This is "Onbekommerd"!

Sunday, July 31, 2016

Not really a lake, the harbour has disappeared and another quiet anchorage.

As mentioned before, we are now on lake Mälaren. The only reason it is a lake, is that it does not connect directly to the sea. And it is fresh water, not brackish like the Baltic at this latitude. But to us, there is little difference between Mälaren and the Stockholm skärgård. Well, that is as far as the geography is concerned: the same sets of islands and 'sunds' between them. The other big difference is the crowds or rather the lack of them. In the Stockholm skärgård you continually have to avoid ferries and other boats, here we seldom see anyone else. Today not more than 3 other boats. And it's still peak season....

Yesterday we found a harbour in our almanac. It was called Härjarö, supposedly part of a recreational facility with a campsite, cabins for hire etc. We arrived in the middle of a rain storm (the first one in a long time) and found only three other boats there. After tying up, we were told that the harbour (and the rest of the facility) had closed down three years ago! So much for our 2016 chart which also showed it. Anyway, the concrete pontoons and (some of) the mooring facilities were still there, so we stayed. After dinner we walked around the deserted campsite which was a bit 'Kafkaesque': sort of maintained, looking as if the occupants had just left a few hours ago.
Anyway, the sunset was not less spectacular because of it:








This morning we moved on another few hours to a very quiet anchorage. We thought we might be by ourselves, but another boat came in and looks like spending the night as well. It's quite pretty here!

The 'lake' is quite big and as we are not in a hurry we'll take another 2 days to Västerås, more or less on the NW extreme.

Location:Strangnas,Sweden

Friday, July 29, 2016

A lock, a lake and a palace

Today, for the first time since Kiel, we had to pass through a lock. And we are now on a lake, called Mälaren.

First we passed just outside Stockholm, which is very scenic from the water:





But what's this lock and lake all about?

Mälaren was a bay of the Baltic sea until around 1200. By then, because of a process called 'glacial rebound', the two connections with the Baltic, the Södertalje canal and the Ridderfjarden, became to shallow for shipping.
This 'glacial rebound' is the rise of the land, caused by the disappearance of the weight of the ice after the last ice age. At some stage, the rise was as much as 7.5cm per year, now it still is around 1cm per year, a lot in geological terms. The level of the lake is now close to a metre above the level of the Baltic, hence the lock!

During the Viking age, between 1000 and 1150, Mälaren was therefore a Baltic bay and hence there are several Viking villages and old towns and castles around what now is the lake. During the next one or two weeks, we'll do a bit of exploration.

Tonight we are anchored in a quiet bay with a view of Drottingholm Palace, the official residence of the Swedish Royal Family. Not exactly Viking age: it was originally built in the late 16th century.






Location:Ekerö,Sweden

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Revisiting a few places

After two new harbours, Sandhamn and Möja, we revisited Finnhamn yesterday and Grinda today. These were two places we thought our visitors would like and we were very happy to return there. Both were even more busy than a week ago, it really is peak season! But a very nice atmosphere in both places and quiet at night. That is something that continues to surprise and delight us: the people here are really considerate and are careful not to disturb others in a crowded harbour.

Tomorrow we will continue to Vaxholm, again a place we know. After that, we only have three weeks of this year's 'season' left, we plan to explore lake Mälaren, west of Stockholm a bit.

Location:Värmdö,Sweden

Monday, July 25, 2016

A cove and a small harbour

Yesterday, Sandhamn was our destination. This is an island in the 'outer skärgård', the last few islands before the open sea. And it is also one of the harbours of the KSSS, the Royal Swedish Yacht Club. The island is very popular with tourists and quite a few ferries disgorge loads of day trippers there. We expected it to be busy so planned to be there early, before noon. But the youngster in the RIB who met us, told us that there were about 20 other boats waiting for a mooring and that it could take a few hours before we would be tied up. But there is a 'secondary' harbour, mainly for smaller boats, where there would be space. So we went through a very narrow 'sund' to find a delightful little cove, very well protected and free from hordes of tourists walking past. Much better than the official harbour. It was on a small island, with a ferry taking you to the 'mainland' (which of course is an island itself....).









