Sat 3rd August - The Göta Canal - Going Down

A long but really enjoyable day with fabulous warm, sunny weather and clear blue skies.

We got up quite early and were ready and waiting in Motala …

… for the first bridge and lock to open at 9am into the next bit of the canal (the ‘down’ part) …

We motored gently along the pretty, green canal …

… to the first ‘ladder’ of locks down to Lake Boren …

Here you can see the steep flight of 5 locks down …

Here is Astraia in one of the locks with the water ‘up’ …

This is looking from the lock below as the water cascades over the lock gates in a waterfall …

The lock operator then opens the sluices and water gushes into the lock below, and quickly fills it up as our boat goes down in the lock above …

When you’re going down in a lock, the sluices can be opened wide and the water let out much faster than going up, as the turbulence is in the lock below and does not affect the boats.

Here’s a boat coming out of the lock below once the levels are equal and the gates have opened …

This is the final lock in the flight at Borenshult filling up.  We’re about to go out into Lake Boren … this is where the murder happens in the book I’m reading at the moment – ‘Roseanna’ by Sjöwall and Wahlöö, the forerunners of ‘Nordic Noir’!

Here we are out of the locks and sailing across Lake Boren – Becca and Gar are pulling the sail in …

… while Charles is looking for a nice spot to anchor for lunch!

Then it’s back into the canal at a manual lock.  The locks are operated almost entirely by young students doing summer vacation jobs.  They are all very efficient and extremely well-trained, as well as being friendly and helpful.  They are usually dressed in a uniform of yellow T-shirts and blue shorts.  However, a few of them were wearing blue T-shirts instead.  We wondered why?  Apparently, at this time of year, once the rape-seed has been harvested and the fields are no longer yellow, the insects that particularly like the yellow rape flowers turn to their yellow T-shirts and can settle in their thousands!! Especially on a windless day – so if necessary they are allowed to wear a blue T-shirt instead …

We now had another pretty stretch of canal, with a number of opening bridges.  Some of them lifted, some swung round and this one just rolled back on wheels …

We passed this quaint little summer house …

… and some rather grander places…

… and this family on their way home with the shopping – a great way to travel unless you’re the one doing the pedalling!

Sometimes we met quite sizeable passenger boats – usually in a narrow bit!

We went by open fields, which were lower than the level of the canal …

… and we could see glimpses of the lakes through the trees …

We passed these cows having a cooling dip …

Then through another set of locks at Berg – going through the ladders of locks is quite an art, but I think we’ve got it now.  It’s good to have quite a few of us to help – 2 on land, 2 on board fore and aft, one to drive and one to make the tea!  Where the locks are linked in a flight, the ropes can be carried from one lock to the next instead of having to throw and catch them each time …

We had to wait for over an hour for the second set of locks at Berg as some boats were still coming up them.  We had time for an icecream and a lovely refreshing swim in the basin between the 2 sets of locks – the temperature in the water was 22°C – really warm.  Some of us swam to the other side of the basin …

… and even the skipper took his annual dip (he doesn’t usually go in until it’s at least 25°C) – but this was far enough from the boat for him!!

At Berg there are 12 locks altogether, in 2 flights of 5 linked locks and then another 7.  This attracts quite an audience, so it was good that we’d got our lock work down to a fine art by this stage and looked pretty professional!  People kept commenting to us that ‘we had come a long way’ and we realised they’d mistaken our blue ensign for the Australian flag – we had come a long way, but not that far!

This is looking down the ladder of 7 linked locks, with Lake Roxen beyond …

We took turns to take the helm and do the other jobs on shore and on board …

Here’s Becca on the fore rope and Jo driving out of the last of this long flight of locks …

… and into Lake Roxen …

… past the man on the breakwater …

… and the oldest passenger boat still working the canal, the Juno, built in 1874.  In fact, she is the oldest registered passenger ship with overnight cabins in the world, and her passengers have included Henrik Ibsen and Hans Christian Andersen.

We anchored for the night in a quiet spot on Lake Roxen – rather tentatively, as the surveys of this lake were done 200 years ago with a lead line! – and watched the sun go down …

It’s been a very long, but enjoyable day.  The rope work in the locks seems a lot easier going down, in fact the whole thing seems easier, but of course the sun was shining, whereas it rained the whole day we were coming up the canal.

Thurs 1st - Fri 2nd August - The Lakes - Viken and Vattern

Thursday 1^st – The weather was perfect for our passage through Lake Viken, which is one of the loveliest parts of the journey – a complete contrast from the grey, wet weather of a couple of days ago.  Blue skies and sunshine meant that we saw Lake Viken at its best …

Some of the channels were incredibly narrow, with many rocks and dangers on either side.  Here we had to navigate between the green poles on the left and the wall on the right – not much space if you meet another boat coming in the opposite direction!

Here’s another very narrow bit …

… and another …

.. and this bit was twisty too …

Another swing bridge had to open for us – this is the view looking down the road from the boat …

Then Forsvik Lock, which is the highest point on the Göta Canal – it actually hardly changed level at all, just very slightly ‘down’ …

… past some attractive lakeside villages …

… through one more lock and we were in Lake Vattern.

We went alongside the pontoon and spent a few hours in the town of Karlsborg.

We walked along the shore of the lake …

… to explore the massive Karlsborg Fortress, which occupies a whole peninsula.

It took them so long to build it (90 years) that it was out-of-date almost immediately, but it is still a military base as well as a tourist attraction and has a small town within its 2 mile perimeter wall.  This is the main building which houses the church and museum …

This is the interior of the garrison church, with its chandelier made of 276 bayonets …

The gold crown on the top symbolises royal power, the bayonets represent military power and the chains represent the prisoners …

This is a distinctive Swedish telephone box within the fortress town …

Later in the afternoon, we had a leisurely sail across Lake Vattern …

… and arrived as the sun was setting over the medieval city of Vadstena, where boats can tie up in the moat of the castle – a magical spot …

Friday 2^nd – We enjoyed fantastic weather in Vadstena the following day and visited the castle …

… with its gloomy dungeons and gun emplacements, as well as 16^th century interior – this is the banqueting hall …

We also visited the impressive Abbey Church …

We had a frustrating round of crazy golf with real greens and bunkers! Jo won!

… and a lovely refreshing swim in the lake …

Here is Astraia tied up alongside in the moat …

… and here we are about to leave for the short sail to Motala …

… where we had to go under this bridge, which had only 22 metres clearance …

Astraia’s mast is almost 21 metres high, so it looked awfully close!!

Will it fit …?

Just!!  Phew!

We celebrated getting under the bridge safely by going out for dinner in Motala – tomorrow we’ll be back in the Göta Canal and going down towards the Baltic Sea.