[Paddlewise] A messy day - trip report

Hi Paddlewisers

This summer I went on a two months long solo trip. The trip took me
some 2500km from Oslo in Norway to Happaranda at the Swedish/Finnish
border. 

I currently working on a trip-report(in Danish). But I thought I'd
share at least a single day with the paddlewise-list.

In my logbook for the 11th of July, I've denoted the day 'messy'. 

My position was around N62;24,2 E17;62.6, on the northern coast of the
small peninsula of Bjorkon. Some 400 paddling kilometres north of
Stockholm. The evening before, I had landed in sunny weather on the
rocky coast. Here I had dried my gear on the warm rocks, before I at
9 o'clock  had carried my bivy-bag and sleeping-bag some 25m up, to a
small plateau with a perfect view. Normally I prefer to sleep next to
the kayak, but the plateau was the only place which offered the two
square-meters of somewhat level rock, which is needed for a
comfortable sleep. 

The day started around 5:45 where my body long ago had gotten used to 
wake up. This was no coincident, since the early sea-weather-report on
the Swedish radio is broadcasted at 5:55. This morning the weather
forecast was alright. Only 6 m/s from east in the Gulf of Bothnia.
Further south in the Baltic Sea, it was going to be rough with up to 
15m/s. Here the sun was shining, and things were looking bright.

One hour later, after the morning routine, I was paddling northwest
towards the city of Sundsvall. This was not a normal day, I was in for 
some shopping. Before starting on the trip, I had ordered 33 1-cm maps
(topographic), of the Swedish coast. I had only gotten 32 maps, the
25th map was out of print. At that time, I had decided to look for the 
missing map in local bookshops, as I approached the area. Well now I
had come to the 24th map, and it was time to shop for the missing
map. That was why I was heading for Sundsvall, the largest city in
the area. 

During the 20km to Sundsvall, the wind was slowly increasing from 4m/s
to around 8m/s. Since I was going north-west, I was able to surf and
play along the way. Slowly the sky was turning gray and it started to
rain on and off. Anyway after an eventless paddle, I was finally 
approaching Sundsvall. The city is beautifully placed down the slopes
of the surrounding mountains. The centre being located in the valley.

Now I was facing the usual problem for solo paddlers, finding a
reasonable safe place to leave the kayak. My preferred strategy, is to 
land at guest harbours - where kayaks in general are welcomed. Also
this is a nice place to refill water bottles and get a chat with some
of the local sailors. On my map, the small anchor symbol at the bottom
of the bay, denoted such a guest-harbour. So I paddled along the
northern coastline, characterised by ugly industrial complexes, toward
this  harbour. Only one time did I spot a reasonable landing place,
next to  some kind of restaurant. In the distance, on the southern
part of  the bay, I could make out a bunch of mast tops or was it
flag-staffs. Could be a yacht-harbour, although my map didn't indicate
anything at that place.

As I approached the guest-harbour, I realized that this wasn't an
ordinary guest-harbour. The guest-harbour here consisted of a 50 meters
long wharf, with absolutely nowhere to land a kayak. This was the
first time I had experienced a guest-harbour in a city, which wasn't
part of a bigger yacht-harbour. So apparently the harbour I had seen on
the other side of the bay, was the regular yacht harbour. Irritating.

As I slowly glided past a couple of yachts, I got out the map and
started to plan the next move. As I looked up again, I was facing a
bridge, crossing a 15m wide channel, which apparently was running into
the centre of Sundsvall. Wind in my back, smooth water ahead, I
couldn't resist and paddled under the bridge. The change of scene was 
striking - from the gray windy industrial harbour, I suddenly was
paddling down the very centre of a beautiful city. I paddled under a
number of bridges, looking for a nice place to land. I have to admit
that after days of almost no human contact, I enjoyed the attention I
got from the people around me. People would stop at the bridges and
look at me. Some greeted and waved while other just stared. Apparently
a Danish (I fly a small Danish flag) sea-kayaker paddling down the
centre of Sundsvall wasn't a normal sight. Was in a good mood again.

Some 3 km later, I still hadn't found a landing spot and I decided to
turn around and go for the yacht-harbour I had spotted earlier. After
some headwind, rain and cursing, I got to the place. Landed on a small 
sandy beach just outside the harbour below the stone peer. Quickly I
changed into my semi-normal-looking city outfit. Was happy again, time 
for shopping and exploring a new city.

Climbed the peer and entered the winter storage place for yachts and
continued to the entrance. Only to realize that the entrance was
blocked by a locked gate. Even though I could get someone to let me
out, I'd still have the problem of getting back in when I
returned. Well at least I could use the opportunity to fill my water
bottles. Dressed into (wet) paddling gear again and paddled cursing
across the bay to the small beach I had spotted near the restaurant
earlier. Landed and dressed for the city once again.

It was only 5 minutes walk to the city centre. Soon I found the main
street and a bit later the local bookstore. I was lucky - found two
maps in scale 1:50000 that covered the coastline of my missing scale
1:100000 map. I walked happily away with my two newly purchased
maps. Soon I had also bought the usual load of pasta, bread and
soup-extracts. Things were looking bright again. Arriving at my kayak
again, it started to rain. I found shelter under some bushes, while I
eat my lunch. Then I packed the kayak, changed back into paddling gear
and took off again. Happy as ever, got those damn maps.

The rain was now pouring down and with a straight 9 m/s headwind, I
wasn't going fast. Only 2 km later, I reached a small islet named
Tjuvholmen, lying just outside the bay. It looked like the perfect
campsite, easy landing on a sandy beach and trees to shelter from the
weather. Only trouble was that it was only two in the afternoon - four
hours before I was supposed to stop. Once again I had to make a hard
decision - stay or go? I was approaching a very exposed and steep
rocky coastline. If the wind kept increasing, then I would be forced
to find a campsite, which most likely would be far worse than this
place. Still I had four more paddling hours and the wind could
decrease. I decided to postpone making the decision, and take a better
look at the island. Funny thing is that at that time, I knew perfectly
well that I was going to continue.

Back in the kayak I quickly paddled two more kilometres into the wind,
before I reached the large island Alnon, a kind of suburb to
Sundsvall. In shelter, I paddled south along the coast until it was
time to go east again, this time fully exposed to the eastern wind -
Finland lying 250km away straight east. Now the wind definitely wasn't
9 m/s but rather 11 m/s. Since I was paddling straight into the wind
and waves, this didn't prove any difficulties concerning stability. As
the elevation-curves on the map indicated, I was soon paddling below a
cliff. The next 8 km paddle was very rough, as the wind kept
increasing. Several times I considered landing, but found nothing very 
inviting. Didn't want to put up camp next to any house, and everywhere
else I was facing a hostile rocky coast. Finally I reached the
southeastern point of the island, and could paddle out to the tiny
island Kanningen. The island was only 1.5km away, but the crossing was
quite rough, with almost roch-garden like surroundings. But I was
properly rewarded. The island was one big nice campsite. Landed at a
sandy beach, where a small forest provided complete shelter from the
wind. For some reason I didn't spot a single mosquito, and believe it
or not, the sun started to shine. Messy day.

 best regards
  Peter
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