Northwards, along the coast towards our June destination in Stockholm. The coastline north of Kalmar is quite literally awash with islands and rocks, and navigation is something else!
There are charted routes ‘guaranteed’ to be 3-5 metres which weave between and around the obstacles, and are marked with red and green spar buoys to indicate the side of the stick to stay.
Every day is different. It’s still very cold, but in the sun, sheltering from the wind, it can be quite nice. We’ve stayed in some harbours, many not yet open for the season, so very quiet. One night we found ourselves tied alongside a building site.
Another night we stayed at a hotel marina owned by Bjorn of Abba fame. There were gold plated chairs in the shower block. Er…why?
We’ve also slipped into deserted anchorages on a calm night.
And in Fyrudden, we discovered a lively Loppis, a flea market, on the quay, selling nautical bric-a-brac and second-hand children’s toys.
But it is still cold, did I mention that at all?
So we made a plan to take the inland waterway to Stockholm through the Södertajle canal into Lake Mälaren, more in hope than expectation that there will be less wind and the temperature inland may be higher.
And for that we need a chart. A browse online found a chandler in the town of Norrköping, 20 miles up a long inlet, who when we rang said after much rummaging that indeed he did have the chart pack we needed.
So rather than make the round trip of 40 nautical miles, we decided to stop in Nyköping, and take a train to Norrköping. We do like to complicate things. Anyway, it was to be a rainy day, so a train journey was as good a way to put the time in. Unfortunately, neither station was near our boat or the chandler, so the bikes came along for the ride too. We were soaked.
On our return, we had a lovely invitation to a neighbour’s boat, Nomad, for drinks and nibbles, and lots of chat about sailing, politics and skiing. Whereupon our hosts, Richard and Woody, told us that there was a chandler quite near our boats, and they had the chart we needed. Which of course was all very humorous!
Still, I did get my chart pack at 50% discount as it was dated 2010, so I hope the rocks haven’t moved!!
Keep avoiding them rocks… and enjoy the canal route … you’ll have lots more stories to tell us when we all reach our destination! Xx
Navigating through that lot looks …interesting… as my dear sister in USA would say!
We have thunderstorms scheduled to roll in from Northern France, no doubt smelling of garlic
But the great jubilee partying continues apace… bad weather? No, just wrong clothes!