Kayak – 3rd try and success Mar 14 2025

It’s less the temperature than the wind who makes the sea ice on the Baltic Sea vanish. Although we had -10 °C this morning the sea was more or less open. Time for a slightly longer kayak tour in the afternoon under a blue sky enjoying the calm weather.

But still there is some ice shield attached to the coast. As the days before I push myself forward using ice spikes.

First the ice holds then I crash through. It takes me 10 minutes to cross 100 metres of ice until I reach open water. Yay!

I decide to paddle round the islands Obbolstenarna. There is hardly any ice left on the way there but at the eastern shore it still looks pretty wintry.

The western part of Obbolstenarna however looks like another season. Is winter over now? Anyhow, time to kayak home.

If you look carefully at the photo with the red bow of my kayak you see that the water is very smooth but with some crystal like structures. Let’s take a close look:

Despite of the sun air temperature is still below zero. Not only the sea water on the kayak freezes but new ice is also formed on the water surface. It is thin and fragile but so soft, that the smooth waves do not break it. An even closer photo (heavily edited):

Through this smooth though icy water I paddle back until I reach the ice edge again. I choose another place, take a run-up and paddle onto the ice. I’m lucky. This ice is more stable and I do not break through. I slide back to the shore. Meanwhile the sun is already low. I was slower than planned, because it took some time to take all these photos.

Kayak – 2nd try Mar 13 2025

Just one day later the situation has changed on the Baltic Sea with a lot of more open water than ice. So the kayak season was continued today.

No Kayaking, the ice is too thick Mar 12 2025

Three days ago I opened the kayak season in the open Baltic Sea. Since then the weather has become colder and the Baltic Sea has started to freeze over. I was in doubt, if I could find open water to paddle kayak or at least thin ice today, but at least I wanted to try.

I drag the kayak to the edge between old and new ice and then along the shore.

The ice between mainland and the islet Lillskär looks solid.

I push the kayak onto the ice and enter it. The ice holds.

I use ice spikes to push myself forward. Soon the ice is thinner and my kayak breaks into the ice. The paddle however is not made for chopping 2 cm of ice so I continue with the spikes.

A small patch of open water, then ice again. It is exhausting to push myself forward, especially when the ice breaks and there is nothing to push against. However there is another type of ice ahead, perhaps it is thinner.

No, it is not. For today I give up and return. Backwards, because in the small groove that I had cut into the ice with my kayak it is next to impossible to turn.

After some backing I reach the small open patch of water again. Now I can turn. It takes some momentum to “jump” onto the stable ice. After some more sliding on the stable ice I arrive home. On the weekend it probably gets warmer and, more important, windier. Maybe the wind will break the ice. Until that the paddle season is paused.

The moon has a halo Mar 11 2025

Back in Obbola – opening the kayak season Mar 9 2025

Friday

Two days ago Annika and I returned from our Finnmark and Finland journey. Just north of Umeå there was a low layer of strange clouds. Any of you who knows what kind of clouds this is?

Saturday

We are back home in Obbola in Sweden. The sky is clear and blue. In wintertime this often means that it can be pretty cold outside. Instead we had up to +8 or +9 °C. What a strange winter.

The wind is strong. The waves have already crushed the ice floes. In the afternoon the floating ice has been blown away into the open sea.

There is still some snow around but parts of the ground is free of snow. That‘s early for the season. And so is the arrival of the first whooper swans.

Sunday

The wind has calmed down and so have the waves. Time to fetch the kayak from the garage and open the kayak season. While there was not much of ice left at the shores of Obbola and the island Bredskär there was another highlight today: A 360°C halo round the sun.

Next week?

It looks like we expect colder temperatures, sun and calm weather. I hope, I have more opportunities to do some kayaking.

Short days in Obbola II Dec 29 2024

Just some photos from Obbola in the last days.

A flock of fieldfares in our rowan tree ❦ an icy morning by the coast ❦ sunlit ice fog hovering above the bay Vitskärsudden ❦ three roe deers eating rowan berries, leftovers of the fieldfares’ meal.

Translation:

English	German	Swedish	Norwegian
Fieldfare	Wacholderdrossel	Björktrask	Gråtrost

Short days in Obbola Dec 21 2024

17 December

Clouds are moving eastwards where they block the low hanging sun, but here and there the sun peeks through holes giving the whole thing a dramatic touch.

