Carra Tidings

Yet another 5 o’clock start! I went to use the bow thruster – nothing. I assumed that I hadn’t turned it on. But no – it wasn’t working. Nothing to be done about it, we set off, soon followed by Constance. We had a miserable first hour of the trip directly into waves, with a lumpy sea to get out of the Karlskrona. The bow would rise up, then crash down losing all momentum. Once out of the bay,  It was with great relief that we could turn out of the swell and the waves. The wind direction meant that we couldn’t sail,  but enough to take the waves at a different angle so we could maintain a good speed – albeit motor sailing.

Our destination was the tiny island of Hanö . Windy conditions and small harbours are an interesting combination when you don’t have a bow thruster ( a small motor at the front of the boat that pushes your bow sideways – it makes parking a big boat much easier). Add in to the mix a harbourmaster than wants you to go in a spot you wouldn’t have chosen and it looked a small spot too, plus you want to be facing out, to facilitate leaving so it meant you needed to moor downwind with the fresh wind blowing you off. If that wasn’t enough Tom Cunliffe is watching you, waiting to take your lines. After a couple of  attempts to get Carra into the right spot to make my final approach to moor , and by now I had drawn a crowd……we moored and much to my relief we didn’t hit anything and we just fitted in with 2 ft to spare at either end.

The “English” Cemetery

Hanö harbour was lovely, it was so well loved, everything freshly painted, flowers around the village – it just oozed pride and that it was cherished by the residents. The island also  had a fascinating history, having been a base for the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. On the northern side was the English Cemetery, where 15 sailors were laid to rest. Today, whenever a Royal Navy ship passes – they stop and lay a wreath here. It was a moving site

Harald our Hero

Back on board, we had just got the dinghy up on deck, to pack it away, when we had the first boat rafted up next to us. Quickly followed by a second. We then set about trying to find out what was wrong with our bow thruster. We got out our brand new amp meter and ready to use the fault finding skills that we had learnt  on an electrics course that we had done earlier in the year. We tested the fuses, the battery, the thruster and everything was ok. We had reached the limit of our knowledge. At which point the harbour mistress appeared, so Mags went to ask her if she knew of any electrical engineers on the Island. As luck would have it, our neighbour on the second boat out, heard the conversation and asked if we had tested the solenoid….. it had a solenoid? … that was news to us….clearly we had only done the basic electrics course! He said he knew a little bit and would come and have a look at it. A little bit meant he was an electrical engineer and within about 1 hr had diagnosed that a thermal switch had failed. But he was able to by pass the system which meant he had got the bow thruster working. But it also mean we could order and new part and get it send on ahead to our next harbour. How lucky were we that Harald had moored next to us. Remarkably, he kept his boat in Svinninge where we had kept Carra for the 8 years….. it is a small world. Our bow thruster has now been christened Harald in honour of our hero – the kindness of strangers.