In 1967 I set sails and pushed off for the very first time of my life. The boat was mine and brand new. Most of the work on it was made during a long and intensive winter under a tarpaulin in Vånafjärden. Since then I have been sailing every summer, now in 1998 the 31^st summer is coming. Mostly I have been restricted to the northern part of the Gulf of Botnia, most due to other hobbies as this one and this one and this one, on a few occasions I have sailed in Roslagen and the Åland Sea. The problem has always been that the distances are long and the holidays are short, but now I have found a way to solve this problem. I do the long (and dull) transports by road and then I can put my boat to sea wherever there is a mobile crane. In 1979 I built my third boat and as a result of haughtiness I made it too big and too heavy and this has for a long time been a problem as regards land transports. When the idea of land transport of the boat appeared, the first thing was to contact police and road authorities in order to find out  the conditions for such a transport and since I got no veto I went on with buying a 32 years old Scania lorry. The final test of the concept would be to go to northern Norway with it´s many curves, narrow roads and steep hills. Many hours were spent during the winter of 1998/1999 to get everyting ready for the trip. Finally everything was in order and all permissions from the police and road authorities from all three countries involved,  Sweden, Finland and Norway,  had arrived and we could set off on the 8^th of July.

Crew: Erik Strömbäck, skipper and owner.   

MajBritt Strömbäck, wife of skipper, cook and manager of the ship´s money.

Lennart Olsson.  Lennart has a vast experience of salt water sailing.  

Bertil Englund, the master of all electronics. Came on board in Hammerfest after Bert had signed off.

Bert Johansson. Bert lives in Uppsala and often goes to Åland and Finland with his Swede 38. A great expert on fishing.

July 8-10. We set off from Vånafjärden at three o´clock as planned and went eastwards to the Finnish boarder at Torneå and then we turned to the left and headed North. This part of Finland is rather flat with practically no slopes and we could consequently keep up speed in spite of our weight (22 tons) and our poor force (105 hp when the Scania was new 33 years ago). We had four hours of sleep south of Kautokeino in Norway before the real challenge with slopes began. It was a slow progress in the steepest slopes but on we went, sometimes at a walkig pace. Late on Thursday 9^th of July we arrived at Alta and stopped on the quay of Alta Båtförening, and made the boat ready for the mobile crane.

July 11 Saturday. We set the sails and at 13.00, we left the quay and had to beat against a 10 knot wind. At 18.00 we had come half-way to Hammerfest and we began to look for a night harbour. We found Eidsnes in Korsfjord and it was perfect.

July 12 Sunday. We sailed from Korsfjord northwards through Vargsundet towards Hammerfest. On our left we had .Seiland with it´s large glacier. With the hope of being able to walk to the glacier we put down the anchor in Oldfjord and went ashore. It proved to be too big an effort to get to the glacier so we had to cancel the walk there. Bert caught our first cod and it was delicious for lunch! The wind increased and in the afternoon we had to beat against 30, up to 40 knots. We tryed to anchor in Neverfjord on the leeward side of the fjord but two heavy anchors could not hold the boat. Finally we could moore at a quay in Kvalsund just under the bridge from the main land to the island of Kvalöy.

July 13 Monday. We had a fast free wind to Hammerfest, the northernmost city in the world. Our friend Tom had arranged for us to moore at the quay below the Town Hall.

July 14 Tuesday. We devoted the day to sightseeing and visited the market, the library an a new museum where the war and the rebuilding after the war were the themes. Then we signed on as members of the Icebear Club. In the afternoon Bertil arrived from Kalix in order to replace Bert who had to leave us. Bertil had a swedish flag with him and that reestablished the skipper´s lost honour, he had actually forgotten to bring this very important item.

July 15 Wednesday. We left Hammerfest at ten o´clock. The wind was easterly with very big variation of strength and a big swell was rolling in from the Artic Ocean. It proved impossible to  reach Havöysund by sail so we had to support the progress with the engine. After dinner and a walk we made an early night.

July 16 Thursday.  We had an early departure. The wind was weak and unsteady so we had to use the engine now and then. Through Mageröy sound we had a strong counter-current due to the tide. It happened now and then that the ordinary log showed 5.5 knots at the same time as the GPS showed 0.0 knots! On our way in to Honningsvåg we saw both ends of the tunnel between Kåfjord on the mainland and Honningsvåg on Mageröy island which is under construction. It will be opened some time in 1999. With the engine´s help we arrived at Honningsvåg in the afternoon and found a good mooring at a quay just one meter from a nice restaurant!

