Hall full or half empty?
“If you’re wondering whether your glass is half full or half empty you are missing the point;
You have a glass and it is refillable”
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Around four weeks ago Wayne almost lost a thumb while poking around the engine; resulting in a trip to casualty in Norway. A few days later our mainsail blew out with a long non-repairable rip. The following day Blue Heeler collided with a cable ferry at Marstrand causing substantial damage to our starboard side.
While every care is taken to avoid disaster, life certainly throws up good and bad situations. Shit happens as they say…
As far as the boat incident, this is how it went down: Our brilliant summer season had ended with a successful trip up to Norway. Blue Heeler was motoring south along the channel through Marstrand hoping to reach Göteborg that afternoon, with only another 250nm or so to reach Flensburg in Germany, where we plan to stay over winter. A stationery ferry was to starboard so we continued heading south on the starboard side of the channel. But from behind the stationery ferry, another cable ferry had entered the waterway becoming visible to us all too late. Attempting to pull up, Blue Heeler snagged the underwater cable, the engine stopped and we collided against the pointy corner of the ferry’s ramp. It all happened so quickly. For the passengers aboard the ferry this was an exciting event; whipping out their iPhones quicker than the ‘Waco Kid’ (photos of the incident likely to be on Instagram by the time we’d even realised what had happened). Wayne managed to start the engine and the boat freed from the cable. Blue Heeler limped to the nearest dock where we assessed the damage. In my mind I pleaded “Please don’t sink, please don’t sink!!”.
Our initial assessment of the damage – a bloody big hole in the starboard hull; a starboard bulkhead split in half; the forward cabin cupboard and locker pushed out-of-place and some broken woodwork. There was no sign of water coming in, but to be certain the boat needed lifting to check for damage. As it was a Saturday, we had to wait until a work day to arrange a lift. The automatic bilge never switched on so that was a positive sign. Wayne taped the hole up with strong Gorilla tape to keep the following day’s rain out.
This was not the way we expected Blue Heeler’s pilgrimage to Sweden to happen! What a bizarre and disastrous coincidence it happened 30nm south of where Blue Heeler was built back in 1997. To get things moving, on the Sunday after the incident I dropped an email to Hallberg Rassy in the hope someone was having a Sunday morning coffee and reading work emails. Luckily it was CEO Magnus Rassy who replied with a few names of local boat-yards that could do the work. Fantastic!
With a break in the weather and the bloody big hole taped up with super-sticky Gorilla tape to keep the water out, we motored 30nm through the islets of the Skagerrak to the north of Orust.
Safely berthed at Vindö Marin that same day a surveyor came out to inspect the hull. We could see where the cable had scored the rudder. Blue Heeler returned to the water for a few days rest.
This time of year is extremely busy for boat-yards as boats this far north are lifted ashore to spend winter inside sheds. The yard-hands are busy removing masts and spend each day hauling boats ashore. Blue Heeler had to wait its turn so we stayed on board, gathered our belongings and prepared to leave our home. In the meantime, Storm Knud caused a raucous outside with winds gusting 50kn+ for about 24 hours, raising the water level more than a metre making it almost impossible to get off for a couple of days.
Blue Heeler was eventually lifted and placed in a large shed for the repair work to begin. With a clearer view of the propeller, we could see where the cable had scored one of the propeller blades.
And for the first time in almost eight years we are homeless! So, where do we go?
Our small cosy cabin and room for the bikes.
Like a couple of refugees, we packed our essentials – backpacks filled with warm clothes, toothbrushes, food, bedding, our bikes, and relocated to a simple one room cabin at a nearby camping ground.
Although the campground has officially closed for winter, the management has welcomed us to stay until the boat is repaired, or until the water pipes freeze up – whichever comes first! There are two bunk beds so we’ve each got a bottom bunk. The nearest town is 10kms away and there is nothing in the immediate vicinity, but the bus system is very good. The cabin has a small fridge, a two-burner stove, a tiny table with four chairs and a gorgeous view out the window. Most importantly is has a heater to keep the cabin cosy. The shower/toilet is not so convenient, about 100m walk away – a cold 5am totter to the dunny seems like reasonable penance for wrecking our boat…
So while we are very disappointed that we’ve injured our beloved Blue Heeler, it’s in capable hands, we have a warm place to stay, Wayne’s thumb is on the mend (sporting a Jolly Roger), and we have a spare mainsail to replace the tatty one.
Our glass is filling up again.
Fingers crossed we will be heading south soon aboard our dear little Blue Heeler.
Until then here’s a picture of happier times just days before in Fredrikstad, Norway.
But instead I’m sitting inside the saloon of Blue Heeler while Storm Knud thrashes outside. After a great week up in Norway, now we are berthed at the northern end of Orust, an island on the west coast of Sweden and the wind is still blowing hard outside after a night of 45-60kn.
But our sturdy and trusty Blue Heeler was sufficiently damaged. Fortunately it remains afloat albeit with a nasty hole in the hull. A break in the weather just before Storm Ali and Storm Knud appeared, allowed us to patch the hole with Gorilla tape and motor to the north of Orust to have the damage assessed for repair. So swiftly and unexpectedly do plans change.
Blue Heeler was built at the Ellös yard of Hallberg-Rassy in 1996 – Production number 100. Only 209 HR-39s were built between 1991 and 2003.
On a side note, it’s said the canal is also known as the ‘divorce ditch’ due to the anxieties of navigating through the network of locks, narrow canals and passing through or under bridges. But after weeks in the Erie Canal and the Inland Waterways of the USA in 2015, and navigating through the Mast Up Route in the Netherlands this year, this trip was just another day of living the dream – haha!
Narrow parts of the canal are carefully navigated, so we paid particular attention to the depth and height, as overhanging trees may cause problems too. Lock and bridge openings were generally timely, although a few have set opening times. All this information is available from 
Stockholm is the most populated city in all of the Nordic countries, with almost two million people. Spread over fourteen islands, and a myriad of connecting bridges, Stockholm is often referred to the ‘Venice of the North’, but this is also applicable to many other watery Northern European cities we’ve visited such as Amsterdam, Dordrecht, Stralsund and Lübeck. Whatever the label, Stockholm is certainly stylish.
Wasahamnen is located on the west coast of Djurgården – once the Royal hunting grounds, but now a lovely outdoor area with cycle tracks, impressive old homes, a Royal abode, the Skansen living history park, and the Nordic Museum. It’s also home to a number of tourist places such as the Gröna Lund amusement park, the Vikingaliv centre with an interactive session on vikings for the kids, the famous Vasa Museum displaying the 400 year old man-o-war, and of course, the ABBA Museum.
Back out in the southern islands of the Stockholm Skärgård, we considered sailing south around the bottom of Sweden around to Norway, rather than pass east to west through Sweden along the Göta Canal. But with a few days of strong southerlies on their way, the decision was made to head west.
