Day 11, May 30. Stuck!

From: Steninge strand

To: Halmstad

Distance: 25 km

Total distance from Svinesundsbron: 369,5 km

Wind: E-SE 7-13 m/s

Weather: Warm and sunny

So the only good thing about today is the fact that the sun has been shining all day. Apart from that it has been a shitty day and I'm really frustrated and disapointed. Today was the day when I was supposed to get across Laholmsbukten and the wind felt ok when I first started this morning. Thereafter it got bad and then just worse. When rounding the head after paddling along Tylösand beach the waves that started to hit me were big, like scary big. Imediately started looking for a place to land the kayak as close as possible and found a harbour that had a perfect little beach. 

Going straight across the bay was no longer an option, that was pretty clear, but I figured I'd wait for a couple of hours and then take the long way over following the coastline of the bay. 

So around 6 pm I packed up my stuff again and headed out thinking it would not be as bad since I would go along the coast... Waves started breaking over the kayak over and over and the wind was still as strong and I was actually scared for the first time since I started. This did not feel safe. So I only got another 2 km and I'm now stuck on this beach... See that blue contour just above the horizon? That's where I wanted to be tonight...

Looking at the photo it all looks rather idyllic but photos can be deceiving, there are big waves out there!

Todays route:

Day 10, May 29. Mother's day

From: Grimsholmen

To: Steninge strand

Distance: 13 km

Total distance from Svinesundsbron: 344,5 km

Wind: N-NE 2-6 m/s

Weather: Warm and sunny, thunderstorm late afternoon

So, treated myself to a rest day today (well almost) on Mother's Day. Needed to do some additional grocery shopping and also wash all my clothes so I checked in at Steninge Vandrarhem (hostel) early afternoon and Per, one of the owners, have been most helpful lending me his bike to go to Haverdal (where the closest grocery store were to be found) and sorting out my washing! Great place just 100 m from the beach in Steninge! Thanks Per!
Before anything else, even a shower, what is the first thing you do when there is access to electricity? Plug in all sorts of gadgets of course 👍:

The short distance at sea could for the first time during this journey be completed just wearing a singlet under the lifejacket and without the spray skirt. It's starting to feel more and more like summer!☀️😎

About tomorrow and crossing Laholmsbukten the forecast is improving (they now foretell somewhat lighter winds) and maybe I will be able to get across tomorrow night. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and while waiting, downloading every app with any sort of relation to coastal weather as if that would help 😉.

Also added total distance to the log book data above since I constantly find myself adding all the daily distances to see how far I've come. I'm getting a bit tired of repeating the process over and over again and it will be a good time saver.

Today's route:

Day 9, May 28. Rocks, rocks, more rocks and a couple of beaches

From: Bondaholmen
To: Grimsholmen
Distance: 44,5 km
Wind: Starting out with NE, turning to SE before lunch and then NW late afternoon. 2-6 m/s
Weather: Cloudy until noon then clearing up.
I had no idea this part of the coast was so much about rocks. There are rocks all along the coastline, black ones sticking up out of the water or lurking just beneath the surface, long lines in between the few islands there are and the main land making paddling inbetween impossible or simply just long lines of rocks pointing hundreds of meters straight out from land so that you have to go around it or simply just stay a couple of hundred meters from land to paddle outside all of them (which is somewhat boring but what I chose to go the shortest way). Ok, so there are also long beaches but for me they were completely overshadowed by the rocks.

These rocks are loved by the seals though and I got to meet a lot of them today, getting quite close to my kayak diving and jumping around in the water. They are impossible to photograph so I've simply given up by now and just enjoy watching them.
A bit complicated to find good spots to camp now when there are houses pretty much all along the coast and no islands to escape to. Finally found a good spot in a nature reserve (you were allowed to camp for 2 nights in this one) but still close to a lot of summer houses.
Met two couples walking their dogs after I finished dinner and I went for a walk together with them trying to find some old carving in a rock of a ship (see, it is all about rocks here 😀), apparently the rock it is carved in is shaped like a perfect chair and comfortable to sit in. We never found it but it was a nice walk.
Tomorrow and the day after will most likely be two very short days (regarding distance paddled) since I have Laholmsbukten coming up and wanted to cross on Monday. The weather forecast is not to my liking at the moment, it predicts winds between 8-18 (that is not a typo) m/s on Monday which is way too much for me for a crossing like that. I hope it will change like it has everyday so far during this trip 😀.
Today's route:

Day 8, May 27. First week gone by.

