Hano was our next ‘not to be missed’ location, a small island off the coast of Sweden. To get there we had to pass through a major shipping channel, a firing range, the invisible Denmark-Sweden border, and despite the sunny forecast, sea fog. We did get to test our radar.
B
eing early in the season we were not expecting a full harbour. But yachts were already rafted up at the harbour wall three abreast. We managed to come alongside a very substantial Regina 40, and noticed that all the boats were deserted.
We had a lovely walk past the painted wooden houses through woodland, with songbirds calling, to a headland with huge granite boulders and an English cemetery, dating to Napoleonic times when this was a naval outpost. As we walked back to the boat, a herd of small fallow deer ran past us.
There we were greeted by the friendly owners of all the boats, a cruising club from nearby Ronneby on their annual weekend rally. So if they had not been here, the harbour would have been deserted. They set up a barbecue on the pier, and later sang Swedish folksongs, accompanied by an accordion. We felt we had arrived.