The weather has turned now. The mornings are definitely cooler. Yesterday, our foulies came in handy to ward off the chill. The Scandinavian summer appears prematurely at an end.

We have taken Windleblo as high as she may ever be. Ninety-two meters high to be exact. That’s the elevation of beautiful Lake Viken, the lake at the top of the final up lock on the Gota Canal, set in the forests of Tiveden. (Sounds like something from The Hobbit, doesn’t it?) As we sailed across, the unspoiled shores appeared as wilderness through the mist.

At the end of Lake Viken, we started to head down. The uplocking was over. Now, downlocking begins.

Locking, docking, what’s the difference, right? After all, they even rhyme. Well, they’re mostly the same, except docking doesn’t feel like ascending a gym climbing wall (uplocking) or a slow elevator ride to the ground floor (downlocking). And while docking is no longer the feared, expletive inducing drama it was last year (dare I say we are finally getting the hang of it?), locking introduces additional elements – the “roving fender” to keep the topsides away from the lock wall and very careful tending of lines to accommodate the vertical movement.

Much easier than uplocking, downlocking involves neither roiling waters nor need to continuously winch in the painter and adjust the fenders. Just a slow, peaceful descent as the water in the lock is quietly emptied beneath.

We were warned about one nightmare downlocking scenario. In downlocking, lines are slipped through rings on top of the lock wall more or less in line with the boat’s bow and stern. One end of the line is cleated to the boat. As the water is released, the lines are played out to control the boat as it descends. If a line gets caught on the lock wall or ring, it can keep the side of the boat closest to the wall from going down, causing upset and possible damage. Extricating such a “hung” boat can be difficult. Needless to say, we made sure we kept close track of our lines while going down.

Since joining the convoy in Karlsborg, we have been cruising with two German boats, a 46-foot Bavaria with a crew of six middle aged men and a 32-foot sloop crewed by a 30-something-year-old couple from Kiel. Initially, all three boats were loaded into the locks. But for most of the way, we shared the lock with the 32-footer only, which made the experience far more comfortable. We descended through 19 locks on the second and final convoy day, emerging onto Lake Vanern at the bottom.

We were through the Göta Canal.

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History of the Canal

The Göta Canal was one of the largest civil engineering projects ever undertaken in Sweden. The Canal stretches from Sjötorp on Lake Vänern to Mem on the east coast. It has a length of 190 kilometers and a total of 58 locks. Of this distance, 87 kilometers are man-made. The lakes through which the Canal passes make up 103 kilometers of its length.

As early as the sixteenth century, the renowned Bishop Brask in Linköping proposed a Canal across Sweden from the Baltic to the North Sea. Plans for such a waterway came to be discussed many times before Baltzar von Platen finally transformed them into reality.

In 1806, Count Baltzar von Platen, naval officer and government minister, produced a treatise on Canals and was later asked to submit a plan for the Göta Canal. On April 11, 1810, King Karl XIII issued a charter allowing the Canal company to build and operate the Canal, and granted the company labor, land, and forests for the project.

In May 1810, excavation work was started in Motala. Work was soon underway at about 15 sites along the route.

The Göta Canal was largely built by 58,000 billeted soldiers from 16 different regiments. During the 22 years building was in progress, about 60,000 men, including a company of Russian war prisoners and a number of civilian workers, worked a total of about seven million man-days, each of 12 hours.

Most of the Canal was excavated by hand using iron-shod wooden spades. Work mainly consisted of digging, blasting and dressing stone. Baltzar von Platen also introduced several new techniques using various equipment from England. A number of highly skilled English foremen was recruited.

In 1822, Baltzar von Platen established a small engineering workshop in Motala, which became the cradle of the Swedish engineering industry.

On 26 September 1832, the Göta Canal was inaugurated at Mem amid great pomp and circumstance in the presence of King Karl XIV and his family. Sadly, Baltzar von Platen did not live to see the crowning of his masterpiece, having died three years earlier.

Throughout the 19th century, the Göta Canal continued to be a very important transport route for both goods and passengers. However, the Canal never achieved the long term importance that Baltzar von Platen had expected. The railways, and later on road traffic, gradually took over its role. Instead, the Göta Canal later became one of Sweden's most popular and well known tourist attractions.

(History content excerpted from www.gotakanal.se)