Sailing and traversing locks down

The Gota canal traverses several lakes and ends at SjoKorp on the shore of Lake Vanern.  On the other side of which the Trollhate canal (operated by the Swedish Maritime Administration rather than a tourist group) takes us the rest of the way to Gothenburg.

On Sunday we sailed across lake Boren which was the first time we encountered rough water.  It was quite rough for such a small lake.  I went down to lay on my bunk in the bow to see what it was like - negative G's sometimes, it would be hard to sleep in that and it wasn't really that rough!  I tried lying down in the midships saloon and, yes, that's where I'd want to be in rough weather. I got my first taste of real sailing.

On Monday we sailed across Lake Vattern, the highest point in the canal system.  We did a big long tack to the NW before tacking SE towards Karlsborg where the next canal lock is.  The wind was mostly from the west but we liked to have the sails up whenever we could.  Most yachts we saw were motoring east to west not bothering to sail.  After Karsborg, we traversed a very narrow (no passing) section blasted through the rock of the Spetsaset peninsular.  Then along Lake Viken.

The last lock of the day was our first lock DOWN at Tatorp, but it was only a small drop.  We were 10 minutes after 6 but the lock keeper kindly waited for us.

These “water control locks” which are often only a small change in level are usually manually operated, no hydraulics.

Tied up at Norrkvan because there was a rare sauna there (closed for renovations!)

On Tuesday, leaving Vassbacken there were lots of bridges to get past and our first real lock DOWN (a double) at Hajstorp ovre.  Then several other double and triple locks.  I drove the boat through several locks today, pretty scary, especially driving IN and not hitting anything.  It's great Martin is willing to let me possibly damage his boat to get this experience!  The next morning I was filming the bridge opening when a small yacht came through with a dog (I'm sure it's a Blue healer), and a single person.  I asked if he could handle the locks alone - yes, he said, but I'm not sure how.  Maybe the down locks could be handled by a solo sailor, but the up locks?

On Wednesday there were more than a few bridges and the final 7 locks down.  I hurt my lower back somehow and I had to take pain killers and muscle relaxants and spent most of the day resting and applying heat. We went through the last lock on the Gota canal and handed in our boat number "flag" and our facilities key cards. Then we sailed on Lake Vanern.  We anchored about half way across for the night.  Again a fairly rough crossing but it moved me about on my sick bed, probably good for the muscles!

Thursday was finishing the crossing of Lake Vanern, arriving at the first lock of the Trollhatten Canal.  These are for much larger ships, and the height gained/lost is about 8m per lock.  We tied up at a small guest marina at Trollhatten.

It's Friday and I'm still taking codeine to reduce the pain and get me moving and stretching.  I'm still not very useful but I can stay on board and throw lines - thank goodness we are going down. First up was a double lock and we perfected our technique.  When going down in a lock it's much less turbulent - the water is just draining out, not rushing in and causing a current.  You motor into the lock and step off to run a line around a bollard and take it back on board and just hold it as the water gets lower.  The locks are so deep that we had to tie extra rope on or make use of the mooring hooks in the walls, or we'd run out of rope.

Then a triple lock and we're in the river on the final stretch to Gothenburg.  We have had to wait 1 or 2 hours at a few places for priority traffic, either commercial shipping or cars in rush hour.  We motored right through the port as the sun was setting and tied up in the dark in a marina on the other side.

at one stage we shared locks with a replica Viking ship.

This is one example where we had wait for the bridge to open, I.e. wait for an important commercial ship to come by!

I think this is the Gothenborg replica tall ship that Greg sailed on a while ago: