Top view

Before our changed plans the crew climbed up to the local mountain. 

The guest marina is in the pic, can you find it?

Lesson about life in Häggvik - Part 1 (and why tunnbröd became so important to us)

Next stop Häggvik, one of the most exciting harbors! There was a quite special situation with us. The captain had to return to Oulu for his non-nautical duties for few days and me and the first mate had decided to stay at Höga Kusten, to take care of the vessel, and to rest. The first mate had big plans for those days, about the mountains she would climb on and about small excursions, like one to Högbonden, she would do while I would sleep in my normal daily land routine between 10 am to 6 pm.  

However, you may make plans and have high expectations but they may not get realized as thought. 

Early Sunday morning the captain had a taxi to pick him to the railway station in Kramfors. Some time later I retreated to my nap and the first mate borrowed a bike at marina to ride to Nordingrå for groceries. She made the shopping and wanted to ride the bike further in the town for sightseeing. When she drove up to the church hill she was so impressed about the lovely view to the lake that when she stopped she forgot this was not her own bike but a different bike with different seat hight. She put her right feed on ground that her foot could not reach and she fell down with the bike.  The ankle swoll immediately and it hurt, really hurt. 

That moment was one of those moments that are short but feel like minutes - the pain made her worrying if it was serious damage to her ankle who would she take are of me and the boat, if she would need to go to hospital, how could she manage alone... Then from somewhere appeared a friendly lady who helped the first mate from the ground, instructed the needed first aid, and walked her to the local tourist office. The lady at the tourist office offered the first mate bag of frozen tunnbröd, type of local bread, that was used to cool the hurt ankle. The first mate believes that this was critical to get the ankle to heal fast. This was not all, the tourist office's lady closed the office to drive the first mate back to marina to the vessel. She also took care of the bike from the marina. 

We are very very thankful for the help of both the friendly lady who helped the first mate at the church parking lot and the friendly tourist office lady who returned my hurt crew member back to the vessel!   

(We do not have pictures of this incident, so some pics about arriving at and at Häggvik quest marina.)

My favorite destination of Summer 2015 - Lustholmen

I immediately knew that this is the best harbor ever, look at its features: In addition of the water and the fishes there are two extras: First, behind the pier there is more water with reed and second, behind the narrow waterway there is full forest with all the trees. You can imagine what this means - there were plenty of small fish in the water,  behind the pier there was duck with large school of her children cruising back and forth. And then the forest, with the forest birds! What an enjoyment!

In Lustholmen I started a new practice spending time on the bow. It was great location for observing all this activity! It was also great way to meet people, and some dogs too, promenading on the pier. I got many times to tell that I am a Siberian cat,  not a Norvegian forest cat, "ingen norsk skogskat".

Here in Lustholmen we met a boat and its crew from Oulu, from our home marina. Later on the first mate learned that the crew of that very same boat has a blog too, Virtauslanka, check it out for its great pics!

I enjoyed the activity close to the boat, and there was something for the crew too: The island itself with steep elevation offered great views and view points with lovely paths leading up to them. Also, local boat club's club house on the top of the hill was very cute old villa. The first mate loves old pine trees, like she likes classic lighthouses, and she wished that she had visited the island before quite many of them had been harvested. 

This is definitely a destination to recommend! By the way, I forgot to mention sauna, beach and a kiosk for acute ice cream needs summery sailings may cause in sailors. 

  

Härnosand bridges

We planned to stay in Härnösand for the second night but as we had sailed daily certain restlessness could be felt among my crew. Next stop was to be Lustholm, a local club harbor, that is very well located close to the city. The crew was a bit nervous about the opening bridges, on our way to the South couple of years ago the first mate was quite horrified about the narrowness of the Northern bridge opening. However, this time we asked instructions from an other visiting boat and it appeared that Bagheera from Umeå had "done the bridges" for many times. This comforted our crew and after good instructions the captain decided to follow Bagheera and well it went! Though it was super narrow; the  captain concentrated on the boat totally and the first mate tried to compensate her excitement with taking many many pics. Thank you Bagheera!

Härnösand's grande look!

Bagheera leads...

Almost too exciting...

How close can it go...

Elegant north marina.

Off to Lustholm.

Härnösand a.k.a mini-Stockholm

Härnösand was our last stop before set of more intensive legs to Öregrund to start our tour in Stockholm archipelago. It was a lovely city, city that we had not known about. In addition me getting really good nap while the crew was in walking around the city there was some practical, less poetic business to take care: laundry, groceries and such. The crew managed well.

I will return to Höga Kusten in my posts during the fall. Coming up next: sailing to the south from Öregrund!

Don't wake me up, I know we are arriving! (I slept all the way in
the crew bed, usually I travel in the front cabin floor.)

Early in the morning we woke up with a voice of very heavy rain and something we did not recognize.
For our surprise the water was overflowing, so heavily was it raining. 

High Coast Bridge and Hörnön

The High coast bridge is the largest one I have seen in my sailings. The clearance of 40 meters is far more than enough for my vessel's 15 meters mast hight. The large trucks on the bridge looked like toys, so large is it. The crew was very excited.

The overnighting marina is actually former ferry station from the time before the bridge. Oh, I loved this spot; look at the pics in the end of this post and you understand why ;-)

Our adventure on the High Coast was getting closer to its end. The next and last stop was Härnösand. 

Birdie, birdie, come to papa...

What a selection!

Handsome, delicious seaguls.

Häggvik Happenings- Part 2

Ok, I was thinking that this day is going to be another rainy day in a marina but I was wrong.

First, we were asked if we would like to be interviewed by Sundsval's radio who would like to talk with Finnish sailors coming to Höga Kusten. I politely thanked and said no - my crew is not yet equipped with good enough Swedish language skills. I know they practice all the time but its not yet good enough... Personally I would prefer television, to show off my handsome appearance ;-)

Second, the treasure hunt game started. There were 15 teams in total. The first team was nothing less than the coast guard's team with their business ship. Hefty! The task in Häggvik was a kayak competition, one member from each team kayaked the same route. Teams were also given hints for navigating to the next stop.

Häggvik - Part 0 - Awesome arrival