A very old cathedral

Last night we spent on Fagerön, a very small nature reserve island with a jetty that takes about 6 boats if you try hard. There were 5 of us. Just a composting toilet and a place to leave refuse. And a place to make a fire plus two benches to sit on. We had our drinks there whilst cooking the steak on the Cobb. Three other crews had the same idea. We really enjoy these 'naturhamn'!

This morning we continued to Västerås, quite far north and west on Mälaren. After Sigtuna, it is the second oldest town in Sweden. Although looking quite industrial from the water, it has a really interesting cathedral, originally dating (as a church) from the 12th century and made a cathedral in 1271. Of course we paid a visit:


















Something surprising was the way the 'Svenka Kyrkan', the Swedish church, tries to get people into the churches:





Tomorrow, we start going south and east again, towards Södertalje. We plant to be there, at the lock where one leaves Mälaren, in about 5 days.

Location:Sjötullsgatan,Västerås,Sweden

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

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

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

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

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

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