From: Vinbärsholmen
To: Bondaholmen
Distance: 47,5 km
Wind: NW-NE 1-4 m/s
Wheather: Cloudy all day, late evening sunny
I can't believe a week has already passed since I started. It feels both like it was just yesterday but then also like it was ages ago me and my family drove down to Strömstad.
Today I had a rather late start and it was back to breakfast in the tent again (cloudy and quite cold). Started paddling just before 11am. During today there has been a drastic change in coastline, from having a myriad of islands surrounding me there are now next to none and paddling has been just crossing over from one head to the next one. What stroke me is also the concurrent change in architecture of the houses along the coast, from the two story white houses with red tiled roofs I've passed in hundreds or thousands during the first week to the one story houses I've seen today being dark grey with black roofs instead.
The lack of islands makes both paddeling and navigating less stimulating but I better get used to it because it will probably take at least two weeks before I get to Blekinge and the next archipelogo. Well the kilometers passed by in a good way today anyway.
A bit sore from yesterdays almost identical distance but still feeling ok. My hands are now starting to get used to the daily wear and tear and nice callouses have appeared and hopefully I will be able to paddle without applying tape around my fingers soon.
Three events during the day: I've seen seals (saw my first ones yesterday and now today again)!

I've passed the first of four nuclear powerplants (ok, so actually one of them is closed but I'm still counting that), Ringhals.

And I got my first really nice sunset:

Todays route:

Day 7, May 26. What else to wish for?

From: Bastö
To: Vinbärsholmen
Distance: 47 km
Wind: NW 3-10 m/s
Wheather: Sunny all day
Yeay, today was great! Could have my breakfast outside for the first time on this trip, perfect northwesterly winds and sunny.

Paddled passed these east of Björkö, does anyone know what they are for?

Then just cruised passed Göteborg and further on to the islands Brännö and Styrsö meeting a lot of boats considerably bigger than mine.

I was totally amazed to see how many people live out on this and also the surrounding islands. It was like a whole little city out there.When leaving this group of islands behind me I did my longest crossing so far, 9 km over to the main land and it made me relate that to the crossing I have ahead of me in a week or so, Laholmsbukten. That one is 25 km... It's going to be a long one...When reaching the mainland I started looking for good places to camp but that proved to be easier said than done, the whole coastline is just rock (the few places that are not are already occupied by houses) and the waves wher rolling in from west. Very tired and with no wish to go any further I ended up next to someone's summer home, at first I thought it was deserted but when looking closely I think someone is using it. Sorry about that whoever owns it, and thanks for a good spot to camp!
Todays route:

Day 6, May 25. Not what I expected

From: Sunne holme

To: Bastö

Distance: 35 km

Wind: NE 9-14 m/s

Weather Cloudy at first, clearing up late afternoon

Yesterday, when reading todays forecast, I was superexited about today! Northern winds about 6-8 m/s and I prepared myself to just cruise down along the coast at good speed the whole day.

Already after a few hundred meters when hitting the first strait the wind was really strong and hmmm, I was going south east and this was not even close to tail wind. Checking the forcast again it was now changed to NE but I would say it was more of E if you ask me. Since I was heading SE pretty much all day I was stuck in headwind hell. I admit there was some swearing out there and also a fair bit of cursing the Swedish wheather service. Lesson learned: always prepare for the worst, don't ever see yourself just fly effortless along the coast.

When reaching Marstrand I had pretty much had it so I went for the shore and had a look around plus walked up to the fortress Carlstens Fästning then seriously thinking about if I could continue today in the hauling winds or what other options I had.

While thinking this over one of the guys from the refuge hostel just behind the beach from where I was sitting came down and very thoroughly inspected the kayak (or was he more facinated with the fact that I had hung all my wet clothes, including underwear, to dry all over the kayak?). Tried to talk to him but neither Swedish nor English worked.

Well, after a few hours the wind seemed to abait and I gathered all the stuff and took off again. Still hard work down along the coast but now when the sun had come out it all seemed so much easier. Passed an old ship wreck and reached a good camping spot just before 8 pm.

Then managed to cook my first real meal outside while the sun was setting.

