BIGGER LOCKS, BIGGER SHIPS: Leaving the Göta Canal

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:11]favor. Um, so I just start looking at that today as well. But we may well do All right, good morning here in Marie Stud. Thursday morning. Bit miserable out there. Still a bit of wind, overcast. Not too cold though. Okay, so this is how we would normally be sitting in here, but we're going to go back into options, chart settings.

[00:00:50]Map orientation is north up. There you go. So, you should be happy with that.

[00:00:55]And that's on the starboard side. Port side we are heads up because the radar is up over there. So we got 21 miles to go today. Big story is heading down to the bottom end of Lake Ven and then from Lake Venern down into Goththingberg. But today we're going to pop across have a look at a beautiful old castle apparently.

[00:01:16]>> You got north up.

[00:01:17]>> I have got north up. I'll have you know I have got north up. Uh top of this peninsula here. Lovely castle. And then apparently a nice little port in there.

[00:01:26]So, uh, we'll get going. Doc's driving today, so anything could happen.

[00:01:32]All right, Doc's taking the front line off. Apparently, I'm starting out today and coming off the dock and that. He's going to do the easy bit. Go between A and B. And we haven't decided who's going to go onto the dock today. But here we go. Stabilizers are armed. Fans are on. Running lights are on.

[00:01:51]Bow thrusters are on. And look at that again. Isn't it amazing? If you do nothing, you're actually in a pretty good spot. Oh, here we go. We're coming back on again. I thought the bow was going to keep turning cuz there is an ever so slight breeze from the uh right, but anyway.

[00:02:11]And we're away.

[00:02:14]Let battle commence.

[00:02:18]Green on port, red on starving and three knots out of here.

[00:02:29]Right, stabilizers are in center. So, that's good. I'm just leaving it alone at the moment and it seems to be doing the right thing. Every now and then it gets out of sync and I have to reposition them to center.

[00:02:42]Anyway, away we go.

[00:03:03]Heat. Heat.

[00:03:37]Here's Doc doing an inspection of the engine room while underweight.

[00:04:22]All right, there we go. We got half a mile to run. Just coming into the back here. We're going to dock at the back of that castle out there, Lac Castle. And it's one of the most famous castles in Sweden, built in the late 13th century and it's immaculately preserved apparently. But anyway, you'll get a good look at that as we come in and then fingers crossed we can dock right behind it.

[00:05:32]Heat. Heat.

[00:06:03]Hey, hey, hey.

[00:06:34]Hallelujah.

[00:07:20]I just do that down the back.

[00:07:21]>> Oh, okay.

[00:07:29][ __ ] cold place.

[00:07:32]>> Oh, not a very nice day, I'm afraid, here at Lacole Castle. But anyway, we got to get off and have a look.

[00:10:28]Hello. Hello.

[00:10:31]Hello.

[00:10:33]Hello. Hello.

[00:10:37]Hello, puppy. Hello, puppy.

[00:10:40]What's your name?

[00:11:02]About 6k later, back at the boat. What a neat walk.

[00:11:08]Well, you don't get to have beers by a place like this on the Herac Golf.

[00:11:13]Pretty bloody amazing to be fair.

[00:11:22]All right, beautiful morning here in Loco.

[00:11:26]Absolutely amazing.

[00:11:30]Going to be heading out there.

[00:11:33]Got a fairly big day.

[00:11:36]We've got 36 milesi to run.

[00:11:40]And here we are here. North uplook makes it nice and easy for you. And today we are heading down to Ken Gordon.

[00:11:50]Apologies for the pronunciation if that's not right. And we're going across Lake Vahun.

[00:11:57]So fairly long day and the beginning of it is going to be simply beautiful.

[00:12:04]So check that out there.

[00:12:07]Going to go past Speak. Absolutely beautiful in there. Doc went in there last night. Got us some lovely fresh salmon.

[00:12:15]Anyway, head all through these narrow inlets. Look, massive number of turns.

[00:12:20]Snake our way through. Should be really nice. And then uh track down the southern arm of the lake.

[00:12:31]All right, big picture. There we are.

[00:12:34]and look had so many followers telling us we should be going up this coastline.

[00:12:39]So, we come out here in Goththingberg.

