Charter from 8 – 15 June 2019  at Goteborg, Sweden – report by Peter Wakeling

Yacht ‘Elfie  ’Bavaria 34 2019

Crew: Peter Clare  , skipper; Peter Wakeling  , mate; Nick Carter  and Robert Harland 

This trip was organized by Peter Clare from Phoenix Yacht Club who chartered two Bavaria 34 yachts from Goteborg City Marina through Nautilus. Planned for 5 crew on each yacht, but 24 hours before departure one of my crew dropped out in difficult circumstances that unfortunately barred him from claiming on his travel insurance. As a result Elfie had only 4 on board so we each had our own cabin.

Whilst other crew flew to Sweden from Birmingham and Heathrow, I flew out on early flight from Bristol. This was fortuitous as stormy weather over Europe meant severe ATC restrictions on flights. I left Bristol on time and made tight connection at Schiphol arriving Goteborg at 11.20. Stormy weather made for turbulent landings. Decided to walk 1 km to marina as taxi £18 for one. Difficult to find access to the tiny marina but eventually found Elfie and waited for others to turn up. The flights from Birmingham and Heathrow were delayed by late arrival of the incoming flights so arrived in Schiphol and Frankfurt too late to make connections. Re-routing meant they would be 12 hours late, eventually arriving at the yacht at 2 am. As Peter Clare was delayed it fell to me to do the handover, check the boat inventory, sign the paperwork and pay the SEK 2000 deposit (of which more later). It was revealed that Elfie was brand new 2019 build, never been used and only arrived from Germany the previous day. Unusually had bow thruster, electric heads, automatic shower pump and other high-end fittings but lacked any anchor winch (the other Bavaria was older 2018 model and had less up to date equipment, no bow thruster but did have electric anchor winch (which was possibly more useful). Neither boat had even a rudimentary nav station or chart table, with only a radio below and instruments plus small GPS plotter in deck binnacle. Inevitably the instruments and plotter were all in German language and proved a challenge to change.

Undertaking the inventory check showed a complete lack of preparation by the charter base. The charts were for Germany, the plotter data card was for Germany, so both had to be changed. Fenders were missing, as were rock wedges and club hammer (standard for Sweden), kedge anchor and numerous other items. New fenders were provided, one found to be defective manufacture and was replaced. After some hours I eventually had everything needed and as an afterthought was handed a stainless steel hook device about 4 ft long I had never seen before with the suggestion it could be useful. The longest and most frustrating handover I have experienced.

With other crew that had arrived went for very late lunch at nearby Asian pizza restaurant, interrupted by loudspeaker call to prayer. The City marina is located in a fairly nondescript commercial neighbourhood inhabited by immigrants, mostly Asian and Muslim. Would not know you are in Scandinavia. Marina staff gave us lift to a restaurant for dinner, a rather unique Asian grill which offered good value and tasty dishes. First taste of Marstrand beer which became a firm favourite for everyone. Used my Uber app for first time to get back to the marina, driver agreed to take 5 of us although technically could only take 4. Ordinary taxis will not do this and it was also cheaper than taxi.

Next day the stormy weather made it clear we were not going out to sea and thus our carefully pre-planned itinerary was thrown out. All restaurants on the islands that we planned to visit had been booked and during the following days all of these had to be re-booked or transferred to other restaurants. We had no wish to stay any longer than necessary in this depressing industrial site so nosed out in the afternoon to venture down river before mooring for the night in Lilla Bommen marina in the entre of the city. Interesting transit of first lifting bridge which opened for us without request as we were obviously nervous – in fact we did have sufficient clearance but not much. Further down river we passed under a suspension bridge and turned back, hoisting sails as we did so. Immediately upstream of the bridge we were pounced on by a police boat that advised that sailing was prohibited upstream of the bridge. So that did not last long! Mooring at the marina we found absence of a bow ladder very inconvenient; a phone call to the base and they arrived in a van with a fender step that could substitute. Dinner at unusual Hungarian buffet restaurant a short walk away in city.

