Freezing from Rønne to Visby

From Greifswald to Rønne it was about 75 nautical miles, so we were able to that in just one long day (from morning to sunset) of sailing. Our route from Rønne to Visby, on the other hand, was set to be over 200 nm, so that meant sailing overnight as well.

Well, Motor Sailing

The wind was light and we were on a schedule, not only to get to Turku but to our next dinner in Visby, so we headed out sailing by engine.

Here’s something important that our dealer didn’t tell us: the Yanmar manual has quite detailed instructions for the new engine break-in period between 0 and 50 hours engine time, and we did our best to follow these. In a nutshell:

• During the first 10 hours, the engine should be operated at about 60-70% load (max speed minus 400-500 rpm). This to break in the “sliding parts” properly.
• Between 10-50 hours, full operating range with emphasis on running at high power settings. “This is not the time for an extended cruise at idle or low speed”, they say in the manual.

Motor sailing is a somewhat boring art form! And it’s less ecological, obviously. Also, it makes me think more about the destination than the present, and suddenly I’m just very far away and going there too slowly.

Ridiculously Cold

As long as the sun was shining, the weather felt nice and warm. Unfortunately, that ended quite abruptly, even much before sunset.

With water temperature at about 8 ℃ and with a bit of headwind in our faces, it became quite freezing. (Note to other new Hanse buyers: never ever don’t buy the sprayhood. It gives excellent wind protection as well! 😅)

Because of the cold, we had agreed on three-hour shifts with two people on deck, two people off/sleeping. The 9 pm-12 am shift was bearable, but 3 am – 6 am just excruciatingly cold.

Luckily, our heater was functioning well. Inside it was quite warm and cozy. Even Ben decided to not use his hardcore sleeping bag as he found the thin IKEA Grusblad covers were quite adequate (at least after we stopped leaving the cockpit hatch open).

Out of the Night, into the Wind

After night came morning.

The first sight of the sun was a relief, although it would still take a couple of hours for the (inner body) temperatures to really rise.

We were chugging along nicely and just a couple of hours away from Visby when the wind suddenly changed. It turned right on our nose and went from being quite modest to a near gale (at most, will check the logs later).

“Oh, now we’re sailing!”, exclaimed Ben, and suddenly the boring motoring artform had turned into a more impressionistic piece, with waves, spray and flogging sails all mish-mashed nicely together.

We reefed the main (worked great!) and tried to reef the jib, but that ended up quite ugly. The sail looked so wrinkled and suffering that we rolled it all the way in and continued with just the main and the engine. (Note to self: is the jib really designed to be reefed? Doesn’t really look like it. Maybe we did something wrong? 🤷‍♂️)

Two hours of excitement later we were in the Visby harbour basin, with good protection from everything (ie no wind and waves).

And we had a terrific dinner! If you want to eat as well as we did, check out Eden Tapas & Bar right in the center of Visby.