Jacqui Crowe

Quite a brisk, chilly wind, northerly of course, and a choppy sea on this short trip. Fortunately, it warmed up in the shelter of Gruvbryggan harbour and the sun came out too.

The sea was a mill pond (practically no wind) for our morning passage to Utö. The overnight rain had cleared leaving a cloudy sky which gradually cleared giving some sunny periods. A lovely and peaceful passage over an open area of sea between the islands and mainland.

Very hot day again with little wind. A more open sea passage than of late and landscape lowlyi g and distant so not to view until we got nearer to Nynashamn. Similarly, hardly any other boats about during the first half of the passage but about halfway through an increasing number of boats appeared, heading to and from Nynashamn.

Very hot today. Hoped to get the sails up in the ‘straighter’part of the passage but the wind died to 2-3 knots and a plague of midges and mosquitoes descended on us. They were not put off by insect repellent! Fortunately the wind picked up again and blew them away but by then we were approaching Oxelosund.

Weather and passage similar to yesterday in all respects.

Another blue sky, hot day and again with a northerly wind (upwind) so more motoring through the narrow channels . Lots of other boats going both ways. Today’s passage took us into the Santa Anna National Park area of the East coast archipelago.

Quite windy today but again from the North and on the nose so we motored to avoid having to tack between all the rocks. Also a lot more boats to avoid today. Nearly everyone else heading our way was motoring too while those going south were having a lovely straight line sail under their jibs.

A hot day with little wind so motoring as we found our way across some open sea areas surrounded by reefs and through narrow channels between islands. More stunning scenery today.

We set off early with the expectation of winds up to 12 - 22 knts. What we got was 17-20 knots initially increasing to 19-22 then 20-23 gusting 27. Consequently the sea state was deteriorating as we progressed. Even so it was an exciting and fairly comfortable sail on a close reach until we reached the Blacken E Cardinal buoy when we needed to harden up to the wind to start heading landward and to the entry point to the Vastervik archipelago. It was slow going tacking against the wind which had increased further to a constant 24 gusting up to 33 knots as predicted by the amber wind warning we received over the VHF part way through our passage. The wind was thanks to a series of squalls coming from various angles in the northern sector but somehow we managed to run along the edge of each one and only get a sprinkle of rain. We definitely felt the down draughts of each as it approached. Eventually we made it into the lea of the land. While the wind didn’t drop much, the sea state improved significantly and made our entry through the rocks easy. Once inside on calmer waters we were able to enjoy the stunning scenery as we made our way to Vastervik where we berthed in Pampas Marina.

Another early start under grey skies, somewhat cooler than of late and requiring an extra layer of clothing once we were out of the harbour. The sun did breakthrough halfway along the passage so it was a lovely afternoon. Light winds at the start of the day meant motor sailing for a couple of hours before the wind picked up and settled in a mainly SW direction. From there on we had a great sail almost until we reached the marina - downwind, beam reach, close reach. The highlight of the passage was passing under the Oland bridge (clearance 34.6m), the longest in Sweden(6.07km). Saw quite a few yachts going both ways along the coast and only one ship, the Gotland Ferry which we encountered in the Oskarshamn approach channel and required us to make a course change. Do these ferries wait until they see us coming? The industrial landscape of Oskarshamn can be seen from some distance off but once in the marina it is quiet and close to the town.