Wed. June 8th: It’s always darkest just before the dawn. Or you can insert your own cliché here, if you prefer.
With the early coming of daylight (4am in these parts at this time of year) I awoke and did what I always do to stave off anxiety. I started making to a to-do list. In this case it was things to take care off before casting off. I needed some quick provisioning and to buy some aspirin from the local apotek (pharmacy). Mia and Andy arrived soon after and by noon was had left Vasteras, heading south east out into Lake Malaren en route to Enkoping, about 24nm away. It was challenging sailing. It wasn’t so much the flukey winds, mostly 8-10 knots, which constantly switched our point of sail from running downwind to a beam reach, it was the combination of sudden puffs as the wind funneled between the countless islands AND steering a careful course between the channel markers. Not to mention constantly switching between the chart and the Navionics app on iPad. The amount of small granite islands, some covered with fir trees, some intimidatingly bald, is surprising and constantly keeps you on your guard. You simply cannot just relax and go.
About 6pm we made the turn north to approach Enkoping and faced an upwind beat in about 12kts under jib and mizzen alone, dodging between the many islands that blocked our path. This was great fun and something I finally felt totally prepared for, with several years of experience in my local race team as an upwind trimmer and grinder.
After two hours of hard work gaining just a precious few hundred yards on each tack, we finally reached the Enkoping canal, a tight little passage often barely 50 meters wide that winds though the bucolic Swedish countryside. Firing up the iron jenny we puttered upstream for perhaps 25 minutes before pulling up the for the night alongside a riverside café in the heart of town, which was bathed in the golden Nordic twilight. Time for a quiet beer and to reflect on my blessings, not my challenges.