Today we continued to Möja. On this island there are a few harbours, but they are all extremely small! The first one, Kirkviken, was already full before noon and at the second one, Löka, we took the last place (out of six). We had a nice Cobb on the rocks here, overlooking the fairway.





Location:Möja Löka by,Värmdö,Sweden

Saturday, July 23, 2016

Back to Härsö with the new crew.

Yesterday, our friends Gwilym and Janine came on board and today we returned to Härsö. It's such a nice and friendly place that we wanted to 'show it off'.

We lit the Cobb and had a good time!













Location:Tyreso,Sweden

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

The Stockholm fortifications and an idyllic island.

Yesterday, we spent the night in Vaxholm. We badly needed some supplies, both solid and liquid and on the small islands where we like to be, the shops are small and there are no 'Systembolagets' (the Swedish state liquor store, you can't buy any alcoholic drinks over 3.5% in any other shop). So Vaxholm it was, it has both required shops within 10 walking minutes from the Gästhamn. For this reason, the Gästhamn is very full during the day with boats that just come for shopping (which also explains that it's one of the few harbours where a fee for 'daily mooring' is charged. After about 4pm quite a few boats leave and in the end the harbour was not full at night in spite of the peak season.
But Vaxholm is interesting beyond the shops as it is part of the old naval defence system of Stockholm. The Vaxholm fortress, which you pass when you arrive from the north, controls one of the few sea passages into Stockholm. Some of the other entrances (notably Oxdjupet) were actually filled in with rocks in the 16th century and from 1876 the rocks were removed again in order to provide access to for instance the Finland and Åland ferries. The fortifications were maintained into the 20th centuries. These days they are mainly tourist attractions.





This morning we decided to spend a quiet night at some small island and - after some research in our Hamnguiden- we choose Härsö. What a perfect choice it turned out to be! There is some wooden staging that we tied onto with our stern anchor out. We went to explore a bit and found signs to 'Domkyrkan', which is not a church as the name would suggest, but a mountain with a great view. It's quite a climb up, but a few strategically placed ropes help.
There is no wind now, we are here with a handful of boats and it's quite idyllic!
























Location:Saltsjobaden,Sweden

Monday, July 18, 2016

Oh deer.....

During our short trip to Grinda today, we noticed a yacht suddenly turning around. "Confused!", I said. "No", Lyn responded "they are looking at that deer swimming across the channel" (which was a few hundred metres wide and 24m deep).
What next?










Location:Värmdö Grinda,Värmdö,Sweden

Sunday, July 17, 2016

A trumpet concerto in Paradiset

For a second night, we are at anchor in 'Paradiset ', a bay between a few islands that together are called Finnhamn, as here the ships on their way to Finland would shelter from adverse winds.

Paradiset is quite an appropriate name, it really is very nice and therefore also very popular. Last night, on a Saturday evening in peak season, we counted almost 80 boats in the bay. Forty of those tied to the wooden staging that has been built on the rocks, now even with power points, really like a 'Gästhamn '. And the remainder tied with their bows to a rock and a stern anchor out, or just swinging behind the main anchor like us.

This morning we took the dinghy ashore and went for a walk along one of the nature trails. Suddenly we came to the water and guess what we saw:





That's Onbekommerd at anchor, without us on board!

This evening, we are being treated to a trumpet concerto: one of the boats on shore sports a trumpet player who is entertaining us.





And on another rock, a family is having their evening meal:





It's a nice day in "Paradiset"!

Location:Österåker,Sweden

Friday, July 15, 2016

A harbour on the ferry route

This morning we woke up before 5AM to do a final check of the weather forecast. All was as expected, so we were out of our mooring just after 5, basically at first light. We still needed the navigation lights on!