18 December

It is chilly and ice fog hovers over the sea. I take a promenade by the icy coast.

20 December

It is quite clear and not too windy at temperatures round -12 °C. Yesterday I dug out the kayak from the snow, today it is time to take a tour. It’s a short but a beautiful one.

The coast of the Baltic sea in early winter I

The coast of the Baltic sea in early winter II

After the tour the line for the kayak rudder was frozen. The kayak is a bit too large for taking it in so I had to improvise a bit. Well, it worked.

21 December (a.k.a. today)

Today is the day of winter solstice. We could see the sun rise at 09:25 while having a comfortable Sunday morning breakfast. Today’s motive: the rowan tree under which Annika and I got married in 2020, taken through the windows of our living room.

Advent season home in Obbola Dec 16 2024

It was four days ago that I arrived in my “home home”, Annika’s and my house in Obbola. And we got some winter weather. First we got twenty centimetres of snow. We took a Saturday promenade to our favourite beach Vitskärsudden which looked like this:

It continued snowing and blowing the whole Saturday but then it cleared up in the night and Sunday morning the sky was clear at temperatures round -12 °C. I waited until 9:20 to watch the sun rise over the sea.

Later that day Annika and I took the very same promenade to Vitskärsudden again but it looked so differently in the sun.

In the night it became stormy. We have experienced some storms here before, but this was the very first time that I couldn’t open the front door at all. It was completely blocked by snow. I had to climb out of the snow-plastered kitchen window and shovel away the compact snow drift that blocked the door.

And this is how our house looked like some hours ago. Now it is clear and calm weather and -14 °C.

Home in Obbola – what to do outside Dec 13 2024

After quite some travelling in the last weeks I finally arrived in Obbola, Sweden, my “home home” yesterday night. Today it started snowing a bit and I wanted to go outside to take a break from home office.

I went to the coast by our house where parts of the bay were frozen.

I haven’t been running for four weeks, so let’s go …

… running!

I put on my running shoes from Icebug. They have so many spikes that you can run on bare ice. I start on the doorstep and turn to take the trail called Spåret. This will give me a lap of round 5 km. But it was not so easy as expected. A lot of trees lay across the trail. A reminder of the storm three weeks ago.

I can go round these obstacles but soon give up running for another reason. Some parts of Spåret are bare ice but the thin layer of fresh snow glues itself to the soles of my running shoes making the spikes useless. After I slid several times I decide to stop running and go home. Total running distance: 0.78 km :-D

When running does not work, let’s go …

… kayaking!

This takes a bit more preparation. But finally I have found the paddle and the waterproof bag for the mobile phone and am dressed in my survival suit – Teletubbie style.

I drag the kayak to the shore and then through the shallow water. Slushy ice is swimming on the sea surface. To my surprise another layer of ice is grounded.

Then I walk on the ice. Will it hold or break? I don’t know yet, but I do know, the water is shallow here.

The ice holds. When the icy layer gets thinner and softer I enter the kayak. Sometimes I use my hands to push myself forward, sometimes ice claws, sometimes the paddle. Anyhow it seems to take ages until I finally reach the open sea.

Finally: open water (and some ice slush)

To my surprise I meet two other kayakers. That have never happened to my here before. They found a better place to set in their kayaks. Will winter paddling get popular here?

Anyhow, I haven’t planned a longer kayak tour and so I only round the small islet Lillskär and then head back to shore. First there are soft ice floes that I can paddle through.

Then I reach some fast ice. It is too thick for paddling and too thin to bear the weight of the kayak with me inside. I exit the kayak and “walk” it while breaking the ice with my knees. The ice gets thicker and I can kneel on it without breaking through. Now I crawl on my knees for a while until I can finally stand up and drag the kayak ashore. On the photo you can see the different stages.

Finally I’m ashore again. Total paddling distance: 0.91 km. :-D :-D

But it was fun!

Spåret Sep 5 2024

After two weeks on the sea between Svalbard and Greenland I took the plane from Longyearbyen back to Tromsø and two days later the bus to Narvik and the train to Umeå. Since Sunday morning I have been in the familiar surroundings of my real home (“home home”) in Obbola again.

Two days ago I walked Spåret, a four kilometre promenade through the forests near us. It was warm and summery but also visible that Autumn has begun in parallel. What a contrast the forests are to the open ocean in the Fram Strait, the ice sheet near Greenland or the treeless valleys of Svalbard.