Todays route:

Day 5, May 24. I can cook again!

From: Lysekil
To: Sunna holme
Distance: 34 km
Wind: N turning NE in the afternoon, 5-9 m/s

Starting my day by just hanging in Lysekil waiting for my cooker to arrive, passing time by drinking latte in a café and trying not to get soaked by the thunderstorms that passed by. In the afternoon I got the text I had so looked forward to and rushed off to pick up the parcel. Yes! From now on I can have warm food again 😁.
Waiting out one last thunderstorm the time was 4 pm before I finally sat down in the kayak for todays paddle. And what a great paddle that turned out to be, tail wind and some sun, passing through one picturesque fishing village after another. Here is a photo taken when passing through Grundsund:

A bit further south, after leaving Gullholmen behind a found this beatiful place:

I bet it will be packed with boats and people on a sunny day during July or August but unfortunately there seemed to be no good place to get out of a kayak.

Facetimed with the family from the kayak while drifting through Mollösund and then went on for another hour before I stopped for the night. Arriving to late and to tired to actually use my new cooker😉.
Todays route:

Day 4, May 23. A grey day

From: Hällsö
To: Lysekil, Södra hamnen.
Distance: 35,5 km
Wind: S-SW 5 m/s
Weather: Fog and showers all day
Waking up to the sound of raindrops falling on the canvas. I think I can start using this as my alarm clock since it's seems to be something happening every morning. Checked the weather forecast and found that they promised it would stop around 9. So just turned over and went back to sleep. When finally starting to pack all the gear I actually caught a couple of rays of sun and got the sun screen out thinking I'll need it during the day. Well, could not have been more wrong, pretty soon raindrops started falling and the fog rolled in. And it stayed that way for the rest of the day.

Just before paddling through Hunnebostrand, I found this!!!

Made me miss diving practice. If it would have been a bit warmer (both air and water) I would definitely have had a go!

Navigating in the fog is a rather interesting task when there is a km or two over to the next island and you see next to nothing. I'm super pleased I got a deck compass for the kayak but still don't trust my ability to go 100% straight after taking out the bearing over a sound.

Since the winds were quite light today I managed to get it all sussed finding my way down to Lysekil passing Hunnebostrand, Smögen, Kungshamn and also Skalhamn, a small village where I used to spend my summers when I was a small kid.
Lysekil is the place where I hopefully will pick up my new cooker tomorrow and also the place where I will spend the night on a friends yacht. Realizing I'm not enough of an acrobat to let myself onboard the yacht straight out of the kayak I finally found a small jetty I guess is used primarily by the local Sailing club for their dinghies. I do hope they don't have practice tonight becase I tied up my kayak nicely to that jetty entierly occupying one of the sides.

Thank you so much Nina for letting me sleep on your yacht and giving me a possibility to have a shower and dry my soaked clothes 😘!

Today's route:

Day 3, May 22. Notoriuos passage Tjurepannan conquered!

From: Hällsö
To: Hällsö (I'm not back to where I started this morning 😄, it's another Hällsö😁)
Distance: 38 km
Wind: A bit of everything. SW 5-9 m/s before lunch then turning over to S to finally end with E 2-5 m/s
Weather: Showers during the day, cloudy in the evening
Ended yesterday in position to take on the notorious Tjurepannan, a passage completely open to the North Sea and supposed to be paricularly bad with south westerly winds. Well, as the weather forecast hands me nothing but S-SW winds the next couple of days I figured I'd give it my best shot and if it seems too bad, turn around and go back. The wind was bad and the waves were BIG but it's incredible how stable this little kayak is! It was hard work but I never felt scared or insecure, just put my head down, focused and kept on paddling. But when reaching calmer waters it was still with a feeling of relief.

After that stressful start the rest of the day just got better especially when reaching Hamburgsund and seeing a restaurant that was indeed open! YES! Time for a proper warm meal, first in 3 days. So I found this mini-beach perfect for a kayak just next to the restaurant that simply had my name on it!

Stepping into the restaurant dripping water from jacket and spray skirt looking rather scruffy I'm glad they accepted me as customer (I also told them I had a change of clothes with me and did a Superman, getting out of the restroom unrecognizable... or maybe not, but at least with dry clothes on). Oh what a decent meal and some coffe can do for your spirits!