[00:12:41]Um, we were just going to jump across, but they've been saying you've just got to go up there. So, I'm starting to have a look at that cuz I have probably still got time to go around the coast to Bergen, but it does mean that we'll need to keep going and hopefully the weather will be in our favor. Um, so I just start looking at that today as well. But we may well do the western archipelago of Sweden, which by all accounts is pretty stunning.

[00:13:10]Anyway, let's get on our way, get the bike on, get the lines ready, and we're out of here.

[00:13:48]Well, again, the wind that's out there today just took us beautifully off the dock.

[00:14:00]It's going to head out and we're going to car go out on the track that we came in on. So 8 under the ke at the moment Heat. Heat.

[00:15:22]Heat. Heat.

[00:15:43]Heat. Heat.

[00:15:50]Heat. Heat.

[00:16:25]Heat.

[00:16:29]Heat.

[00:16:55]All right, just coming into the canal system at the south end of Lake Vernon.

[00:17:00]And here we are in north up. So, we're basically heading south and we enter the canal system there at Vanders.

[00:17:11]Um, so we got to give them a call on the radio, channel 9. And first of all, we go under a couple of bridges. And the first lock is quite a distance into the system. And what do we got? Go 10 miles to run basically. Canal central troll hoffen. Canal central trollhoffen. This is Moto Yacht Awanui NZ. Good afternoon.

[00:17:38]>> Sir, can I?

[00:17:41]>> Yes. Good afternoon, sir. This is Motach Awanui NZ Awanui NZ at the southern end of the lake looking to enter the canal system. Over.

[00:17:56]Oh, you are at the lock in >> uh negative sir. We're at the southern end of the lake heading west and we're just looking for the uh Gman Bridge to be lifted for us heading through to the first lock over.

[00:18:32]Okay, so that was really confusing. We had to stop there. You can see out here we got two red lights on the bridge pillar there and a green light over here. So, we rang up the canal and asked him if we can proceed under with the red lights on. And he said yes, we can. So, uh, we're going underneath the first bridge and he's going to lift the railway bridge in about 5 minutes. Bit confusing, but we're on our way.

[00:19:27]Heat. Heat.

[00:19:35]Oh, hello.

[00:19:54]Hello.

[00:20:19]Right. So this is the Grop Brun Bridge.

[00:20:22]It was 4 m. They saw us coming. It's all operated from their central office.

[00:20:31]And we gave him a call and he said, "We're watching you and we'll just lift the bridges for you."

[00:20:43]All right, we're coming up to the only slle for today, which is there.

[00:20:53]And then it's a straight run into our moing. Okay, we checked with the lock master and we're on our own. So, he's happy for us just to sit in the middle of the lock and wait for the doors to open at the other end. That makes life very easy for the deck hand.

[00:21:11]>> For the deck end. True. It's all about the deck end.

[00:21:35]Heat.

[00:21:41]Heat.

[00:21:46]Heat.

[00:22:04]Heat.

[00:22:30]Well, this is the Stidsburg's Bron Bridge again. They've just seen us coming.

[00:22:39]Didn't need to call them up.

[00:22:41]And then ahead is another rail bridge.

[00:22:47]Putting four towers and pulls the whole rail bridge up.

[00:22:53]Just very cautious about going through without there being a green.

[00:22:59]I know we can get through a bit quicker, which will probably help the bridges, but without a green, I think we got to be a bit careful.

[00:23:12]Red and white ahead telling us that the rail bridge is about to lift.

[00:23:18]Okay, so we've worked out why things are going so slow here with the train bridge.

[00:23:23]We have a yacht coming down the river. So, they're going to have to lift that bridge cuz he will not want to do the train bench twice. So, he's waiting for him to catch up. Then, he'll lift it.

[00:23:37]Bridge is just coming up behind us to let that yacht through.

[00:23:50]Rail bridges understandably are always the slowest. I get it.

[00:23:58]And we got a shell above us at the moment. You can see that dark cloud just hanging down. I can feel the breeze coming down off it.

[00:24:08]Definitely a gust coming out the bottom.

[00:24:11]We think there might be some heavy rain fairly soon.

[00:24:16]Bridges are up.

