Smogen is right on the edge of the Skagerrak and exposed to the North Sea. So when a big westerly storm rolls in, exciting seas can develop and the storm surge can raise the water level in the harbour several feet.
We spent two more nights at Smogen, touring the area by tender and on foot, taking in the rest of the light festival and watching 50-knot winds drive waves into the exposed westerly shore.
Below are trip highlights from September 14th and 15th, 2019 at Smogen, Sweden. Click any image for a larger view, or click the position to view the location on a map. And a live map of our current route and most recent log entries always is available at mvdirona.com/maps.
9/14/2019
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Smogen Hamn
Position: 58°21.19’N, 11°13.48’E
We had a wonderful time at the light festival and really enjoyed the carnival atmosphere along the water. But we wanted a little quieter spot for the next couple of nights, so we departed for a nearby anchorage.
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Sunrise
Position: 58°21.19’N, 11°13.48’E
Sunrise as we depart Smogen Hamn.
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Storm Coming
Position: 58°21.80’N, 11°14.69’E
Big winds, with gusts to 51-knots, are expected on Sunday. But we’re in a great anchorage along the east shore of Smogen, with plenty of swing room, good holding, and reasonable wind protection, so we expect we’ll be fine.
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Position: 58°21.80’N, 11°14.69’E
Blog reader Torbjorn Curtsson was talking on the phone with his parents this morning and they mentioned in passing that a boat from Seattle was moored outside their house. Guess who? Thanks for the photo by Curt Larsson.
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Targa 27
Position: 58°21.81’N, 11°14.70’E
These Copenhagen residents sail the West Indies regularly where they’ve seen several Nordhavns and have become quite interested in the boats, so they stopped by to say hello. They just took delivery today of their Targa 27 and will be heading south back to Copenhagen over the next few weeks.
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Shim
Position: 58°21.81’N, 11°14.70’E
The new cell phone mount is working out well. But the attachment holds the volume button down, causing battery drain. Today James added a shim to lift the volume button above the attachment.
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Hamnen 4
Position: 58°21.18’N, 11°13.49’E
A delicious lunch at Hamnen 4 overlooking the Smogen Hamn. We’re sitting directly above where Dirona was moored yesterday.
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Baked Goods
Position: 58°21.25’N, 11°13.49’E
Picking up a selection of baked goods from a local Smogen shop.
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Jumping In
Position: 58°21.24’N, 11°13.77’E
As we passed in the tender, Four volunteers with the local Sea Rescue Society jumped into the water wearing survival suits and swam to the opposite shore.
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Fuel Price
Position: 58°21.68’N, 11°14.77’E
We worked out the local fuel price of 18.69 Swedish krona a liter to be US$7.36/gal. Yikes! That’s more than the USD $6.89/gallon we paid in St. Helena in route from Cape Town to Barbados.
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Smogen Bridge
Position: 58°21.69’N, 11°14.81’E
View to Dirona at anchor off Kungshamn with the Smogen Bridge in the background.
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Canal
Position: 58°22.10’N, 11°14.11’E
Passing through a small canal at the north end of Smogen to reach the peninsula Sando.
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Projectors
Position: 58°21.92’N, 11°13.61’E
Big projectors for the Island Of Light display Boreal on the peninsula Sando.
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Stairs
Position: 58°21.98’N, 11°14.50’E
Stairs leading up from shore to the Smogen Bridge.
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Partway Up Stairs
Position: 58°21.95’N, 11°14.68’E
We couldn’t resists taking the stairs up to the top of the Smogen Bridge. Even partway up the views were fantastic.
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Smogen Bridge View
Position: 58°21.93’N, 11°14.70’E
Looking across our anchorage to the town of Kungshamn from the Smogen Bridge.
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Cheating
Position: 58°21.88’N, 11°14.50’E
15 Massive floodlights on this fishing charter boat completely lighting up the water all around the boat. I’ll bet that attracts the fish!
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Hasselosunds Gasthamn
Position: 58°21.88’N, 11°14.50’E
View from the Smogen Bridge to Hasselosunds Gasthamn, one of several marinas in the area. This is a very popular place in the summer.
