Our position is 58:46.155N 17:51.442E

Distance covered 37.7Nm

Last night was very tranquil

The morning was bright and fairly still when we left the anchorage. Ted had counted 32 boats at anchor and along the rocks at the edge and more came in after that, so it was quite a busy harbour. People on smaller boats seemed to be setting up camps on shore and preparing breakfast – presumably because of insufficient room on board.

a lovely bright morning

someone who had set up breakfast ashore

We managed to get out from among the rocks without incident, and were soon sailing briskly, on a broad reach, north eastwards towards the islands at the start of the Stockholm archipelago. Our aim was to get to the island of Oja, home of the Landsort lighthouse. It used to be a pilot station dating back to 1535 but the lighthouse was electrified in 1938 and the pilot station closed in 1989. Now it is mainly a summer destination and only about 20 people live permanently on the island. The guest harbour was opened in 2002 on the site of an education facility for the rescue services used by a training programme which was started up with funding launched to compensate the island for the loss of the pilot stations and stimulate new business. However it didn’t seem to last long as the business is no longer in operation.  The harbour also seems a bit in decline, in spite of being the only one on the island, which is on the main passage from the South to the archipelago.

Leaving the anchorage

These people seemed to be camping without a boat – maybe canoes

Again the passage was uneventful. A few more other boats were seen than yesterday, and the weather deteriorated, so there were occasional rain showers and it was generally overcast. The autohelm struggled to maintain the course in the quartering seas but we arrived at the waypoint off some rocks without incident.

This was one of the few boats encountered

It was slightly unclear where the entrance to the harbour was as, although it featured in the pilot book and the Swedish guest harbour guide, there was no sign of it on the chart plotter. As the wind had blown up – why does it always do that as we approach harbours? – and the sea was rolly there were some anxious moments as we passed between rocks again, but we could see the masts of other yachts (rather too many for comfort – a moments panic in case it was full, as alternatives were scarce) and another boat came from the opposite direction and preceded us, so we knew we were in the right place.

Entering the very small  harbour with a big rock in the middle, leaving little room for manoeuvre, there were more moments of stress, firstly as we realised that all the stern buoys were occupied and we would have to deploy a stern anchor, which wasn’t rigged, and secondly when we realised we still had the Duogen down behind us. However we managed to get up to the quay, where a friendly Swedish lady from the next boat, took our warp. They then lent us their dinghy so Ted could set the Fortress anchor off the stern.

Views of the harbour. Tomorrow we will move to the right hand side, where there is more shelter and stern buoys

While he was doing this their small daughter fell in while trying to get from the bow to the quay, but her father was able to recover her while hanging from his bow warp, so she was soon being warmed up and getting over her fright. A salutary lesson about the need for children to wear life jackets around boats (she was) and a reminder that getting ashore over the bow isn’t as easy as some people think! Unfortunately it then came on to rain quite heavily but as we intend to stay a day and explore the island by bike there is always tomorrow.