Our position is 56:10.08N 15:35.51E

Distance covered 213Nm

During Sunday night we were awoken by rain lashing down onto the deck and it was still raining when the alarm went off at 5am. Visibility was poor and we debated whether we really wanted to set off but we bit the bullet and set off into the murk. There were no signs of any activity on Bunny B. Sensibly they were probably waiting for the rain to stop as we were motoring along the south coast of the island, with very little wind, eating breakfast.

In fact the rain eased fairly quickly but even when it stopped entirely visibility was still poor, however AIS and the radar enabled us to avoid the big ships ploughing along in the traffic separation zones and deep water channels. After a few hours the wind got up enough from the North West to allow us to sail, but in the middle of the night it fell away and veered and we had to motor again.

For long periods we saw nothing, sometimes we could see the big ships going up and down their channels while we stayed outside them, but apart from 2 dolphin sightings and one occasion where we had to radio a ship coming across the channels, it was a very dull uneventful passage.

On Monday evening we had decided that we might as well keep going to Karlskrona, in the South East corner of Sweden and the weather on Tuesday was sunny and bright, but the wind was straight from the Arctic so we were both wearing a lot of clothes when the coast was sighted around 5pm. By the time we had navigated between the many islands in the Karlskrona approach the clothes were being shed in the hot sunshine as the wind fell away.

Apparently Karlskrona is the sunniest place in Sweden and this was certainly borne out over the two days we stayed there at the delightful new marina. The harbourmaster’s visiting hours were very restricted before the holiday season starts in earnest, in June, but we were able to get the necessary codes to access the services from our helpful German neighbour, and take advantage of the excellent showers and free laundry facility.

Various things we passed on our way into Karlskrona

Not many boats on the visitors pontoons

Beautiful gardens and the flowers smelled fantastic

The main square with the statue of King Karl XI who established the naval base at Karlskrona

This fountain was playing in the Fisktorgat harbour, but not all the time, and nothing marking the hazard!