The feeling of being locked down into Vänern through the final lock on the Göta Canal was indescribable — we'd done the canal! Something that five weeks earlier had felt far off. The last stretch along the canal had been very calm, and the weather had finally broken to give us some sunshine. Which for us was incredibly good timing, because the batteries had started to run down somewhat. We discovered that the solar panel was beginning to give out too — it wasn't as efficient as at the start of the trip; damage to the panel had let water start seeping in and oxidising the cells. That's the kind of thing that makes life on a boat frustrating but also interesting, because there's always something that needs fixing and improving.
We had a quiet evening in Sjötorp harbour, hanging out with our German friends on India III. Toto, who had sailed at the front of the convoy we joined in Norsholm, tipped us off about a place on Lurö with a sauna and food,
Lurö Gästhärbärge & Krog — we who hadn't had a single sauna the whole trip because of the fire ban that had been in place across all of Sweden.
The next day we set course for Lurö, an island in the middle of Vänern. Since our boat was smaller and didn't have as tall a mast, we could take the southern fairway past Mariestad. Just after Mariestad the wind picked up sharply; we had far too much sail up and the boat heeled hard. A boat sailed past and photographed us at the moment we were heeling the most.
With the wind on a broad reach we could sail in towards Lurö at record speed; now and then I could see we were up at 8 knots in this little boat. Both Toto and India III were on the Cruising Association's mooring buoys, and a third buoy was free too. But we moored against the shore for the simple pleasure of being able to go ashore however we liked.
Gunnar, the bon vivant who runs
Lurö Gästhärbärge & Krog together with a partner, is a sailor from Karlstad. His stories of Atlantic crossings and life on the oceans never ran out — but you always had to ask him for one. The most spectacular was that, together with a couple of friends, he built a ship called Victoria af Carlstad in the late '70s and sailed it to the Caribbean.
Victoria af Carlstad as she leaves harbour in November 1981 
