Precise navigation and three new records

Our original plan had been to go to Fejan today, this being the point in Sweden with the shortest crossing to Mariehamn, the main town on the Åland Islands. But the forecast for today was excellent for a 'sea voyage', so we decided to go for a no-stop strategy and combine two days into one.
The first bit was through the northern Stockholm skärgård. The chart looks like this:





The plotter, when zoomed in, looks like this:




Lots of little islands and rocks, marked with red and green buoys. If you can see the rock clearly, there is no mark....

That all seems a bit daunting, but as long as you concentrate on where you are (that's what the pink marker on the chart is for), it's not that bad. This is what it looks like in real life (all three pictures taken a few minutes apart).





As you can see, the weather is great. Pictures taken just before 7am this morning, after pulling up the stern anchor at 6.

By 9:30 we were abeam of Fejan and we had joined the ferry route.





Åland is a semi autonomous region of Finland, it is part of the EU, but not of the EU tax zone. Because of this, the ferries that cross from Sweden to Finland (or vv) and stop at Mariehamn make a voyage outside the EU for tax purposes. This must have some pretty significant benefits, the ferry terminal in Mariehamn -which in itself is rather a sleepy small town - is big and busy.

Some 15 miles out, our phones told us we were now in Finland (Vodafone sends a message 'welcome in Finland, calls cost 23cents a minute.....'). And by then land was also visible.
Soon, we could take this picture:





We passed the 60 degrees North latitude. Record #1.

Finland is also in a different time zone, the phones and iPads adjusted themselves and we advanced the ship's clock by one hour. First time we crossed into a different time zone. Record #2.

Nine hours and twenty minutes and 55.2 miles after leaving Finnhamn we tied up in Mariehamn. Neither of these two are records. But when we hoisted this courtesy flag:





it was the forth one this year after Germany, Denmark and Sweden. And that is record #3.

Rest day tomorrow!

Location:Storagatan,Mariehamn,Åland Islands

Has the season finally started? In paradise!

After a very pleasant day with our Swedish /South African friend Birgitta yesterday, we left Saltsjöbaden and travelled north. For the first time, we had to really look out for other boats: there were plenty of yachts tacking into wind going south and also lots of little 'mosquitos ', small fast motorboats of which you have no idea where they are going. It appears that, as expected, the peak season has started.
After almost 30 miles, we entered the bay at Finnhamn, recommended by our Finnish neighbours in Saltsjöbaden. The bay is actually called 'Paradiset' and with some reason. Very well protected from all winds, easy to get into. And with nice jetties (staging) to tie onto using a stern anchor. It is not full here, but there are quite a few boats next to us with families, barbecueing on the rocks. Nice atmosphere.

The island here is quite 'sophisticated', there are gravel roads, a small shop, a ferry landing and a hostel. We saw the 'steam' ferry arrive when we went for a walk:





Our plan is to leave very early tomorrow morning, finish the skärgård route north and if the wind is as kind as it is forecasted to be, cross to Mariehamn, the main town of the Åland Islands. The 'crossing' is 30 miles, but in total we expect to cover 55 miles tomorrow.
And as we enter another country (Åland is a semi-autonomous part of Finland), our internet probably will need a new SIM card. So no panic if there is no post tomorrow!

Location:Österåker,Sweden

Saltsjöbaden for Stockholm

We are in Saltsjöbaden, which is sort of a suburb of Stockholm.
There is a very good connection to the city itself from here, usually it's a train but as the track is being renovated this summer, it is served by a bus. We were wondering why the renovation would be done in summer, but then concluded that it would be tricky with snow on the ground!

We took the bus yesterday, firstly because we needed a chart set for the northern Stockholm skärgård and an Åland harbour guide but also because we think Stockholm is very special and we wanted to take a walk around the Gamla Stan (old town).







The narrowest street in Stockholm.


The Royal Palace

We were successful with our purchases and even found an Åland courtesy flag (although Åland is part of Finland, it is semi-autonomous and has its own flag).