[00:24:19]Bridge is up. Yacht coming through.

[00:25:08]All right, there we are. It's coming through the little lake and our dock side is off to on the starboard side. There's the old canal from many, many years ago.

[00:25:44]Ready for a beer.

[00:26:01]Heat. Heat.

[00:26:48]view will be 167. So 1845 and please make sure to be back on board 10 minutes before.

[00:26:58]>> That should be very leisurely, wouldn't it?

[00:27:02]There's a bar. Look up there. Our kind of boat.

[00:27:09]I'm assuming that just goes to Lake Vern.

[00:27:13]Surely not through the altar.

[00:27:17]>> Look at the water moving in here.

[00:27:21]I'm just biking back from a pub in the middle of um it's a little Swedish town.

[00:27:26]No, actually it's a big Swedish town and it's just swirling. I'm not sure what's going on here. I think it's maybe a could be some of some kind of electrical turbine place or something. But anyway, good morning. Saturday morning, 16th of May, and we're in a really special place at the moment, Troll Hutton.

[00:27:54]It's in central Sweden. It's a beautiful Saturday morning and I'm going to go for an early morning walk to show you this place cuz it's pretty amazing. So Troll Hutton is just outside Lake Venern and Lake Venern is the headwaters to the Yaltta Alve River, the largest river in Sweden.

[00:28:21]And that connects Lake Venern with Goththingberg.

[00:28:26]And where does it come through? It comes through Troll Harten. And Troll Harten is named Troll Harten because there was a massive gorge here with huge rocks that poked out of the water and they look like trolls hats.

[00:28:44]So it was decided to call the place Troll.

[00:28:50]Pretty amazing. Like it's really beautiful.

[00:28:55]That boat that was in the video just before this that comes all the way from Goththingberg up the the Tolarten Canal system which connects to Lake Venern and then Lake Venern of course is the beginning of the famous Yelta canal which then goes through to me on the east coast. So the go to Alve and the Gala connect Goththingberg across Sweden with the east coast of Sweden. Here you go. There's the old locks.

[00:29:35]So there's been huge engineering projects here in Troll Harten. And it's quite a it's a massive drop of water level.

[00:29:45]You'll see it as we come up here. And over the years, what they've used that to do is create hydro power and industrialize this region.

[00:29:56]Big ships come up here. I mean, we're talking big, talking 100 m plus.

[00:30:02]And commercial ships, SAS here, build the SA car. There you go. Look down there. So, in the distance is one set of locks.

[00:30:16]much much bigger. Check these out than we saw at the Gulfa Canal.

[00:30:24]And then over the years they've redeveloped it and made them much much larger so that they can take the very very large vessels. So like I said, SARS here. So, you know, you can just imagine what that adds to this area, having a having a massive industrial business like SA operating.

[00:30:47]You can see up on the hill over there, the classic RVs everywhere along the yolk. And also coming down here, spoke to a chap last night. He's just come over for four or five days in his RV from Norway. Why?

[00:31:01]Because he says it's too expensive to drink in Norway. H bit nervous about that. Way too expensive to drink. So he comes on holidays to Sweden where it's more affordable and it ain't cheap here either. Anyway, check this out. Here's the next lock we're going to go through.

[00:31:23]43 miles still to go to get down to Goththingberg. And we should arrive in Goththingberg tomorrow. Pretty exciting. Going out to a followers for dinner. Very lucky getting invited out for dinner. That's interesting. Look, someone's decided to put barriers along here and the bolards are on the outside of the barriers. So, no doubt too many spectators and they've decided it's unsafe. So, we put a barrier along. So, obviously everybody ties up on the far side there.

[00:32:06]Anyway, um it look an amazing place full of history. Deserves much more time here, but I have to move on. And I just want to talk about that a little bit because I get so many suggestions from people saying, "Hey, come on. We'll go up here, eh?" Saying, "Hey, come on.

[00:32:24]You've got to go to this place. You've got to go to that place." But I try to explain it to people.

[00:32:31]For me, my adventure is the journey.

[00:32:35]So, there's a lot to do on the boat.

[00:32:37]I've got a huge amount of editing to do to put each episode out.

[00:32:44]I like to be near the boat.

