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Voyage to Sweden


Evaluation of the trip to Oslo

During his voyage to Oslo in 1985 Henri has noticed a few things, so different as in Holland, that made sailing on the Scandinavian waters a magnificent experience :
- The vast space on the Baltic Sea where one could sail for hours in the same direction.
- The big seaways between the flat Danish islands.
- The small routes between the Swedish rocky islands north of Gothenburg.
- The changes of the daily weather conditions :
    From early in the morning till about two o’clock the wind was calm.
    From two in the afternoon till eight in the evening the wind was increasing, after that decreasing again.
- The warm welcome of the Orm on his way, and the willingness to give a helping hand.

The plan

This all contributed to Henri’s plan to make a trip to Scandinavia again, not just to the home-waters of the Orm ( the Oslo fjord ), but also to Sweden.
The sailing between the islands on the east coast of Sweden, called "scheren" in Dutch, promised to be as wonderful as they say, possibly even more fantastic.
During the Viking age the Swedish have been very active.
Think about their voyages through Russia to the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea and their big trading centre at the island of Birka.
Also in later times remarkable things were done in Sweden.
Already in 1526 the Bischop Hans Brask proposes to make a water way connection between the Vänern, Vättern and the Baltic Sea.
In 1810 the Swedish parliament approved this plan to build the Göta Canal.
The execution of the project has taken 22 years and was for its time a "true force" of marine engineering.
So the route of the voyages was quickly made ( see the route ).
The crew of 1985 had fallen apart due to marriage, moving, job changes, etc.
During the past years it appeared that it was possible to sail a Viking ship of ten meters solo, with some extra adjustments of the rigging.
There was an advantage to taking food and clothes for only one man, although this could not be done for all the needs.
Yvonne, Henri’s wife, was afraid of crossing great expanses of water, and wanted to join Henri only on the Göta Canal. 

The preparations

A plan is easy to make, but execution is something else.
This plan required a good preparation so Henri started again.
Sea-maps must be bought to examine the route to be followed.
Henri made contact with ambassadors, customs, pilots, coastguard, etc.
Sponsors had to be found for the necessary safety equipment ( Viking ), food ( Verkade ), etc.
All the harbours on the route were written to ask for a good birth and assistance.
During 1993 and 1994 Yvonne and Henri used their holidays to visit all the harbours, by car and caravan. In some places, boxes of provisions were left.
To avoid the busy part of the short Scandinavian summer the voyage must start early.
In order to sail a good distance every day and also to have time for other things, Henri would need to start early in the morning and retire early.
This had to become an iron discipline, because otherwise it could not been maintained for three months.

[  last updated :  9-5-2021  ]


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