Sunday, August 26: One shower in the night, otherwise quite cold; a couple of clouds remaining in the morning, clearing in the course of the afternoon; fresh sea breeze
Sea Kayaking: 24.4 km
Holiday home for six at Klädesholmen harbor
The cheese had lasted well (the same cannot be said of the crispbread which was rapidly becoming soft) and was now finished. Still a lot of coffee & sugar to go and the milk may well last the length of the trip. Anyway, breakfast was dealt with, the tent packed up and we set out on our hardest day, which was planned to be a lot of paddling into head winds or along the coast with side winds and parallel waves. Read more…
Saturday, August 25: Partially cloudy for most of the day, but the clouds were moving quite quickly
Sea Kayaking: 14.3 km
Hälsön wilderness camping
It rained a couple of times during the night, mostly heavily but briefly. Breakfast this morning was the usual fare and during the course of discussion about today’s destination we decided on two half-days with two different ways of filling the non-kayaking half: Today we would enter the fiord between Orust and Tjörn, Stigfjorden, and find an island to camp on and spend the afternoon exploring; and on another day we would go to a village for a walk around. Read more…
Friday, August 24: Still a bit of rain in the morning, clearing rather quickly, one or two showers along the way, sea breeze
Sea Kayaking: 17.2 km
Bråtö wilderness camping
We were up before the others as usual but not so early and had our breakfast in the well-hung mess. Not much of the clothes had become dry and the tent was still very wet despite the increasing wind. The quarry next to the campground was operating from fairly early on, including a couple of detonations with acoustic warnings that sounded like car alarms.
Everyone else was up as soon as the rain was over and a lot of stuff was hung over fence posts in an attempt to dry. The boats were also fairly full of water so my bailing device came into good use. Eventually the mess room was cleared out and the boats were ready to go. As the ramp was too slippery to attempt an entry into the water, I had fixated the pontoon so that the boats could be let down the slip and forwarded to the pontoon where they were entered. Read more…
Thursday, August 23: Rain starting just before dawn and continuing as showers throughout the rest of the day
Sea Kayaking: 24.6 km
Malö Familje Camping, Ellös
We had gone to bed fairly early but the onset of rain meant that we slept in until after 7:30. After that there was not much to do except try to have some breakfast during a break in the rain. But by the time we should have been leaving it had started to rain again and the tent had to be packed up in a completely wet condition.
Anyway we were off, and for the first couple of kilometres it was at least fairly calm. A double sea kayak turned up close to the shore and was seen once more briefly but most of the views were much greener than at the beginning, with higher hills. At one point it looked like we were in a dead end but the fiord arm did continue on, but it was very shallow so that we got out for a pee before continuing on. Read more…
Wednesday, August 22: Very cold in the night, rain towards dawn, and overcast and windy (south) for most of the rest of the day
Sea kayaking, 31.8 km
Brattön wilderness camping
My stuff was almost dry by the morning despite the overnight rain. There was a bit of a loud disco on last night and we were up about 45 minutes later than usual but no one else was up. Breakfast was quickly dealt with and everything was packed up, except for the tent, which we allowed to dry for as long as possible.
As we were getting into our boats I noticed that my spray skirt was inside out, had to get out of the boat, put it on the right way and back into the boat and then we were off. Read more…
Tuesday, August 21: Sunny and windstill to begin with, wind turning southerly and a bit stronger in the course of the day
Kayaking: 26.3 km
Stenungsund Camping Ground
Panorama at Kråkerön
Both Kirsten & I were up at the crack of dawn and no one else was around. I had found the milk and so could have a white coffee to go with the crispbread and cheese. The tent had become very wet but the night had been very clear with not only a beautiful sunset but also an appearance of the Milky Way – must have been a first for the Northern Hemisphere.
Philipp’s alarm went off at 7:30 (no need to get up any earlier as we were packed and ready to go well before the others). In any case people seemed a little more eager to get on the water today as the weather promised to be very good and, apart from a few clouds in the morning, lived up to it promise. Read more…
Monday, August 20: Heavy rain overnight, clearing, becoming sunny at first, clouding over with a return to sunshine in the late afternoon, all the while very windy (N → W → N)
Kayaking: 24.6 km
Kråkerön wilderness camping
Panorama at Hönö
Kirsten and I were up around 6:00, Kirsten for a short swim, me a few minutes later. For the first real kayaking breakfast it was coffee (black for me), crisp bread with butter & cheese from our individual caches. Bit by bit the younger people got up & had their stuff.
The tent was very wet, and Kirsten applied the sponge to somewhat drying it. The wind was doing its part as well. But things will be a bit damp for a while. Read more…
The decision @ 8:00 was to take one of the First Fleet to Celle and buy a flotation device. Was ready to go just on 9:30, found the place, had a look through the rack and chose a model for around €169. Asked the chap at the counter what he thought of the jacket, tried it on and it was a very nice fit. Bought it and set off back home.
Then it was time for packing. Section by section was worked through as the fridge defrosted and everything that wasn’t frozen was consumed. Around 1:00 it was time for a shave and a shower, then the bags were collected and weighed (it was another 24 kg). The flat was put into absence mode. About the only things I forgot were adhesive tape and plastic bag binders. At the last minute I discovered that the concluding screw of the gimbal way not packed away so I packed it in somewhere but have yet to discover it. Read more…
Sunday, September 23: Fine and sunny to begin with, becoming increasingly clouded over in the course of the day
Hiking: 27.1 km
Home
Was greeted by the host on leaving my room on the way to breakfast, and a woman was attentively studying the Bett&Bike certificate that this place had. When I had turned into the breakfast room, he turned to her and said, “Früshstück ist auch für Sie fertig” to which she replied, “No capito”, and I felt I was called upon the translate at least “Frühstück” into Italian for her, so I seized the moment, looked at her and said, “Colazione” to which she looked rather relieved.
Harbor on the Peene, WolgastAnyway breakfast was a big deal here: Four bread rolls, a slice of bread, sausage, cheese, yoghurt, a sliced kiwi, some wedges of various fruit and capsicum, an egg, some whole cocktail tomatoes and grapes. I decided that everything that could (or would have to) be thrown away was either to be eaten on the spot, or packed away for lunch.
Before our Italian lady got too carried away with my Italian, I asked her whether she spoke English, and apologised for my musician’s Italian (which she eventually got). She was from Tuscany, cycling around. The host noticing that I was communicating with her, bought out some aluminium foil for wrapping up the bread rolls in, and asked me to translate for her that we could pack up what we couldn’t eat in the foil, which I did. I was busy making some rolls ready for lunch when she came over to my table and made motions to use the foil, but I noticed she had very little idea how to tear off a sheet (surely they have aluminium foil in Italy!). The trick, of course, is to start with a small tear on one side and let the sharp edge do the cutting. But she thought the sheet might tear if uniform force was applied and couldn’t seem to see the sharp edge on the package. Read more…
