19-Jul-2013 -- This is visit 4 in a series of 5 CP visits made while on holiday in Sweden in July 2013. The previous visit was 58N 15E. The next visit was 58N 12E.

Established in our hut near the main summer house, at some point I mentioned the CP 59N 13E is somewhere in the Vänern lake. I checked the distance from the hut and it was a little over 3.5 km. Additionally Michael, our host happened to have a catamaran 'parked' nearby and was interested in trying to visit the CP.

Next day, in the early afternoon, found Michael and me (donned in a wet suit) preparing the catamaran for action. Those who sail will know this is not a 5 minute operation, and it took us the best part of an hour to get the boat off the trailer into the water. This did however include instructions to me on what my sailing responsibility would be and what to do if the catamaran flipped.

It had been very windy during the preparation time and Michael was concerned that the wind was too strong. Never having sailed this kind of boat before (and only ever once before) I did not wish to risk anything - the older I get the more cowardly I become. An additional problem was that the wind was coming directly at us towards the shore - there is a sailing technical term for this kind of wind but I've forgotton - this would make it difficult to get past the harbour wave break and into open water.

But miraculously, just when we were ready to exit - having been pulled along the wave break by hand - the wind dropped to almost nothing and we made our escape. We headed out towards the general direction of the CP. When I thought we were close I used the GPS to get the more precise directions. The wind was very changeable, and on our first pass of the point we were going so fast that I missed it completely and we were past the point. Also, I didn't have my camera ready - this had been packed away in a waterproof bag in my hip-bag. We tacked back and this time I was (more) prepared. At the CP we let the sails flap about so we were not 'under wind power' but were drifting with the current. By the time I got my first photo we were already over 40 metres from the CP (but within the required 100 meters). With the stress of getting the GPS and the visitors photographed I neglected to photograph the cardinal points - but just water you know!

Looking at the track for the visit (see attached picture of track overlayed on the Lat/Long coordinates) it showed we came pretty close – I believe less than 3 meters from the CP.

We sailed back, and got the boat back safely. No flipped boat and the CP reached. Thanks to Michael for making this possible. Let’s do it again and get those photos of the water.

Coordinator's Note: As the visitor noted, he forgot to get the required photos of and/or from the confluence point, so this visit is classified as incomplete.