On Monday we started to prepare Suwena for a sea and all went fine until Andrus went to make the forecabin ready. He came out from the cabin and closed the door behind him. A moment later he noticed that the door is closed and locked as well. There we were, wondering on what to do. The forecabin hatch was locked from inside and side windows are fixed. It was not possible to open the lock with the screwdriver from outside. We also considered that should we really break the door until we looked at the hinges. The hinge pins were removed and door came off easily. Of course then we needed to get the door back as well. The door and the frame need to be aligned exactly otherwise we would bend the 10 cm long pin. We managed to put the door back without any hiccups. I even had time to joke to Andrus that should we order some spare hinge pins from Nauticat if we take it as a habit to open cabin doors from the hinge side.
Finally we were ready to leave. The 44 nautical miles leg from Sommarö to Högsåra was rainy. At least six good showers hammered Suwena’s roof. The weather was also getting colder and we only saw a few other boats on a sea with us.
Last year when we visited Högsåra village harbour we planned that next time it would be nice to stay at Kejsarhamn lagoon side. Now we passed village harbour and there were no boats at all. In addition the passing traffic creates some swell over there.
In Kejsarhamn it is possible to stay anchored on the bay or to moor on the visitors dock. Also here were no other boats so we moored her alongside. For the first night we were accompanied by another sailboat and for the second night we had two buddies, one from Finland and one from USA.
We have been waiting a lot for a delicious pastrys from the famous Farmors Cafe but the restaurant had just changed to off-season schedule and it is open only at weekends. Needless to say that we were disappointed. The only food store on the island is the Kejsarboden and it is located in the Kejsarhamn harbour. We had earlier noticed an outside barbecue lean next to the dock. Now we bought some sausages for barbecuing utilized the grill fully.
On Tuesday we went to explore the lagoon by dinghy and of course the first stop was to look at the cliff engravings made by Tzar Alexander III. We also looked at possible future anchoring spots on the lagoon. At cove on the northern end of the lagoon the water depth is less than six metres while in the middle the depth is over ten metres. Högsåra offers really many options for boating and everybody can choose the place for own liking.
In Högsåra we also designed a lift for our dinghy. We store the dinghy vertically mounted on the swimming platform tied to the yacht with two crossing lines. It has been an excellent location and it has not moved even in bigger seas. The problem with storing a dinghy vertically is that each time after use it takes a little while to fix it properly. When we are anchored or in the harbour where we would like to keep the dinghy ready it would still be a good idea to lift it out from the water. This way the dinghy is not on a way of other boats and first of all it will still be there in the morning. There are plenty of discussions on a cruising forums that in some popular destinations the dinghy might take another route against the owners plans. Another big reason for lifting the dinghy is that in salt water its bottom will get full of slime and other marine growth.
We made for a dinghy a four point harness that is fixed with carabine hooks to the pulley block shackle. We use the mizzen boom as a support beam and the dinghy can easily be lifted from a Suwena’s side and moved to the swimming platform. To mark the success of our dinghy project we awarded ourselves some pancakes made by the ship’s cook.
