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68 http://www.yachtingmonthly.com MARCH 2016

A winter

delivery trip

to the Baltic

Will Bruton signed on for a yacht

delivery trip to Sweden in March

and very nearly regretted it

Miserable days on the water are

a catalyst to the British sailor’s

enthusiasm. After a pint and a pie

in the pub, the afternoon spent

beating into a Force 7 to get there

doesn’t seem half as wet and cold.

After one such weekend in

late February, I jumped at the

chance on a crewing website

to join the delivery of Northern

Spirit, a Najad 400, from England

to Marstrand in Sweden. It was

unpaid but I was happy to be

building miles before taking my

Yachtmaster exam, so I called the

skipper, Simon Weeks and agreed

to join, along with our second

deserted marina with her engine

ticking over, coming alongside

at the symbol indicating the fuel

pump. All was white. Ten minutes

of snow-probing later we had

located the fuel station, which

worked perfectly despite this.

We were soon back on our way on

what would hopefully be the final

leg of our journey.

Two weeks after leaving

Southampton, we finally caught

sight of the Swedish archipelago.

For the first time in over 700

miles, the wind veered round onto

a perfect beam reach as we raised

the courtesy flag. We melted the

ice off the genoa furler and cut

the engine at last, sailing for just

an hour before it was time to drop

the canvas and motor into the

fortified town of Marstrand.

‘Where have you come from?’

asked a little boy in perfect

English, seeing Northern Spirit’s

icicles as we came alongside. If

the Swedes were impressed, then

we were happy. W

crewmate, Andy, a builder and

former Clipper Race crewman.

Within a week, the three of us had

slipped lines at Southampton and

were heading for the Kiel Canal.

A few days later, pushing a

wheelbarrow full of fuel cans

along a deserted icy road on

the German island of Borkum,

I concluded in a moment of

weakness that we were not doing

brilliantly, and that just possibly

I had been a little hasty to

volunteer. It was cold. Really cold.

I had often used the term Baltic

flippantly to describe conditions

on the Solent, but having not yet

reached the sea on the northern

side of the Kiel Canal, the North

Sea was proving cold enough.

Trapped in harbour

Unseasonal northerlies had

blighted our passage from

Southampton and we were forced

to remain in harbour for five days.

Borkum in winter is the bleakest

holiday resort I have ever visited

and we were fast becoming

its out-of-season comedy act.

Compounding our fuel portage

challenge was the thick ice on the

deck. We set the kettle to boil –

not for tea, but to melt the ice on

Northern Spirit’s fuel filler cap.

Once through the Kiel Canal,

our next stop was snow-covered

Korsor Haven next to the Great

Belt bridge in Denmark. Guided

by the electronic chart Northern

Spirit motored through a large,

William Bruton, 26, was born in Hammersmith but

grew up in rural Lancashire. Until 2012 he worked

as a House of Commons researcher, before briefly

running his own political consultancy. Then, looking for a change

of career, he learned to sail and now skippers an Oyster 625 in

the Med through the summer and freelances through the winter.

William Bruton

RIGHT: Ice amassed

on the bow as we

progressed

further north

Northern Spirit

alongside in

Marstrand having

only sailed for

one hour

Denmark’s Great Belt Bridge has

a clearance of over 65m (200ft)

After weeks of strong headwinds, the only decent sailing breeze of the

voyage arrived as we raised the courtesy flag off the coast of Sweden

PHOTOS: COURTESY WILLIAM BRUTON