lunch, in the absence of other pictures. One reason for the simple lunch is also that I didn't want to use the nice gas stove with an oven before it had been checked and officially inspected, which I got done two weeks later.
Coming into some archipelago again, this one is Västergrundet in the Fästorna islands.
I arrived at Kökar at six in the evening, having started at six in the morning and sailed for eleven hours and 56 nautical miles.
There was plenty of space at Kökar.
The weather forecast for the last day, Friday, showed a weather change coming with rain and thunder storms, so I got going at sunrise.
I did motor for about an hour in headwind, to the east, before turning towards northeast and raisin the sails. The coming change in the weather could be seen.
Viking Glory a bit south of Houtskär.
A race against the coming rain and thunder. I was of course to lose the race, but held away for a few hours.
The first rain showers passed quite quickly...
... but at around Själö/Seili the next one came, with quite a bit of thundering and flashes quite close. I took down the sails, since the visibility was now and then very poor and I was in the big ship lane.
This was Friday afternoon/evening and people still wanted to get out despite the weather.
For the last four nautical miles the sun came out again and I raised the sails to get them to dry out a bit, even though the wind was now a bit weak. I arrived at the home harbour at five in the afternoon and 51 nautical miles.
Thats it. All in all the trip was quite easy and went very well, even though it was a bit exciting in the beginning to do a 240 nautical miles solo sail with a for me totally new and unknown boat.
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