The trip over the Sea of Åland was uneventful, we had a few ferries and some other shipping to cope with, but with the AIS it's so much easier to judge and anticipate what the big ships are going to do.

After 4 hours we entered the Swedish archipelago and put the clocks back by an hour.

We are now in the harbour of Furosund, which right on the fairway of the ferry lines from Stockholm to any destination north.
The fairway here is very narrow and the ferries (which are basically cruise liners) go very slow. But you have to be very careful: they won't give way at all as there are rocks on both sides. We waited for this one to come through a particularly narrow gap:





And now in the harbour, this is what we see:








We really enjoyed our short time on the Åland Islands, in a later post I'll tell a bit more about why we like it so much.

Location:Norrtalie,Sweden

Thursday, July 14, 2016

Back in Mariehamn

Just a quick update, without pictures.

From Sottunga we returned to Kastelholm yesterday and then to Mariehamn today.
Although we would like love to spend at least another week here on the Åland Islands, we need to get back to Sweden for reasons I won't dwell on at the moment. Add to this the fact that the weather is rather unsettled, and we will take the next weather gap to do the 32 miles back. Not a big distance and not difficult either, but as it is open sea we are always extra cautious.
That gap might be tomorrow, we'll get up early to do our checks. Otherwise it looks like Tuesday, which is not a problem either. Mariehamn is a nice and friendly small town. The marina is lively, packed full this week and next as it is now the peak of the season.



Location:Havsgatan,Mariehamn,Åland Islands

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

The least populous EU municipality

Today took us to Sottunga, just 9 miles from Seglinge. We had considered to go a bit further, but the wind picked up and the 13 miles to the next place were a bit unprotected. Sottunga, by the way, is the least populous municipality in the EU with 101 inhabitants (in 2014).

In these small harbours, you need to be early to get a spot so we were not sorry to have tied up around noon, just as a few visitors from the previous night were leaving.
Next to us are three boats of the same Finnish family (90% of the boats we see are Finnish now, there is the odd Swede, a rare German and we are the only Dutch we ever see). Two of the family, couples with small children arrived first, the grandparents came a bit later and (literally) squeezed in between so that the grandchildren could step on board from both sides. How nice to be able to do this as a family! We see lots of small kids on boats here, very independent, always wearing life jackets and usually busy with a fishing net, that seems to be a universal pastime!

There is an interesting 17th century church here, with a typical separate bell tower.
And we borrowed bicycles to check out the shop, which was as limited as the one in Seglinge. One better comes well provisioned to these islands. The smoked herring one can buy at the harbour is delicious though!

Here are some pictures:







Little fisher girl.







Sottunga church





And Sottunga bell tower





The church is still actively used.





Smoked herring

Location:Finland

Sunday, July 10, 2016

The small Åland harbours

We are now in Seglinge, a small harbour which is full with 19 boats. When we arrived, it seemed quite full with only about 8, but the advantage with stern buoy moorings is that you can fill the place up nicely. With two boats on a stern buoy and the fenders (almost) touching, you can use all available space nicely.

What we are finding is that the people running the harbours are amazingly friendly and helpful. The young lady harbourmaster here helps new arrivals tie on, takes your mooring fees, informs you that there will be smoked fish for sale at 6pm and assists her 4 year old son in selling you potatoes (he only needs assistance because he does not speak English yet). Coffee is for sale at a little stall and later also cake. And all of this on an island with 34 permanent inhabitants!

Here are two pictures:







View from Onbekommerd.

Location:Åland Islands

Saturday, July 9, 2016

The Russian influence

Åland is part of Finland (although it is semi autonomous and is Swedish speaking). Finland is a relatively young nation, it only exists as an independent state since 1918. Until 1809 it was part of Sweden, at that stage it was taken over by Russia. At the October revolution in 1917, the Finns cleverly proclaimed independence which was confirmed in 1918.
There are still quite a few remnants of the Russian influence, one being the marking of the fairways between the islands. This is mainly done using the 'cardinal system', where obstructions are marked with black and yellow marks, the 'order' of the black and yellow indicating where the obstruction is:





This is a South cardinal, the black underneath the yellow tells us that the mark is to the south of the obstruction.