On the way back to the bus stop, we saw a lot of activity with racing yachts. When we got back to Saltsjöbaden, our Finnish neighbor told us that tomorrow is the start of the 'Runt Gotland' race which explains the excitement at the Stockholm waterfront.

Today we'll meet up with a friend of ours. Probably move on tomorrow.

Location:Torben Gruts väg,Saltsjobaden,Sweden

The promised pictures

We are now in Saltsjöbaden, near Stockholm. More about that later or maybe tomorrow, but I still owe our readers yesterday's pictures.




'Mirage marks' near Landsort.




For next time: the harbour at Öja / Landsort




Oops, there is a cruise liner in the Gästhamn......




The Gotland ferry also comes to Nynäshamn.




Looking for Russian submarines?




Although there were more than 12 boats in this little bay last night, it was very peaceful. No radios, no shouting, just the sounds of the birds!

Location:Torben Gruts väg,Saltsjobaden,Sweden

An expensive harbour and a not-so-quiet anchorage

From Trosa, we travelled through the quite rugged skärgård around Landsort towards Nynäshamn. There was practically no wind and some of the marks and sector lights looked like mirages. On the way we passed the small harbour on Öja which looked very nice. We made a note of it for a future occasion.

Nynäshamn is also a ferry port and a cruise liner stop as it has good connections to Stockholm. It's a bit confusing seeing the 'Sea Princess' where you think your berth will be. The fast ferry to Gotland also stops here.
We read somewhere that 'Nynäshamn' must be Swedish for 'spending your kids' inheritance'. This is because the harbour fees are high at SEK 300 (excluding electricity) and the harbour is ok but nothing special. We see that many Swedes just stop to do some shopping (there is a good supermarket and a 'Systembolaget', the Swedish state acoholic beverage shop) and then leave to anchor somewhere quiet.
We stayed the night and then left for an anchorage on the island of Ornö. It's very nice and protected from all winds, which explains that -whilst we were the third boat here at 13:39 - there are now (at 17:00) 11 of us.

We will continue to Saltsjöbaden, near Stockholm, tomorrow.

As the Internet connection is very slow here, I will have to post the pictures that go with it tomorrow. Look forward to the mirage marks, the harbour on Öja, the 'Sea Princess', the Gotland ferry and the busy bay!

Location:Haninge,Sweden

A late sunset picture and a trip to Trosa

You did not get a picture in yesterday's blog, but after I posted it, Lyn took a nice sunset so we start this blogpost with that picture.






This morning we explored the bay with the dingy and the electric outboard motor and pulled up the anchor after coffee.

An easy 15 mile trip took us to Trosa, a fishing village from the 17th century. In 1719 it was burned down by the Russians, who only left the church standing as they needed it to stable their horses. We visited it, but it does not look that old (or particularly interesting).
There is an old fisherman's cottage from the late 1700's which was worth a picture:





And also the town hall is quite nice:





Trosa is a real tourist place, although not visited by many big yachts as the harbour is relatively shallow at less than 2m. At the height of the season (which it is not yet, although it's clearly more busy on the water), the harbour gets filled up with mainly Swedish motor boats and smaller yachts. At the moment though, we have a good spot alongside the pier (with tourists walking past and admiring Onbekommerd).

We are quite far North and East, here are the coordinates of the end of the pier (which is called 'end of the world')

Location:Trosa,Sweden

Travelling on

Our apologies for firstly the lack of recent posts and secondly the lack of pictures in this post.

After the nice Midsommar experience, we stayed in Nävekvarn for another two nights, mainly because we wanted to discuss our winter storage requirements with the owner of Swede Port Marina. We successfully did that this morning and we have arranged that Onbekommerd will be lifted out on 18 August. That is a bit early, but we have stuff to do in London at the end of August.

We then left Nävekvarn after taking leave of our new Dutch, British and Swedish friends and travelled in between the islands and rocks to a really nice bay at Ringsön where we are now at anchor. Although there are a total of 12 boats here, all you can hear are the birds. We just had our evening coffee on the front deck.

Tomorrow we'll carry on to Trosa, an easy 15 miles.

Location:Tystberga,Sweden