Menez daou

55+ nm of sailing! It all started quite OK: I left early enough, I had the sails up and going forward quietly at 5 kts. My original target was only 32 nm away, so I thought it was going to be quite a fine day.

However, as I was closing in on Brämön, the sea increased and seemed to come both from the north and the east-northeast, making some sort of weird sea that wasn't always easy to anticipate. But after the island… The wind picked up a bit (which was fine) but the sea increased a lot more: I wasn't quite expecting to see 1.5-2m waves here! And they weren't like those I grew used to when learning how to sail in France, their direction was messier, their rhythm too…

Fortunately, Elvira is a weatherly boat and I could point her a bit closer to the wind without her stamping too much on the waves, and proceed to take in a reef. In hindsight, that's a manoeuvre I should have trained before. However, the system I had put in place was working quite well, and I was able to go on more easily. Still, it was not really feasible to take these waves on the side, which I needed if I was to turn toward my target. Instead, I quickly checked for a guest harbour, found one further ahead and forged on, climbing wave after wave until the wind first, and then the sea calmed down a bit making the rest of the passage easier.

Fast-forward a bit and I've reached Härnösand!