Moving on

Moorglade's Voyage
Ted Wilson
Sat 28 May 2016 17:18

Our position is 56:23.37N 16:05.48E

We finally dragged ourselves away from Karlskrona and our friends, with Nicholas serenading our departure with Rule Britannia on his clarinet , and set off down the passage through the islands, which comes out near Torhamn into the sea on the Swedish east coast. The track through the archipelago required careful pilotage and the usual fears about passing under a bridge with 18m clearance – they never look high enough, even with more than the 3.5m clearance we had this time – proved groundless. Luckily the route was well buoyed and also provided with leading lines in several crucial places and we emerged into the open sea without incident.

     

Views as we left Karlskrona marina. Prospero is the blue boat just visible on the right, but Nicholas and his clarinet have gone below

This is close to where a Russian submarine ran aground in 1981, but I think any likeness is coincidental

  

We did fit under

 

  Most of the houses on the islands are only used in the summer and are shut up at this time of the year

 

  

Hazards along the way in the rock-strewn passage

The wind was light and from the south, so we motor sailed the 14Nm up the coast to Bergkvara in the sunshine, arriving around 6pm. The marina is owned by the nearby campsite and shares facilities with it. We were able to check in and order fresh bread for the morning, which was convenient, and then we had time to look at some old American cars, courtesy of a local club who were having a meeting and a barbecue in the car park.

  Garpen lighthouse on an island just off Bergkvara. It hosts a youth hostel now.

  Safely tied up

The American car club gathering. It seems at this time of year this constitutes a lot of people here

In the morning we awoke to the sound of rain and could hear the wind in the rigging making the halyards tap and blowing from the north east (our intended direction of travel). We decided to stay another day and see if we could find the world’s largest wooden spoon and other delights promised in the pilot book in the hopes that the wind would come round a bit by Sunday. Unfortunately, although the rain stopped, it transpired, after walking over a mile to the (closed) tourist information office, that nothing is really open here until the end of June, including the shipping museum, the handicraft house and the tourist information office! In spite of it being a Saturday, we saw very few people out and about during our walk into town and back. The only place that seemed to be popular was the campsite near the harbour. There is a longish – around 9-10 km – walk along the coast to a nature reserve, which might have been worth getting the Bromptons out for, but instead we decided to shelter from the strengthening wind and catch up with some of the jobs that had been put on hold when we left Fehmarn.

 

A typical old house with a good wood store at the back and beautifully flowering lilac. Lilac as everywhere and it’s scent fills the air.

In the early 20th century one of Sweden’s largest sailing fleets was based in Bergkvara and the town still has many old houses like this one.

The harbour with the camp site buildings in the background