Northeast Sweden to OREGRUND at 60.29.52N,18.22.13E then south towards Kiel

Restless of Auckland
Roland and Consie Lennox-King
Fri 21 Aug 2009 10:54
 
On Saturday 2 August we started out from Helsinki for our trip "South to the Med" (as we are not going any further north) by making a big start and motoring in glassy calm, in warm sunshine,14 miles to Larsvik, where we saw an elk swimming from one island to another. We stayed at our RCC friend Max's marina and saw his beautiful wooden boat 'Gefion'. We were talked into staying an extra day to enjoy his and his partner Jane's hospitality. A swim in a nearby lake while watching osprey teach their young to fish from a tree nearby was a special treat.
 
A good day of sailing took us south to the famous Barosund the Finns are so passionate about. It is a very nice stretch of water, but not very long. We found a nice bay to spend the night and were visited by a local couple who owned the surrounding island. They were keen sailors and members of NJK, so had lots of suggestions as where to go and what to see as we sailed west through the thousands of islands.
 
We wanted to return west by a different route to the one we had taken east with Prue an Warwick, but had to overlap in some places as the coast has points where all routes coincide. After Hanko we headed southwest and had a dream day where we sailed in 8-10 knts of breeze  in cloudless sunshine with the wind on the quarter for hours. As all good things, the breeze petered out and we had to motor, but eventually anchored at Bono-on island at 2130 hours to discover a pirate sailing ship hidden behind the nearby rocks!!!
 
Consie was keen to see her Hong Kong childhood friends from 40 years ago, so we made a long day and set off around the south of the Aland islands and across to the Swedish island of Gräsö. We motored for the first half of the day, then had a glorious beam reach for four hours, when we overtook a tow  heading north with the biggest barge of coal either of us had ever seen. Then it was a long motor north through the archipelago to Oregrund, where we arrived  at 2115, some 68n miles for the day, to be met by our friends Christer and Jeannine. Little did we know it was "the" weekend of the year, for the next day was the great powerboat race and town was humming as we wandered through it that evening.
 
Next morning we motored another 9n miles north to the northern tip of Gräsö, where we spent two days with a stern anchor and a bow line to their concrete dock. During our stay we talked, walked, picked thousands of wild blueberries and strawberries and generally had a good time. Jeannine taught us the words for the Scandinavian drinking song "Helan går".
 
A poor weather forecast saw us scuttle south on Monday 10/8 as the barometer dropped and we were keen to get going as we plan to be be in Holland in early/mid September. A long beat brought us to Anholma at the top of the Stockholm archipelago. This perfect anchorage was a good spot for the depression that swept over us the next day. After another good sail past the holiday home "belt" that runs north from the capital, we arrived in Vaxholm in time to refuel at the same bowzer we had managed to find duty-free fuel on our trip north.
 
We have seen thousands of holiday homes, and have compared them with our home in the Bay of Islands. We have asked each other "Would we swap?" but the answer is always "No!" The Finnish and Swedish archipelagos are staggeringly beautiful, almost freshwater, some islands are bare rocks, some have pinetrees, elk, deer, wild berries, but most don't have sand, we have seen very few beaches and it is very lake-like with no tide and a lack of salt.
 
No trip to this part of Sweden would be complete, for Roland, without a visit to Sandhamn, the Cowes of Sweden and one of the homes of the KSS, the Yacht Squadron of Sweden. A light wind motorsail through the archipelago was our next day's sail, where we picked up a buoy outside the club's marina. Sandhamn is a very picturesque village, originally the coastguard station, with old wooden houses painted with the Scandinavian red, and narrow lanes, dominated by the very large old clubrooms of the KSS, which have been modernised and made into a fancy hotel. The famous bakery sells kanell bullar and sailors' buns.
 
We are starting to meet up with boats we have seen in other places, Esox, Sir Francis, and others, which makes us feel almost like locals! The days are getting shorter and in my mind I picture a gigantic skating rink. Time to go south!
 
Two days of pleasant sailing south were interrupted by severe thunderstorms where we had 40 knots and cold, cold rain. The next two days we sheltered from gale force winds in Marskaren on Lindskar island, then it was south again and instead of rounding  the great Landsort Island we took the inside route; passing the picture postcard island of Kroksk. This way we found ourselves back in Ringson, a most beautiful landlocked anchorage, where we had spent a couple of days in June on our way north. Next day was Consie's birthday so we motored in very strong head winds the 12 miles to Oxelosund for a birthday dinner with Scots friends Helen and Dave on Seewolf II, who we had last seen in Mariehamn in the Aland Islands.
 
As we type this, we are anchored in yet another pinetree lined bay just north of Vastervik by Kråkmarö island.  We hope to reach the Kiel canal, another 330 miles south, in the next couple of weeks. We will then wait for a good weather window to sail west down the Elbe and enter Holland at Delfzijl. From there we will cross Holland by the "standing mast route" to hopefully be in Amsterdam by late September. We are very excited to be meeting up with Consie's Dutch relatives, most of whom she has not seen for 30 years, and seeing how Holland has changed in that time. We are currently negotiating with a Dutch boatyard to leave Restless for the approaching winter.
 
Time flies too fast and these northern summers are so short!
 

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