A change in our sailing plan came when we took on our two crew members for two days. Instead of sailing directly from Ulvön to Sundsvall, we began planning a route to visit some islands near Härnösand. Storön 🌐, with its old fishing village, was high on our list, followed by Lungön 🌐 for an overnight stay. We cast off from Ulvön in very light winds, almost drifting forward, until a gentle breeze began to fill our sails, allowing us to pass Högbonden with its lighthouse perched high on a cliff. Just before reaching Storön, a thunderstorm approached, and the wind picked up sharply from the west — crushing our hopes of going ashore there. Dropping anchor on a rocky bottom full of unpredictable cracks in that kind of wind simply wasn’t an option. Since the weather forecast for the following day was also uncertain, we decided to head for a harbour near Härnösand. We chose Lustholmen 🌐, which a fellow sailor on Ulvön had recommended. In whipping wind and rain, we continued our sail until we reached the channel between Lungön and Hemsön. There, the headwind was unavoidable, and as darkness fell, the rain intensified. Just after we had tied Skadi to a buoy and the dock at Lustholmen, the skies opened up, and the rain poured down. The day’s broken plans didn’t matter anymore — Lustholmen turned out to be a cosy, well-sheltered cove from the wind.
The next day, we set course for Härnösand. With a pleasant wind, we were able to sail the entire way. There, we made a short stop to drop off our two crew members who had joined us in Ulvöhamn. We even had time for a quick coffee break and to restock provisions. Then the course was set for Sundsvall. The wind turned against us after rounding Härnön, and we had to tack all the way to Åstholmsudden before our heading aligned with the wind. The closer we got to Sundsvall, the lighter the wind became.