Sunday 10 July 2016

Windward to Karlskrona

We woke up this morning to find that the forecast NW wind had arrived.; so without delay we set to sea. The  entrance to the miniscule harbour at Kristianopel is so small that we had some difficulty in getting Bonita out. But with Dave and Julie on either end of the boat this was achieved without loss of paint.
It was a bright sunny day and we had plans for a big trip. Sadly after a couple of hours both the forecast and the wind swung round to the SW. We therefore settled on coming to Karlskrona: still a useful 30 miles in the right direction, but rather less than we had hoped for. The best part of the day's sail was the last few miles, running with a brisk SW wind behind us as we came in through the rocky outer islands surrounding the port.
When we last visited Karlskrona it was engulfed in midsummer festivities; today we found it a quieter, more restrained and more attractive town.
Supper in the town square, Karlskrona
Its tempting to feel we have to push on, but in reality  when on a prolonged cruise there is really little point in trying to make long passages tacking against the wind. It makes more sense to wait for reasonable weather when you get so much more progress for less effort and less wear and tear on boat and crew.
Ex sail training ship Jarramas (built 1900) in Karlskrona


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