Leaving Hamburgsund I had a fantastic paddle with light easterly winds seeing some of Bohusläns great barren archipelago.

When it was time to find a place to stay the night all islands around me just looked like plain rock with very little green bits suitable for a tent. Solution: use Google Earth! Picked up the phone and on the island next to me there seemed to be a bit of green worth checking out. When paddling a little bit further I saw that this was just the perfect spot!

And at this spot I am now lying in the tent updating the blog and spending time with the family on facetime.
Today's route:

Day 2, May 21, The head wind continues

From: Yttre Burholmen
To: Hällsö
Distance: 21 km
Wind: S-SW 5-10 m/s
Weather: Cloudy and then rain in the evening
Laying in my tent listening to the drizzling rain. Got ashore just in time to pitch the tent before it started 👍.
Woke up around 8 with a sore throat this morning. Guess it was inevitable being so close to my daughter with the monster cold the last couple of days.
Intended to head off reasonably early today but all the gear wanted something else. After just hanging around for a while it took forever getting everything packed and sorted. I'm working on getting everything organised in the best possible way and trying to figure out what things I need access to during the day and what things can go deeper into the dry compartments cause I won't need them until the end of the day. Plus realised yesterday that when paddling rather big waves it's a good thing to have everything heavy in the rear compartment to make the bow lighter, it makes the kayak take the waves better (prevents the bow from diving into a wave). And then there is also the problem with the limited space it's supposed to fit into.

Well at 11 am I managed to get myself seated in the kayak an had almost 4 windy but good hours of paddling. I had my mind set on finding some sort of restaurant in Havstenssund just to get there finding nothing was open... Oh, how I had been looking forwards to that warm meal. Instead left again after eating an apple and a banana.

I've hit my first bigger problem on this trip, you see my long trusted cooker since almost 17 years (MSR Dragonfly) gave up on me yesterday 😢. A welding had come loose and the actual burner is now separated from the bottom part and foldable legs. There also seemed to be some sort of leakage cause the petrol does not reach the burner in an even flow, the flame just goes out right after starting it. When I tried it at home just a few weeks ago it was working fine so how this happened is a bit of a mystery. I have now joined the society of raw food eaters... Hoping it will be a good but brief acquaintance and that I will be able to pick up a new cooker in a few days that I'm about to order on the internet.
Today's route:

Day 1, May 20. A bit of a rough start

From: Svinesundsbron
To: Yttre Burholmen
Distance: 29 km
Wind: S-SW 7-11 m/s
Wheather: First rain then clearing up in the evening
After a bad nights sleep at a Hotel in Strömstad (my daughter had a really bad cold and was coughing all night) it was finally time to start. Did some final grocery shopping that made it very difficult fitting everything into the dry compartments. Hopefully it will be an easier task in a couple of days when some food has been consumed and I'm getting better at stuffing stuff.

Long hugs and kisses with the family and I got myself seated in the kayak that I now found sits a LOT lower in the water than during my training sessions in the spring. Well the pro is that it will be very stable which proved to be a good thing just a few hours later.

Setting off I had the tidal current with me for the first few kilometres in the fjord but when hitting the open sea the waves started rolling in and it also started raining.
The headwind started taking out its toll after a few hours and when stopping for lunch I actually put the tent up and the break became a bit more than a break 😀. Seeing on the weather forecast that the rain would stop a couple of hours later I waited it out and then left for some late hours paddling. This ended up being a really nice way of spending the evening and I finally got out of the kayak around half past eight.
Todays route:

Getting ready for take off!

Today was the day to make the final preparations before I start my tour on Friday.

Premiere test round of packing all the gear into the new kayak and I was surprised in a good way to find that there is plenty of room left for food (of the sort that is not freeze dried) when everything else is stuffed into the dry compartments.

It was also time to rehearse the self rescue routine. Have not really been looking forwards to that bit considering the water temperature this time of year. Preparations in the form of a wetsuit and getting preheated in the sauna made the plunge into the sea rather enjoyable actually and getting up and back into the cockpit wasn't an issue at all. My husband and the kids were all standing on the jetty watching, hopefully feeling reassured that I will make it back into the kayak just in case I end up capsizing.

Now I just have to get through 4 absolutely crammed days at work to get everything ready for my collegues taking over during my 3 month leave. Sleep is not prioritised this week...