The cardinal system is still extensively used worldwide, but generally only to indicate separate obstructions, not the course of the fairway. This is nowadays usually done with the lateral system, using red and green buoys. In the Åland Islands the lateral system is only used on the newer fairways, the Russians used (and apparently still use) the cardinal system almost exclusively.

A more visible remnant of the Russian times are the Bomarsund ruins. As Åland was the westernmost outpost of the Russian empire, they wanted to build a fort here to defend against naval attacks and to protect their Baltic fleet. They started building it in 1850, it was to be an enormous fort with 8 large towers. But long before it was finished, in 1854, it was destroyed by a joint British - French force.











From the ruins of the tower, one has a great view of the Åland skärgård:





At the foot of the tower, in the bay called Notviken where the Russian fleet was to have been anchored, there now is a guest jetty on the rocks where we are now tied up on a stern buoy.





Location:Sund,Åland Islands

Friday, July 8, 2016

A bridge and a castle

After spending an extra day in Mariehamn to wait for the wind to drop, we continued into the Åland skärgård today. Many of the islands are connected by bridges and we passed two today. That's quite unusual these days! The first one was a fixed one and we would have been able to pass under the second one as well with our mast down but as we arrived on the hour, when it opens to let the yachts through, we joined the crowd:








We had not expected that there would be two way traffic, but there you are...

We continued to Kastelholm, and on the way we got some water over the deck. That has not happened in weeks! Although the salt content of the water here is less than one fifth of the North Sea, we still have salt stains on the boat now. 🙄

At Kastelholm, one finds the oldest castle in Åland, it is 14th century and although it was burned down several times, a lot of it was preserved or otherwise restored.












The guest harbour here is very scenic and there is a very nice atmosphere.





We lit the Cobb and had a nice meal and I even had a sauna, that's what the Finns do. There is one in every guest harbour and the use of it is included in the harbour fee. It was 70 degrees and very humid, but I quite enjoyed it!

Location:Finland

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Busy busy

We have had a busy couple of days.
Yesterday we needed a few things for the boat, so a trip to the chandler was required. The chandler is a few KM out of town, but they kindly lay on a taxi every morning at 10 which takes you to the shop and back again.

Next a haircut was on the programme. I had not had one since Cape Town in April so there was some urgency with this. Fortunately there are several hairdressers in Mariehamn, one of which eve offers a pensioners rate. The few haircuts I have had in Scandinavia (and in London for that matter) have all been given by non-English speaking immigrants, mainly Eastern European. Strange....

I have been in Åland once before, 21 years ago during my Optimist days. At that time I met Ralph, a born and bred Ålander, whom I last saw in 2000. We got in touch with him and last night he took us to a jazz performance plus nice meal:











It was a very nice evening. When we got back on board at quarter to 11, the sun was still above the horizon which is a bit confusing time wise!

This morning Ralph took us by car first to a former sea captain's mansion. This proved very interesting as the captain concerned was the captain of the Herzogin Cecilien, one of the last grain clippers which stranded on a rock in the English Channel near Salcombe in 1936. Åland was the base of Gustav Erikson, the biggest shipowner of the grain trade. The mansion had a lot of interesting history and a movie about the last voyage of the 'Herzogin ' was shown.






Then we had lunch with Åland beer. And noticed the local version of the 'stång', the pole used during the midsummer celebrations which is ferry different from the Swedish stång:





It's now almost 9pm and the yacht club's gun will be fired to tell us to take our flag down.

Tomorrow the wind will probably be too strong to start our exploration of the islands, which is no problem as we can use a 'chill day' after the last two busy ones!

Location:Norragatan,Mariehamn,Åland Islands