Our position is 58:11.462N 16:51.073E

Distance covered around 44 Nm (Uncertainty caused by log failing but turning it off and on again brought it back to life!)

We awoke to the sound of birdsong and a perfect morning. A heron was fishing in the shallower water near the boat. During breakfast in the cockpit we debated whether to go back out to sea and take the offshore route to our next destination, or pursue the leisure boat route inside the rocks and islands of the archipelago. Outside ran the risk of the same choppy sea as the previous day, inside required a lot of careful pilotage and buoy spotting, but with the benefit of calmer waters.  In the end the inside route won out on the grounds of greater interest, albeit at the cost of less rest.

  Breakfast in the cockpit

We were entertained during our passage by what appeared to be a Eurofighter giving an aerobatic display just behind us – it was very impressive if a little noisy! We needn’t have worried about the sea state as the wind fell away to nothing as the day wore on, and it was glassy both inside and outside the rocks. It was also extremely hot and layers of clothing were being shed all morning, as well as a breakout of shorts. In fact concerns about sunstroke nearly outweighed concerns about navigation. We managed to unroll the jib for about half an hour before the course changed and the wind fell away so we had to motor all the way.

 Concentrating  on the navigation before it got really hot

This looked rather precariously balanced

On every rock a sauna!

Nice to have one’s own private harbour

We had been following this boast until he suddenly turned left and disappeared between the rock bollards. It was not really apparent what was there aprt from several of these huts and the chart said it was quite shallow

Canoeing is a very popular pastime – unsurprisingly as conditions are ideal

  A lot of the day seemed to be identifying narrow openings

  Shirtsleeves now and full concentration through a narrow opening

It doesn’t look so narrow looking back

We thought the structure in the left was the original lighthouse (that or a bread oven!)

We avoided being lured onto rocks by sirens

At a distance these birds looked as if they were on an upturned boat

We both had a turn at steering through narrow gaps

We arrived at our destination, Fyrruden, around 5pm. Mooring is bow to with booms, which restrict the width of the spaces. Thoughtfully the maximum width was marked on each berth, but it appeared there were only 5 fat enough for Moorglade, right by the harbour entrance, and 2 of them were occupied. As all the other spaces were free, the 2 boats we chose to go between were understandably telling us we could go anywhere, until we explained we were too wide when they became more sympathetic. We could have gone right at the outside end but that space suffered from the wash of boats going in and out the worst. Later we discovered that there were some even wider berths, which had been newly created right at the inner end of the harbour, but when we came in they were not apparent and we had concerns they might be too shallow.

Approaching Fyrruden

Views of the older part of the harbour

And the newer

The harbour master was very welcoming, and explained that all the services were included in the harbour dues, including the laundry, so we planned to take advantage and do a big wash. Our plans to do it before dinner were foiled by a thunderstorm – it was a long walk round the harbour to the facilities – but we got on with it early the next day.

The next day was Saturday and there was a big increase in boats in and out of the harbour, mainly coming to the fuel pontoon and then going out to an anchorage. We did some shopping at the little local shop and chatted to a Dutch couple who had taken a 4 month sabbatical and were cruising the Baltic with their 2 young children. They explained that even though they were schooling their children while on the boat they could face a large fine or even prison when they got back, and this was true for any time children were taken out of school. Probably only a matter of time before the EU imposes that sort of legislation on all its members!

Not everyone in the harbour had a boat

Just as we were getting ready to retrieve the last load of washing from the drier, who should come sailing in but our old protagonist from Borgholm, Pilgrim. I wanted to hide but he tied up alongside the harbour wall (probably rather than in a space which would have had to be close to us because of his beam). The spot he chose impeded access to the fuel pontoon so he had to move further along, but we still had to walk past his boat every time we went to the facilities. I contemplated going out to an anchorage for the night before we moved on, but this was vetoed and it was likely all the anchorages would have been full in any case. Let’s hope he doesn’t come and sabotage us in the night!