Our position is 56:39.61N 16:21.778E

Distance covered 26.3 Nm

We were among the last to leave the charming harbour at Kristianopel and it was sunny and warm for once. The wind had gone round to the West and was soon dropping as forecast, so the engine was on and off and on again as we tried to maintain a reasonable speed. Ultimately the wind went round to the East and came up again but too late for us as we were approaching Kalmar.

 According to its AIS this was a Guard Boat but we didn’t know what it was guarding

A good blooper  but we weren’t quite sure what the other one was – it looked like a mini naval vessel

The excitement this time was caused by a large ship coming up the channel behind us. First of all we stayed out of the channel to leave him room, but as we both got closer to the town we slowed to let him past as it was not apparent where in the harbour he was aiming for. Ultimately he tied up alongside, on the outside so we slipped past and into the yacht harbour, which is large and offered several different areas with empty stern buoys, but we opted for one nearer the town end and handy for the facilities.

A narrow channel for the ship to negotiate but he had the pilot to help

They missed the rocks and we fell in behind

Marinus’s final berth

Kalmar slot – at least no one was firing at us today

and this is the cathedral – spot the family resemblance

The harbour at Kalmar

The rubber boat claimed to be the Guest Harbour pilot – there was no sign of him when we came in though

The friendly girl in the Tourist Information office, where we had to go to check in, provided useful information in English and the facilities appear modern and clean. Later a Swedish boat decided there was room between us and the small boat on our port side, so he inserted himself in the gap, sharing the small boat’s buoy. We are now firmly wedged, but as we are planning to stay tomorrow, as are our starboard neighbours, hopefully it will sort itself out before we want to go.