[00:32:46]So my journey is following along coastlines, along canals, along rivers, stopping and seeing what's there at the point where I stop, but not really venturing much beyond that and trying where I can where possible to try and keep a relatively straight line heading either north at the moment or west if we can. And obviously going up the east coast of Sweden was well out of the way. There you go. Look at those.

[00:33:20]Look down there.

[00:33:22]So we went through one lock yesterday.

[00:33:29]This is the second lock. And I mean you can see the depth there. At least 10 m.

[00:33:34]It's only 40 m drop between Lake Vernon and Goththingberg.

[00:33:40]And there's another lock there. And I suspect there's another one below that.

[00:33:44]Every now and then, once a year, the authorities release the water again rather than going through the hydro system. Usually in the summer, just to show people what it used to be like. It was a massive gorge. And it's not here. It's over there. They release it and everybody comes out to see it.

[00:34:06]It's quite an event apparently. But anyway, yesterday there was a big ship there.

[00:34:11]So fingers crossed today or tomorrow we'll pass a couple of ships on the canal and be able to show you. But yeah, so look, um I've changed my plans slightly.

[00:34:23]Everybody said you got to go up the west coast north of Goththingberg and it's just one of the most beautiful boating places in the world. So, I've got some time and I've decided rather than heading straight across to Norway, I'm going to head north for a bit and then jump across the bay and then head south down the Norwegian coast. Um, so many people have said you've got to do it and I do have the time. The plan from here is to be in Bergen and departing Bergen for Scotland either via the Shetlands or via the Ornne Islands. And the weather's going to determine that.

[00:34:58]So, what is it today? The 16th.

[00:35:01]through to the 6th to get to Bergen, which is a little over two weeks. Um, I know that's a long way to go in that time and you can't stop and see everything in that time along the way, but I'm going to get a look at it and I'll stop into some beautiful little coastal towns, have a cup of coffee, see what it looks like, and then move on.

[00:35:22]There you go. There is a brief little look at this part of Trollharten where we stopped for the night and it's a beautiful early Saturday morning right outside where the boat docked.

[00:35:38]An ice cream shop of course. Of course.

[00:35:44]Check this out. All the trees are now in leaf.

[00:35:50]There's an oak. In fact, oaks everywhere.

[00:35:54]Look at that unusual color for an oak in autumn. Uh, sorry, in spring. In spring.

[00:36:02]Anyway, just to update you on everything with the family. Sweetie is approaching her 60th birthday and she is off to Raratonga today in the South Pacific for a couple of weeks. Got family and friends joining us. Such a shame I can't be there, but it's just such a long way to go and I'm getting so close and need to get the boat to Scotland. Closer we get to when they're all going, the more I feel it. Um be neat just to catch up with all all our friends and catch up, you know, with the family. But um you know, that's what it's like. I'm afraid I'll be with them in mind. Um but anyway, yeah, so that's very exciting. And then after that, um, Sweetie comes over to Scotland and I will meet her after 3 months in in Venice. So that's really exciting. And boy, have I got some news for you, but that's for another episode. Woohoo! How exciting. Got a couple of people coming to the boat. They are going to do the North Sea crossing with me. Anyway, more about that later.

[00:37:14]Morning kind of heat.

[00:38:31]There's a spectacular view from what is called the Sloo Cafe. cafe. I mean, look at that for a setting. A cafe above the locks and above the gorge that takes the Ya Alv River. There's the locks over there. I mean, check all this out. All the seating for the cafe. What an amazing spot. So, you got the perfect setting for a cafe. And if you do good food, good drinks, this place absolutely would be an amazing little business.

[00:39:16]Pretty special. Pretty special.

[00:39:20]What an amazing place.

[00:39:23]I'm going to come here for a coffee later this morning.

[00:39:27]Wow, that is a fantastic concept for a business.

[00:39:34]in a perfect spot.

[00:39:37]Incredible.

[00:39:40]Well, I met the owner of the cafe.

[00:39:44]Really lovely, lovely guy from Syria 40 years ago. 40 years ago from Syria. He moved to well his family, his mom and dad bought him to Sweden.

