Swedish National Day - past Ale Stenar to Simrishamn

Yesterday was Swedish National Day. The best way to explain the origin and significance is to copy from Wikipedia:


The tradition of celebrating this date began 1916 at the Stockholm Olympic Stadium, in honour of the election of King Gustav Vasa in 1523, as this was considered the foundation of modern Sweden.

Some question the validity of this as a national holiday, as it was not observed as a holiday until decades later. However this event does signify the end of the Danish-ruled Kalmar Union, so in a sense it is a marking of Swedish independence, though the event occurred so long ago that it does not have as strong of a presence in the social consciousness as does, for example, Norway's Syttende Mai (17 May).

In 2005 it became an official Swedish public holiday, replacing Whit Monday. This change led to fewer days off from work (more working-days) as 6 June will periodically fall on the weekend, unlike Whit Monday, which was always celebrated on a Monday. This has in turn led to complaints from some Swedish unions.

We were still in Ystad, although it was not blowing all that hard, the direction and strength, combined with the much better forecast for today, made us decide that rounding Sandhammaren, the South Eastern corner of Skåne which is nicknamed 'the Cape Horn of the North' would be much more comfortable today.

Ystad celebrated in style, with the national anthem, speeches and a marching band to start:








This young man though stole the show:








After the official formalities, there were a lot of stalls set up in the main street by community organisations, like the scouts, the Red Cross and also sports clubs. It was an opportunity for them to present themselves, some gave demonstrations and a few sold items We bought small pancakes (for 1SEK, 0.10 €!) from a scout who approached us in Swedish and switched to perfect English when we made clear we could not understand him.

It appears to be tradition for the children to receive colourful 'lolly's' as there were many stalls selling these.








This morning we (or rather Lyn) woke up at 5 when another boat left. Half an hour later we decided to get up and leave as there was virtually no wind. So before 6 we were out of the harbour, and an hour later we passed Kåseberga. As mentioned in an earlier post, this would have been a really interesting place to stop, were it not for the exposure to the current easterly to southerly winds. The attraction, apart from its picturequeness, is an ancient monument called Ale Stenar. Again from Wikipedia:


Ale's Stones at Kåseberga, around ten kilometres southeast of Ystad.
Ale's Stones (or Ales stenar in Swedish) is a megalithic monument in Skåne in southern Sweden. It is a stone ship, oval in outline, with the stones at each end markedly larger than the rest. It is 67-metres long formed by 59 large boulders, weighing up to 1.8 tonnes each.

The carbon-14 dating system for organic remains has provided seven results at the site. One indicates that the material is around 5,500 years old whereas the remaining six indicate a date about 1,400 years ago. The latter is considered to be the most likely time for Ales Stenar to have been created. That would place its creation towards the end of the Nordic Iron Age.

You can see the stones from the water:






Going there (when the wind is in the right corner) is definitely on our 'Onbekommerd bucket list '!








At 8:20 we rounded Sandhammaren:






And by 10:30 we had covered the 29 nmiles for the day and were tied up in Simrishamn.



Tomorrow the plan is to continue to the small island of Hanö.

Location:Stora Norregatan,Simrishamn,Sweden

Walking around Ystad

I mentioned yesterday that today was going to be a 'rest day', but that does not mean lazing around on the boat. Oh no, 'rest' means shore activities! As there is a hiking trail in this area, we set out to find it and walk at least part of the route.

We were told that the trail was marked with orange signs, so we looked first around the church in the centre of Ystad:








There is also a monastery, and we thought the trail might run near it:








Not having any success, we decided to walk out of town to where we thought the trail might be and yes:





The trail turned out to be the best marked one we have ever seen, you just need to know what to look for. The signs in the picture are of course very obvious, but there are many small orange squares and orange bands on lampposts. We had seen these (near the church) but not realised this is what we were looking for.

We walked 10km, as far as the village of Bjäresjö where we had our sandwiches near this church:













It was built in 1170 and the mural paintings actually date from those days.

This stone, with ancient rune symbols, is another 200 years older:





Another 10km saw us back to the boat, we have had our exercise!

Tomorrow is Sweden's national day. We may or may not carry on to Simrishamn. There is an interesting little harbour called Kåseberga just 10 nmiles from here, but with the current Easterly winds that is unfortunately not an option as the swell will run straight into the tiny harbour.

Location:Erik Dahlbergsgatan,Ystad,Sweden

Sweden!

I woke up at 5, thought that was a bit too early, but at 5:30 the urge got too strong, so I got up, made coffee and started to get Onbekommerd ready to go.
By 6:30 we were well clear of Rødvig:





The weather was absolutely perfect for a long trip on open water, no wind to speak of and just the very light swell you always get 'at sea'.





