{"id":565,"date":"2018-06-21T11:56:24","date_gmt":"2018-06-21T11:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailingarcturus.com\/?p=565"},"modified":"2019-05-20T21:56:56","modified_gmt":"2019-05-20T21:56:56","slug":"back-to-the-batvarv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailingarcturus.com\/?p=565","title":{"rendered":"Back to the B\u00e5tvarv…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"JUNE 18-21, 2018:<\/strong> HAVING A BOAT anywhere \u2013 even just tied up at the bottom of your garden, should you be lucky enough to have a waterside home \u2013 can be nerve-wracking. In the wee small hours you will often find yourself worrying if the mooring lines are chafing through, if you really tied that bowline correctly, or if through some other small oversight, you will wake in the morning to find your pride and joy, your magic carpet, your refuge and the repository of your dreams, gone with the morning tide.<\/p>\n

Having a boat on the other side of the world merely adds to those worries (please add the sound of world\u2019s smallest violin here). But since \u00a0my 1966 Allied Seabreeze Arcturus was on the hard, not in the water, at the Ramsmora Batvarv (boatyard) on the island of Ljuster\u00f6, about twenty miles north east of Stockholm, in the enviously stable and earthquake free Kingdom of Sweden, I wasn\u2019t too worried about her drifting away on the tide, being stolen by bandits, or falling into a sinkhole.<\/p>\n

Which allowed me to put her away under winter cover in August of 2016 and walk away with barely a care or a backward glance.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to June 18th, 2018. My Norwegian flight from LAX touched down at Gatwick airport at 10am for a 90 minute layover before the quick and easy leg to Stockholm Arlanda. Having booked the flight back in November I not only got the whole thing pretty cheap (less than $600) but also ensured I was in the exit row for both legs of the flight so I got plenty of legroom. I picked up rental car (pro tip here: If you join the Hertz Gold Rewards program and buy the cheapest economy car available you will almost always get upgraded\u2026.I got a large new Volvo station wagon) and\u00a0 drove to the hamlet of Dunderb\u00f6 to pick up fore and aft pulpits from the previous owner\u2019s barn and made the 75 minute drive to the island of Ljuster\u00f6, the highlight of which was the cool, drive-on, drive-off ferry at the tip of the island. From there it was a simple 15 minute drive to the boatyard. The anticipation as I approached was palpable….<\/p>\n

Arcturus was right where I left her. Still wearing her winter cover and waiting patiently on the grey cinder floor of the yard. I could hardly wait to get to work.\u00a0 First I disrobed her\u00a0 winter cover and then dismantled the aluminum frame. Opening up the cabin I took a deep breath and ventured below. Two years on, there was a slightly musty odor but amazingly zero mold (thanks to Mia\u2019s tip about wiping everything down with a 50\/50 water\/vinegar solution). Although I was jet lagged I was far too excited to sleep. So I worked from late afternoon until about 1am, organizing and cataloguing everything, from the clevis pins for the rigging to the silicon caulk for the toe rails until I feel asleep, dead on my feet, at 1am. And it still wasn\u2019t dark.<\/p>\n

\"\" I don\u2019t know about you but when sleeping in a new space I get disturbed easily. This time it was the dawn chorus of the birds precisely 75 minutes later. 2.15am and bright daylight. Time to get up! I scrubbed the deck, cabin top and topsides manically and installed the stanchions and lifelines. Finally the clock crawled round to 8am and I headed off to Arlanda to pick up J., a sailing buddy from LA who was to help me launch the boat and sail her aross to the \u00c5land Islands and back.<\/p>\n

The only slight fly in the ointment was that we were denied the sight of seeing Arcturus launched because we headed into the island\u2019s only town to provision at just the wrong time. An hour later we returned and found Arcturus floating serenely at the launch dock. A simple miscommunication between myself and the boatyard which was disappointing from a social media aspect but great for our schedule. We reconnected the electrical systems and the solar panels, installed and dodger and tried the engine, more in hope than expectation. \u00a0The engine turned and fired first try. How that was possible after two years on the hard with no trickle charger? I had no idea but it was a huge relief.<\/p>\n

By now it was mid-afternoon and we retrieved both masts from the storage sheds and ran the dyneema rigging and shrouds ready for hoisting. At this point the rising wind stymied our hopes of getting it down that very day, but the yard foreman (Ollie) agreed to do it first thing in the morning. Which was good, because I had hit a wall with jetlag and sleep deprivation. I could barely string a thought or coherent sentence together. I ate a salad, drank a liter of water and passed out at 4pm.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0\u00a0 By Wednesday lunchtime the mast was raised and the rig tuned. So far so good. But this was where our plans hit the rails. We had planned to install an Airhead composting head, which had been delivered to the boatyard a few weeks before. But with the boat already in the water we discovered the thru hull was frozen and rather than try to hammer it free and risk sinking the boat, we thought it best to delay until the boat was put up for the winter again, when the thru hull could\u00a0 not only be opened without any danger, but also glassed over easily. Fortunately the existing head was functioning perfectly, so unless we did something stupid \u2013 like putting toilet paper down there \u2013 it would probably be fine for this sailing season.<\/p>\n

Our second plan was to install the Lofrans Tiger 555 windlass which came with the boat. But here my organizational skills had proved deficient. After searching every locker and lazarette, we realized the windlass was not on the boat, but back at my friend\u2019s country house just north of Rimbo to which I had access but to which our schedule did not allow another road trip. Also: in the archipelago you don\u2019t really\u00a0 need to use the anchor too much: you either go into a marina (gasthaman) or go bows-to on the rocks in the quietest naturhamn (nature habor) you can find, tying the boat at the front to a tree or boulder and securing the aft using the stern anchor. In other words, we could put this\u00a0 job on the back burner and concentrate on sailing.<\/p>\n

Which we did. Mainly prompted by the countless locals arriving at the boat yard\u00a0 laden with food, drink and good cheer and casting off in their own vessels for nearby islands for the annual Swedish bacchanal of Midsommar (Summer Solstice), we felt we simply could wait no longer. The boat was ready and so were we (or so we thought).<\/p>\n

Ignoring all sailing superstition,\u00a0 we cast off on a rainy Friday morning\u2026..heading for the anchorage of Granhamn, just outside Kap\u00e4llsk\u00e4r, from where, if the forecast were fine, we would strike out for Finland the next day.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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