[00:39:57]So he speaks Swedish, he speaks Arab, and um in his words, a little bit of English, but he was very good. Yeah. So he's only had that cafe for a year. So I just congratulated him and said, "What an amazing business and opportunity you have there." And I mean, you know, you can get your regulars, but at the end of the day, you are always guaranteed traffic.

[00:40:25]So, um, yeah, good on him. Good on him, I say. Anyway, up through here is the Canal Museum. I'm not going in there.

[00:40:34]You know, I don't do museums, but I'll have a walk up to it.

[00:40:43]Could probably spend a couple of days here, but we don't have a couple of days. Got a booking on Monday morning for the fire extinguishers to be surveyed, do their annual survey.

[00:40:54]And then on Tuesday, we fill up with diesel.

[00:41:02]Probably about 4,000 L. At the moment, we're just operating from the supply tank. So, what I'm going to do is when I get a chance, I don't know when that'll be cuz I've got so much footage. When I get a chance, I'm going to have a bit of a walk over the boat from an engineering point of view.

[00:41:22]Just show you in the pilot house. Whoop.

[00:41:24]That's a car park. That's not very exciting, is it?

[00:41:28]Bits of memorabilia here on the lawn and the rocks. Got to have an anchor.

[00:41:34]Um, yeah, just show you the systems, the switches, a little bit of information about them, and then we'll just go for a bit of a walk around the boat, looking more at the equipment rather than the boat itself. But I have to say everything at the moment is going really well and all that work in Holland from when we got back from New Zealand's paid off cuz I do feel now that I can enjoy the summer on the boat. All I've got to do is clean her. We need a nice day and we need somewhere that we can just stop and give her a good clean cuz she's getting pretty dirty. But I was watching Taylor's on the tide the other night and he's given his boat a buff and it's a 17-year-old boat and honestly it looks it looks brand new. So, um I'm not too worried about it. I know it's going to be a lot of work, but I will just get on and at some stage get it done and get it looking good again for when Sweetie arrives. Otherwise, I might be in trouble.

[00:42:40]And we have the first ever whiskey run in Scotland for Nord Harvens. And it looks like we might have seven Nord Harvens arriving to go on the whiskey run. That is going to be so exciting. So Aranui NZ must look her best for that. And for those of you that have been waiting for it, more exciting news.

[00:43:06]My new drone is on the way. And I've missed getting those drone shots. And a lot of you have commented, "Where's the drone footage?" So, yep, it's on its way.

[00:43:22]And check this vessel out, the Elf Pong.

[00:43:26]And this boat has been going up and down the YA alve for 150 years.

[00:43:37]That is pretty cool. Set up basically as a restaurant.

[00:43:42]You can take a day excursion or an afternoon excursion up and down the YA alve but using the locks as well. I mean, check these out for fenders. I love them. Look at that.

[00:43:56]And we've seen these all through the Alpha Canal if you've been observant, especially on vessels like this. that they basically have a piece of timber with a line hanging off the edge and the timber can scrape up and down the canal wall and not the boat.

[00:44:16]Won't be a bow thruster on that. I doubt and I would think I'm thinking it's single engine, but it looks like there's two stacks up there.

[00:44:26]Uh, what are those? That might be from the galley. There's the main stack.

[00:44:32]Yeah, I'd say single engine and no B. It is single engine. Look, just one rudder and no bow thruster based out of Troll Hoffen. And you can see inside there. I don't know if you can or not, but nice little dining room. That is very cool.

[00:44:49]That is very cool.

[00:44:52]150 years of sailing up and down that river. That's something to celebrate.

[00:45:02]Okay, this should be fun. Let's go and watch Espen going through the locks.

[00:45:26]Now that's what I call a tight squeeze.

[00:46:16]So, they're letting the water out and it goes out from the side of the canal and through shoot over here.

[00:46:25]So you can see the level dropping. It's not going out the traditional way through gates in the bottom of the lock itself.

[00:46:33]It's going out through the side.

[00:46:42]That is so quick. It took about five minutes to dump all that water.

[00:46:50]You go. Gates opening.

[00:46:52]Releasing the lines off the bow.

[00:47:12]guys have a tether line along the edge of the lock and they're tethered onto that wire.

[00:47:29]Heat. Heat.

[00:48:13]Incremental travel.

[00:48:20]Heat up here.