Since I started sailing in Sweden in 2016 I have been told many times by Swedes and foreigners alike that although the East Coast and Stockholm archipelago are amazing, the West Coast is really the place to go. Or as the saying goes, The West Coast is the Best Coast.
However, I’m at the stage in my life where I’m not constantly seeking to travel over the horizon and instead prefer to do a deep dive into wherever it is I find myself, which is why it took me six years to finally take the plunge and make my way west.
Once you exit the Stockholm area and enter the archipelago proper on the eastern reaches of the Baltic Sea, its approximately 500 nautical miles down to the southern tip of the country and then up the west coast to Gothenberg, which is the logical base for any extended exploration of the area. Since I enjoy taking my time and really visiting each place of interest I’m sailing close to, rather than just flying by, I knew that 500 miles would likely take me another summer, so instead, I decided to traverse the country by taking the Göta Canal.
This marvel of 19th century engineering was constructed mostly by Swedish soldiers digging the canal and linking various lakes from 1810 to 1832. It starts at the town of Mem, which is located up a short inlet from the Baltic, and finishes 102nm and 58 locks later at the town to Sjötorp at the entrance to Lake Vänern. From there you cross the lake and enter the Trollhätte Canal which you take another 43nm to Gothenberg and from there, to the Kattegat.
As a small boy I spent two idyllic summers with my father and brother going upriver on the Thames in England on our motor cruiser, and I have loved inland waterways ever since. The idea of gently cruising through a bucolic landscape in high summer through a country I truly love was irresistible. And I was sure that having my kids on board, working the locks together just as I had done with my father half a century ago made for a wonderful symmetry.
The Arcturus crew from Stockholm to Mem was myself, Michelle K and her son Devin. We had met in the capital on the 19th, a couple of days later than planned due me contracting Covid, and from there sailed and motored down through some of the southern islands of the archipelago, arriving at Mem in the afternoon of July 25th. The next morning we checked in with the canal control office where I was given a flag to certify I had paid to the lockkeepers on the journey ahead, and we went through the first lock. (of which more, later). Three 3nm further down the canal is the town of Söderkoping which has convenient bus and road links to Stockholm. It was there I bade farewell to Michelle and Devin and greeted my family for the adventure ahead.
Arcturus is ten feet abeam and 35 feet long, and she was fairly typical in size with the boats me met along the way When boats cross in the canal there is plenty of room both in the middle and either side, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t hug the middle wherever possible. The maximum allowed draft for boats is 2.8m and Arcturus draws only 1.1m with her centerboard up, but it doesn’t pay to be too polite when passing because closer to the banks the canal bed slopes up very quickly and by the time you are five feet away from the edge you can expect to be touching bottom.
Boat length is limited to 30m but I don’t recall seeing single boat that big. The largest vessels you will likely encounter are the historic white passenger boats that have plying this route since the 19th century. These always have right of way and if you are unlucky enough to meet them coming the other way at a lock, expect for them to have priority.
A steep learning curve
Entering the canal and its procedures are quickly learned by reading the guidebook, but locking up and down can be a little anxiety-inducing until you have half a dozen under your belt. Each lock has a jetty or staging area on the bank, and in the likely event of the lock gates being closed when you arrive, you pull over and have two crew take lines for the bow and stern. There is typically one jetty on each side of the canal, each big enough for two 30-40 foot boats, allowing four boats at a time to enter the lock.
When locking up, the water in the lock will be down and the lock walls will loom 15-20 feet above you, necessitating the crew to clamber up an incline from the jetty to the top of the lock wall, keeping the lines tight while you gently guide your boat in. You will need a minimum of four fenders at varying heights both port and starboard, to avoid hitting either the lock walls or a neighboring boat when the sluice gates are opened, because the water flow can be fast and the turbulence can be challenging.
The lock walls are typically aged 19th century stone, with a series of small bars, topped with iron rings the size of dinner plates, at intervals along the top. The guidebook recommends that you make a large bolon with your bow line and slip it over the iron loop and then bring it down firmly against the bar so it holds firm. The bow line is then run though a block on the bow and back to a cockpit winch. The stern line is simply run from an after cleat to another crew member who stands in line with the stern. As the water comes in – and it comes in fast – the water rises and the bow line will slacken. At that point the skipper should grind in the slack quickly to ensure the bow doesn’t start to get pushed away from the wall and into the neighboring boat. For the stern crew, the pressures are far less and they can simply pull in the slack by hand.
Amygdala bests Prefrontal Cortex
On our first lock just a few minutes after casting off from Söderkoping, we learned the benefits of following instructions closely. Although we had set the bow line through the block and run it back to the cockpit as recommended, I omitted to instruct my son on affixing bolon round the iron loop and he tried to control the boat’s movement by brute strength alone. Angus is a big strong boy who lifts weights every day…but he really struggled to keep the bow under control, meaning the lockkeeper had to modulate the the speed of the water ingress a little to help us out. One of the other occupants of the lock, a cigar smoking German with a boat out of Kiel named Grissini took exception to our lack of knowledge and, rather than offer constructive advice, decided to make a few snide comments, leading quickly to a bad-tempered exchange between the two of us.
“Why are you in such a hurry?” I asked him. “Do you have a country to invade?”
I’m not particularly proud of letting my amygdala overcome my prefrontal cortex in such a way, but it had the desired effect. He backed down and I followed the guidebook more scrupulously for the next locks, which were just a few minutes down the road. By the time we had done half a dozen of them, we were experts (almost).
What Will It Cost?
Pricing depends on size of boat and if you choose low season or high season. but here’s a graphic of what it would cost to take my boat (a 35 footer) through this summer, low season and high season. At current exchange rates, 7990 Swedish Krona is about $734. For the experience, I consider it very good value…
Other useful links:
The official Gota Canal website is very helpful and the English version is completely comprehensible. Click HERE to access.
The Gota Canal Skipper Guide is also invaluable. You can download it HERE
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