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| A small taste of Vänern - you could spend month exploring its islands |
The next leg of our odyssey was crossing Lake Vänern to the start of the Göta Canal. Lake Vänern is the largest lake in both Sweden and the European Union. It is almost three times the size of Port Phillip Bay and nearly twenty times the size of Shushwap Lake! It is dotted with 22,000 islands if one includes the skerries.
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| Dead calm on the lake |
After popping out of the Trollhätten Canal at Vänersborg, we anchored in a bay about 5nm (10km) north. It was a beautiful, calm evening and the water is finally warm enough for a swim. Sean did a little maintenance on the waterline by giving it a good scrub. Other than a party of rowdy gulls on the rocks nearby and a few curious locals cruising by in their boats, the anchorage was calm and peaceful.
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| Still ... no wind! |
We set off next morning and other than absolutely no wind and the need to motor the whole way, today was the perfect day. We crossed the lake and wiggled our way through the islands and skerries of Kållandsö.
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| Lots of wiggling and LOTS of rocks! |
The channels were both narrow and shallow and some of the channels were VERY narrow; so narrow at some points it was one way traffic only and we could just squeeze between the markers. The calm conditions made it very straightforward, it may be somewhat trickier on a windy day.
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| Yep, those posts behind us mark the channel. Not a lot of room for error (or oncoming traffic) |
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| Looks like rogue Viking ships are still an issue in these waters. |
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| Yikes, wouldn't want to hit one of those markers! |
We anchored in 3m of water, a dinghy ride from Läckö Castle. We love our shallow draft but the marina at the castle made our anchorage look deep so we settled for anchoring.
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| Läckö Castle |
Built originally as a fort in 1298, it has been expanded and upgraded over the centuries. It is spectacular! Unfortunately, we arrived a bit late for the full tour so had to content ourselves with the chapel, courtyard, kitchens, gardens and dungeon - pretty cool nonetheless!
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| Having a look at the outer courtyard |
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| Inside the chapel. Pretty impressive for a 13th century building |
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| Beautiful veggie gardens in a walled courtyard |
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| The last run for No-Pull (our electric outboard) before it goes off for repairs* |
Leaving Kållandsö bound for Torsö, the wind picked up and we had a glorious sail across. Unfortunately, there was more north in it than the forecast and the anchorages we picked out were quite exposed. We settled on an anchorage on the north side of the island but tucked behind a headland that gave some protection. Next morning, after motoring around the headland, we sailed into Sjötorp and the start of The Göta Canal!
*We absolutely love our electric outboard. But the LEDs indicating charge and speed have started to fail. We contacted Remigo about this and they advised it was a known problem that they have now resolved. They will send a courier to collect it, make repairs and courier it back to us whenever we can spare it for about ten days. So we are dropping it Motala and they will send it back, better than new to Åkersberga! That's excellent customer service!
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