Next day, weather calm enough to get started motoring west down the main shipping channel before turning north, fully reefed (two reefs both hooked down at mast) threading numerous islands. Found lunch anchorage (very few opportunities in these waters) before heading north again to island of Marstrand approached via a long shallow buoyed channel. Far out at the edge of the archipelago, considered by some the most beautiful town in Sweden. Very few yachts about, we learned the sailing season starts the following week. Excellent dinner at Hamnkrogen.

Next leg north to pretty harbour of Gullholmen. Mooring stern-to proved tricky using the laid lines in strong winds. Advised by a nearby diving work boat we picked up a line that promptly got wrapped round the prop as it passed under our keel. The helpful diver immediately went down to free us and would not even accept a beer in return. Safely ashore had dinner in Hamncafe. Typically Scandinavian.

The continuing strong winds, up to F7 made an off-shore passage ill-advised so decided to take a long 35 nm clockwise navigation of the narrow channels around the large island of Orust. Several opportunities to sail or motor sail through winding route ending with long sail south to Stenungsund, a holiday resort on the mainland. Not particularly attractive with many industries nearby but it served us. Guest harbour not easy to find and mooring bows-to with tricky leap ashore after moving the anchor. Swedish yachts generally do not have bow anchor on deck, have split pulpit and fit a bow ladder. We improvised with the fender step. For a change chose an Italian restaurant which was very pleasant.

Still strong winds for next southwest leg to tiny(!) Island of Astol making sailing difficult. Mooring bows-to here in the long narrow harbour required picking up tall cylindrical buoys (serving as the outer posts of a Baltic box mooring). These buoys have a ring on top and observing another yacht we realized the purpose of that long hook. Ideally suited to the job. Plenty of time to explore every inch of this really picturesque island. Dinner booked in the Smokeri at the end of the harbour (the only restaurant) I strolled along and asked to see the menu. Informed that it was fully booked I said we had booked and was then given the menu. When we turned up for dinner it was apparent we were the only guests so fully booked by us alone. Famous for smoked fish, while others enjoyed seafood platters and smoked prawns, I had a wonderful fish soup followed by gorgeous lemon pie. The culinary high spot of the trip in wonderful surroundings.

Next day, the winds abated and at long last we shook out the reefs en route back to Goteborg. Another lunch stop at sheltered anchorage before threading the islands and re-joining the main shipping channel where we spent a couple of hours diverting to enjoy sailing before returning to the charter base. Chose dinner in a family-run Thai restaurant in city centre (many restaurants closed on Friday) situated in an attractive vaulted cellar with excellent authentic food and service at very reasonable cost. Place was full and most customers were Asian which is good sign. A good choice for our two crews to dine together to celebrate our trip and safe return after a challenging week.

Completing the hand-back formalities, I had to seek the return of the SEK 2000 deposit I had paid.

Return journey to Bristol uneventful and on time. On checking my credit card account I found that the charter base had debited me again for SEK 2000 before making a refund so I was still SEK 2000 out of pocket. It took a week of phone calls and emails and raising a dispute with the bank before eventually I received the refund. The charter base claimed that it was not possible to hold card details in Sweden as a guarantee and had to take the payment but I know this is not true. Most unsatisfactory but at least I had no foreign transaction fees. The other crew faced foreign transaction charges for both the payment and the refund amounting to £100. Nautilus, the broker, denied any responsibility. This action by the Goteborg charter firm is very unusual but key lesson is always use a card without foreign transaction fees, though there is still the prospect of currency variations during your charter.

This Swedish sailing area is quite similar to the Stockholm archipelago. Hundreds of islands, mostly rocky, limited opportunities to anchor (hence the rock wedges). Delightful small traditional fishing harbours. Goteborg has limited chartering opportunities; our base was very small and the firm looked like a recent start-up in an outlying area of town. Still it gave the opportunity to enjoy a new and fascinating cruising area in very pleasant company. Distance logged 131nm.