The story of a nighttime sailing

A friend of mine wanted help to get his new boat , a Maxi 77 from where he'd bought it in Stockolm's southern

archipelago to our summer house in Stockholm's northern arhipelago.

We left port on friday evening, at about 9.00. As we left the channel where the port was located the sea

started to roll in in rather short, stubby waves, the remains of the rather heavy SE winds of the last days.

Soon, my friend, named Johan and his girlfriend, Marina, went  to sleep.

At around 00.00 we rounded the lighthouse  of Landsort and thereby got the wind from behind.

I woke Johan up, and we set sail. The waves were heavy, but the wind was moderate at best. A great, peaceful

silence fell over the boat as we turned the diesel off.

We then sailed and slept in irregular shifts through the night. From around about 02.00 I lay in my bunk, trying to sleep, but it was futile to even try, because the night  was  so beautiful. As I lay there, I could see the starspotted sky through the hatch, and occasionally I could see the glow of Johan's cigarette or hear  a few bumps as he adjusted the sails, trying to squeeze every ounce of speed from the light winds and the bulky  hull.

Since I couldn't sleep I went up to relieve him. Before he went to bed, he made some tea for me, and we shifted

from  genua 2 to genua 1.

The time was now approximately 02.45. Pretty soon a light breeze came, giving us a speed of approx. 2 knots.

The night was indeed very beautiful. Johan and Marina were sleeping hard, the heater was humming gently and

the  boat rolled slowly in slow waves.

Despite the beauty of the night, I felt no sorrow when the dawn finally began to grow, for if the night had

been  beautiful, the dawn was even more so, the clouds at the horizon glowing in all imaginable colours. The lighthouses slowly faded and finally winked out.

With the dawn the breeze grew stronger too, and when I woke Johan up at about 04.00 we were making a good four

knots.

Having seen the dawn I felt very satisfied and immediately fell asleep. I woke at about 05.30 from the sound

of Johan kicking the Diesel into gear. I slowly climbed out through the hatch, still in my sleeping-bag and

realized that the wind had died again and that the beams of the morning sun already felt warm against my skin.

I sat there for a while and just felt incredible luxurious.

The rest of the journey can be shortened to just basic facts. We had good reaching during the following day,

sometimes making almost 9 knots. The following night we slept for 11 hours. We had then sailed almost 70

nautical miles non-stop. The next day we sailed the remaining miles, and the meter finally stopped at 78.6M