24 – 28 May: Meeting up with friends

We spent a fascinating morning at the Vasa museum – the Vasa is the 17^th century warship which sank on its maiden voyage in 1628, but was preserved in the cold Scandinavian mud so that it is 95% complete.  It was gradually dried out (like the Mary Rose) and can now be seen in its entirety.  It doesn’t actually look very stable – rather top-heavy – but many artefacts have been rescued and it is an amazing insight into life on board at that time.  I’m glad we were going back to the comforts of Astraia!

Apparently, the Vasa would have been brightly painted in its day and look more like this model …

We then had a typical Swedish lunch of open prawn sandwiches at a riverside restaurant with a view of the city of Stockholm …

Back at the Navishamnen Marina on Djurgården, we were astonished to find an identical Nauticat 42 backing into the berth next to us – you don’t see many of them around at all …

Later that evening, we welcomed our friends, Caroline and David, on board with an attempt at a traditional Swedish smorgasbord – it was delicious anyway …

The next day, Caroline and David were up bright and early and ready for a spot of sailing …

First, we motored into the centre of Stockholm and took a look at the old town, Gamla Stan …

… we were amused by this crane disguised as a giraffe …

… and loved the ‘olde worlde’ look of Stockholm with a fleet of classic wooden sailing boats in front of it …

Here they are in full sail ….

… this one seems to have as many as 4 foresails on the bowsprit …

After that, we had a little hitch!  Investigating an engine alarm which was bleeping, Charles found the bilges completely full, with water halfway up the engine itself!!  So we had to quickly hoist the jib and gently sail downwind while pumping the bilge water out.  Meanwhile Charles crawled into the engine room to investigate the problem.  It turned out to be a split in a pipe in the sea water cooling system, which he temporarily fixed by cutting off the end and refitting it.  Later, we replaced it completely.  We seem to have had more than our fair share of technical problems with the engine, generator, hot water system and so on this year, perhaps a combination of the age of the boat (19 years) and the harsh Swedish winter.  Anyway, apart from actually being at sea, Charles is never happier than when he is doing something with the engine.

The problem fixed for now, we were ready to head out into the archipelago, but decided not to go too far in case of further engine problems.  So we returned to Napoleonviken, one of our favourite spots …

‘Old’ friends enjoying spending some time together …

We enjoyed a walk around the island, and found a ‘hobbit’ house!  Some sort of store room in a scout camp, I think.  Bilbo – are you in …?

A glass of pink fizz as the sun goes down over the islands …

The next day we set sail for another island, Caroline looking quite the ‘pro’ at the helm …

… and tied up to a rock in Karvaholmarna …

… where we had a nice lunch on board followed by a little walk around the island …

… with beautiful peaceful views over the fjord …

But, by the time we returned to the boat ten minutes later, some grey clouds had suddenly appeared, the wind had got up and completely changed direction, and we had to get away from the rocks as quickly as possible …

… and head for Saltsjöbaden Marina, where we got safely tucked in among the other boats, anchored to a stern buoy, with the Grand Hotel in the background …

From here, it was a short walk to the station, and our friends could easily take a train to Stockholm Arlanda airport.

Just as well we were safely in the marina, as the following day was really quite windy …

It was a good day to do our laundry and catch up with other domestic boat chores and further engine repairs, then return to Sune Carlsson boatyard. 

We did have one more visitor to the boat – Teddy, a lovely, well-behaved golden retriever from ‘Adagio’ came on board for a drink …

… with his ‘parents’, Sheila and Edward …

The following day, we left to drive the car back to UK and leave it there for the summer.  We drove across Sweden (hundreds of miles of trees), took the ferry to Helsingør in Denmark (of Hamlet fame)

… drove across Denmark to Esbjerg, took the overnight ferry to Harwich, and drove back to Bosham – 2 days and 3 hours in total from leaving the boat.

22 - 23 May: To Stockholm via the 'back door'

We had a relaxed morning pottering from Napoleonviken ...

... to another pretty island called Eriktorpsviken ...

... where again we tied up to a convenient rock!

We enjoyed watching a family of geese - the parents were impressive in defending their brood from other geese, and making sure they had all six before they moved on ...

The sea is so clear and the rocks smooth and bare by the water ...

... apart from a few brave wild flowers which manage to grow among the rocks ...

... but the island itself is covered with trees and masses of lichen ...

The next day, we set off for Stockholm, via the Baggensstäket or 'back door', a very narrow channel where you have to sound your horn to warn other shipping you're approaching as there's really only room for one sizeable boat at a time ...

We passed some quite grand-looking houses - with matching boat-houses at the bottom of their gardens!

We had to get under the motorway bridge ...

... just made it!

... and went past Nacka Strand - a popular waterfront development overlooking the archipelago and harbour ...

... until we reached the lovely green island of Djurgården, a calm oasis in the centre of Stockholm ...

... where we moored to a stern buoy in Navishamnen marina, a short walk from museums, parks and the very efficient tram into the city centre.

A very peaceful evening in the marina with the sun setting over the city beyond ...

20 - 21 May: Setting off into the Archipelago

At last we're ready to go - we finally left Sune Carlsson boatyard behind ...

... and set off into open water towards the 30,000 islands of the Stockholm archipelago ...

We had decided to spend a few days in the archipelago close to Stockholm while we made sure that everything worked properly.  Just as well!  We had only gone about half a mile before the engine overheated and the alarm sounded!  The water was very deep so we had to sail into a shallower spot to anchor and investigate the problem - so we rolled out a scrap of sail ...

... and anchored in a pretty little bay.  We had half-expected this to happen as the coolant system was likely to have air locks in it due to work on the hot water tank, so it was just a matter of topping up the coolant - here's Charles down in the engine room.

Then we could set off again.  We wanted to explore a few little bays we had not yet discovered to which we could take our friends, Caroline and David, when they arrived at the weekend.  We wound our way through delightful islands, dotted with typical Swedish wooden houses, in perfect weather with blue skies and sunshine ...

... and through a narrow entrance into Napoleonviken (Napoleon's bay) on the island of Ägnö. The name originated when Napoleon's great-nephew (also called Napoleon) passed Ägnö one hot summer's day in 1869 and took a swim in the bay ...

We moored 'bows to' a steep-sided rock in the Swedish way, running an anchor from the stern and tying the mooring lines to trees.  We could then just step ashore down a ladder over the bow ...

But we decided against taking a swim as the water temperature was only about 12°C.  Instead we scrambled up rocks through untrodden undergrowth to the top of the island for a lovely view over the trees ...

... and later celebrated our first landfall this year with the traditional glass of bubbly ...

The next morning the wind direction had changed and our anchor started to drag, so we moved to a better spot in the bay, which was also lower-lying land, and took a walk around the island.  This looked, at first, a beautiful view, but the mound in the foreground turned out to be a huge anthill!  And there were plenty of enormous ants crawling about - you had to avoid them, or brush them off quickly, because they bit!

We walked around the bay and looked back at our boat tied up to a rock - it looks as though we've made rather a bad navigational error!!

Parts of the island have lush green grass and tall luxuriant trees, still coming into leaf as Spring is rather later in Sweden ...

In other places, wild flowers seem to grow literally out of the rock ...

This is a view across one of the bays at the far side of the island ...

... and there were some lovely reflections once the wind had died.