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The Barn
Position: 58°21.22’N, 11°13.48’E
Good food, good service and a cool environment at The Barn, where you can sit outside, but they have enough patio heaters that you don’t have to suffer for it.
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Hidden Heart
Position: 58°21.85’N, 11°13.77’E
After dinner, we moored the tender at Hasselosunds Gasthamn and walked to the peninsula Sando to view the two light displays we’d not yet seen. This is Hidden Heart by Heather Keith.
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Boreal
Position: 58°21.89’N, 11°13.56’E
Boreal by Konstnarskollektivet Svarmorstunga is a massive, constantly-changing projection onto a distant rock face set to music.
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9/15/2019
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Storm Surge
Position: 58°21.19’N, 11°13.48’E
We ran the tender into Smogen to take in the storm and have dinner later in town. We barely made it under a bridge we’d pass through with more than five feet to spare space twice already and when we tied off the tender, we could just step out onto the dock, whereas yesterday we had to climb up about four feet to reach shore. The storm surge had raised the water level several feet.
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Frequensis
Position: 58°21.17’N, 11°12.87’E
Part of the projection and light setup for the Frequensis light display that we enjoyed so much the other night.
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Storm
Position: 58°21.11’N, 11°12.84’E
The nearby Hallo lighthouse recorded winds of 30 meters per second (about 58 knots) last night and the winds are still blowing in the high 40 knots today. Smogen is completely exposed to the North Sea via the Skagerrak, so we walked out to the southwest tip to check out the storm. The air was full of spray and foam from the huge, windswept waves that were pounding into the shore. It was pretty exciting see.
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Wind
Position: 58°21.08’N, 11°12.87’E
The wind was blowing so hard it was difficult to stand up and walk against. But it was fun to be there.
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Waves
Position: 58°21.09’N, 11°12.83’E
The waves were really cracking into the rocks with tremendous force.
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Seascape
Position: 58°21.08’N, 11°12.90’E
The sea was churning with waves and covered in whitecaps as far out as we could see. This is looking south east along the Smogen’s exposed southwest tip.
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Underwater
Position: 58°21.19’N, 11°13.33’E
These berth numbers were well above the water when we moored at Smogen two nights ago and are now almost under due to the storm surge. We’re told it sometimes reaches dock level.
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Bridge
Position: 58°21.23’N, 11°13.31’E
Yesterday we passed under this bridge and tied the tender off inside. With today’s storm surge, the pontoons wouldn’t clear today, let along the console.
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Gostas
Position: 58°21.20’N, 11°13.67’E
An exceptional fresh seafood meal at Gostas Fiskekrog (fish pub) in Smogen. The restaurant has been packed every time we went past, lunch or dinner, and we finally got a table tonight.
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Click the travel log icon on the left to see these locations on a map, with the complete log of our cruise.
On the map page, clicking on a camera or text icon will display a picture and/or log entry for that location, and clicking on the smaller icons along the route will display latitude, longitude and other navigation data for that location. And a live map of our current route and most recent log entries always is available at mvdirona.com/maps. |
Great storm and wave photos. Do you have any anxiety when you are at anchor in very high winds?
To avoid worry about the boat at anchor, we use good quality and heavy ground tackle with lots of rode. We use a 70 kg (154 lb) Rocna with 500′ of chain and we always anchor as though there might be a storm and use lots of rode just about never less than 3 to 1, and often out past 5:1. And we test the set. Most boaters recommend giving the anchor time to “soak” and this will absolutely help it set but we test it before turning off the engine by pulling at roughly the force of a 40 knt storm. If it holds that, we don’t worry much about it and know it’ll get better as the anchor settles in. Occasionally we’ll not be able to use an anchorage because it won’t hold that initial set but that is fairly rare. It’s fairly common that a “favorite” small boat anchorage will be too small for us since we like to use lots of road and like to be open for 360 degrees around us.
With all those caveats and precautions, if you can live withe them, mean that we almost never worry about the boat at anchor, have never had to rush back to check on the boat at anchor, and have never gotten up during the night to check on anchor security. It seems worth it to us but others might not agree.