July 17 Friday. On this day we should reach the climax of the yourney, to sail in the Artic Ocean and to double the North Cape. It turned out to be a warm and sunny day with weak easterly winds although the weather reports had a warning for a half-gale from the east. In fact they had talked about this half-gale the whole week. When we could see the Cape for the first time, we had a first celebration and when we finally passed it we had another celebration, this time added with coffee and some Danish pastries. It really was a nice weather and we could not resist the temptation to go a little bit more to the north and there we could see on our GPS this yourney´s highest latitud, N  71º11.186'. After doubling the Cape and Knivsjeludden we went for the night to Gjesvaer. Gjesvaer is according to the Pilot one of the most secure harbours in the vicinity and this proved to be true. Along the passage to Gjesvaer we noticed some sea-marks, an unusual sight in these waters. According to the same pilot Gjesvaer is the northenmost fishing-village in the world, but it was a disappointment to see both Spanish and French tourist buses at the hotel.

July 18 Saturday.  The wind was weak but came from the west for a change.We had to use the engine again, we went North of Måsöya and Hjelmsöya with the intention to double Fruholmen and Ingöya, but the progress was so slow that we changed our course and went through the sound between Ingöya and Rolvsöya, Trollsundet. By this time the fog was rather thick and we had to trust the GPS entirely. We dicided for Tufjord as night harbour.

July 19 Sunday. Tufjord proved to be a charming little fishing-village with some 15 permanent inhabitants. Before this trip I had carefully studied the Norwegian Pilot and I had noticed that wave and wind statistics for Fruholmen were very imposing and that had aroused an urge to double this little rocky island in the extrem northwest. The light house was according to the nautical chart the norhernmost land-based lighthouse in the world. So we had to go there. The wind was increasing and by the time we were reaching Fruholmen we were beating against a half-gale with one jib and the mizzen hoisted. The height of the waves was less than two meters, much less than the Pilot statistics hinted. After we had doubled Fruholmen we went through Breidsundet to Havöysund.

July 20  Monday. We continued through Havöysund and set the course through Rölvsöysundet across Revsbotten and into Söröysundet, 22 nautical miles without changing the course. During a couple of hours we had free wind with all five sails up. The last miles of the inlet to Hammerfest we had to use the engine. The evening  was spent at the piano bar at Rica Hotel.

July 21 Tuesday.  We departed at ten o´clock and set course out into Söröysund and took the islands of Haaja and L Vinna on larboard. We had to beat against a weak wind. In early afternoon it rained hard for a short time but soon  the sun came back and dried our wet clothes. We decided for a little fishing-village, Kårhamn on Seiland, as night harbour. Apparently the climate was more favourable here despite the fact that we were among the islands nearest to the Atlantic or was it so that the climate was better here due to the fact that we were nearer the warm water of the Gulf Stream? Anyway, we saw more trees surrounding the cottages than before. For the first time of our journey we could see that there was grass enough for sheep and calves.

July 22 Wednesday. We managed to go by sail through the rest of Söröysund and almost the entire Rognsundet but then it became dead calm. We had to start the engine for the last miles to Alta.

July 23 Thursday. Now it was time to empty the boat and put all the equipment on the lorry. Ahead of us were now some 40 km of steep slopes uphill. In order to get a good grip we completed the load with Alta slate at no cost at all.

July 24 Friday. Odd Mattissen appeared with his mobile crane at nine o'clock. It took him only 35 minutes to lift the two masts and the boat out of the water and at 14.00 we began our trip back to Vånafjärden.

Comments: The yourney was in all parts a sucess ,very much so because of the fabulous weather. Normally it is a lot colder, more of rain and fog. We had antcipated  stronger winds and we had to use the engine rather often, especially in the narrow sounds where we often had counter-currents due to the tide. Most of the weather reports talked of easterly half-gale and mist. There were only a few sailing yachts in these harbours. During our trip we saw only three of them under sails.

What´s to come next? Early next summer, 1999, we intend to take the boat to Holmsund   (Umeå)  and then follow the ice when it retreats to the North. I have done this some 20 years ago and it was a very nice trip. Today I´m better prepared for cold and wet weather because of my 'central heating', I just put up the chimney , put in some logs, make a fire and start the circulation pump.