We had breakfast at 7:30, coffee at 10:30 and in the meantime the first mate plotted the position every half hour on the chart.





Around Trelleborg it got quite busy with ferries crossing our path:





Around midday we passed Smygehuk, the Southernmost point of Sweden. Then lunchtime and a rest for the captain:





Eight hours (and 52 miles) after leaving Rødvig, we rounded the harbour pier at Ystad, where the hornblower greeted us:








We are happy to be back in Sweden and look forward to about three months of exploring. But first tomorrow is a rest day. Monday is Sweden's national day when most businesses are closed. We'll see what else happens then.

Location:Segelgatan,Ystad,Sweden

Omø - Vordingborg - Rødvig

From Omø to Vordingborg is just over 30 nmiles, just South of East. As the wind was easterly, it was right on the nose, at first light but building to a bit over 15 knots as time went on. The 'Smalandsfarvandet', the sea south of Sealand, is known to be uncomfortable as a confused swell quickly builds as a result of the many reefs and shallows. So it is not surprising that we 'hacked' into the waves for a few hours. No problem, but lots of water over the deck and a very salty boat.

In Vordingborg we tied up next to a slipway which was blocked off as a swan couple had claimed it as the perfect place to extend their family:





The following day, no happy announcement could yet be made.

We continued our voyage east to Rødvig. The shortest way leads one through the 'Bøgestrom', a shallow and windy way towards the 'Faxe Bugt'. It's about 20 nmiles before you end up in the open sea and you are continually looking for the next red, green or cardinal (black and yellow) buoy. So the time goes fast! After that, it was another 10 nmiles to Rødvig, the wind had all but disappeared but there was some residual swell from the previous day which initially made us roll quite a bit.

Rødvig is the most convenient place to cross to Sweden from and that's what we will be doing tomorrow. The forecast is very good for this, very light winds all day.
As always with a 'change of country', we need to change Internet infrastructure, and as it is unlikely that we will be at an 'Internet shop' in good time tomorrow and the following day is Sunday, there might be a break in comms unless the WiFi is up to scratch tomorrow night.

Location:Havnepladsen,Rødvig,Denmark

Omø is great!

Last year, I published a very critical post about the state of the facilities at Omø. Fortunately Lyn corrected me and I pointed out more positive observations the next day. But today, when we arrived here after an easy 2 hour trip we were really surprised! They have upgraded, redone, modernised, whatever you want to call it, the entire harbour!
New jetties, new back-poles, new 'grillpladsen' (places where you can barbecue), new ablution facilities, there is no end to it!
And as the season has not really started yet (although the 'summer schedule' of the ferry started today), there is almost no-one here! When we arrived (admittedly early, before lunchtime), there was one other boat. Now, at almost 9pm, there are nine including us.

We took a walk to find the Købman to get some meat for the Cobb. As the Købman was closed until 3pm, we walked to the lighthouse. Once we had secured the meat (a nice piece of steak) we returned to the boat and had a nice Cobb dinner.

Here are some impressions:




Not very busy.....









What a beautiful evening for Cobb dinner

Marstal To Lohals

We knew that yesterday was going to be a blowout day, so we needed to decide where to spend it. We could have gone to Lundeborg where we have not been before but that would have been lee shore and by all accounts not well protected. So we decided to spend Sunday as well as Monday in Marstal. We witnessed the end of the accordion festival and Lyn added some music of her own:








Today we did the 24 miles to Lohals, which is on the North Western tip of Langeland. It was a bit bumpy at times, lots of salt water all over the boat. But not bad enough to make coffee and later sandwiches.

Just after we had tied up in Lohals there was a thunderstorm with just a little thunder but plenty of rain, which was good as we could then wash the salt of the boat. All Spic'n Span again!

Lohals is very quiet tonight and quite pretty too:









Lyn predicted a beautiful sunset. She was not wrong......

Location:Lohals Havn,Lohals,Denmark

If you like accordions, you should be here......!

This weekend is accordion festival in Marstad (they call them 'harmonica' in Danish).
This morning, there were accordion groups and single accordion players all over town. Here is a selection:














Apart from that, the island of Ærø, where Marstal is, hosts a section of the 'Archipelago trail', a walking trail in south Funen. We had done the Søby to Æroskøbing part two years ago, so this morning we took the bus to Æroskøbing to do the section from there to Marstal. It was a 16Km walk through fields, bushes and villages. Very nice!





On the way there were some typical Scandinavian 'honesty stalls' where local produce is sold.





When we got back to the boat, we felt that we had earned a good meal so we indulged in the first 'Cobb' of the season!

Location:Marstal,Denmark