I've experienced my first real torrential summer storm in Sweden. I am amazed at both its suddenness and ferocity as well as the total calm once the downpour passed.

Lars-Göran was about to pull up the anchor when he noticed a particularly black cloud approaching and he dashed inside, telling me that it was really going to bucket down. Which it did.



The heavens opened and it rained, rained and rained solidly for 40 minutes. When it finished, a gentle warm breeze came to dry off everything and the sun peeped out from behind the clouds as though nothing amiss had happened. When Lars-Göran went down to empty the water that had collected in the dinghy, he measured out 45 litres of rainwater! Now that's a downpour.

After that, we did pull up the anchor and head south towards the middle archipelago. Our goal tonight is Själbottna and to get there we need to cross the busy Furusundleden again, sharing the space with the big Finland ferries.




Fortunately we only had to dodge a couple of them before heading into our chosen bay for the evening. In the morning we went to join up with the Husaröleden which is an old route between the rocks and islands. I've read that it is beautiful, but very busy in the summer, so we will have to see if the wind allows us to go that way. Lars-Göran is keen to take a look at a large bay called Paradiset on Stora Jolpan which lies along that route.

And wouldn't you know it - strong, tacking winds of course, sailing against heavy sail traffic coming at us downwind. All in a narrow route, with the busiest sections naturally at the narrowest and shallowest points. Ain't life grand? In the end, Lars-Göran chose to tack only with the mainsail up (we still made over 3 knots!) and in mid afternoon we laid by anchor at our chosen place - Paradiset.



It is rather pretty, but as usual most boats choose to tie up to cliffs, rubbing fenders with each other. As you can see, we like a little privacy and peace and quiet, so we are lying by anchor well away from the madding crowd. One of the main reasons we avoid being closer is that Swedish parents thoroughly indulge their children's every whim and this includes allowing them to take out pappa's powerful, motorised dinghy and drive around and around and around annoying everybody in the harbour. Before long, every other kid is also allowed to do the same and it is awful. In some popular bays this starts at 8am and is still going at 10pm. Whenever we look to anchor, we scan the horizon for boats containing kids and motorised dinghies - a bad combination.

There are other bays in this island group, but every available crack is filled with boats moored to cliffs. I felt a little sorry for these boats as they had to contend with continual swell from passing boats all day. But in July in a popular place, you have to take the place you can get if you are so desperate to tie up to a cliff. I can't understand why it is so important to be at land, when many of these boats also have dinghies if they need to go ashore. What do they use the dinghy for (well apart from an expensive plaything for the kids)?




The weather pattern established the other day continues. There are a few sunny periods, but it is mostly overcast every day and today it rained heavily on and off for several hours. It is hard to get things dry when it is damp everywhere, so I hope it stops sometime soon. This afternoon we motored around to Ingmarsö to shop. There is the best ICA supermarket on this island that carries an amazing range of goods for a small island shop. The prices are decent, too, so we were happy to pick up what we needed and then cross over the waterway to Träskö-Storö where we dropped anchor across from this tiny cottage.



On the other side of us is the high cliffs and trees that are so typical of the islands of the middle archipelago. And through the gap in the cliffs (which we can't sail through as there are stones just under the water) you can see into the fjärd outside.




We are not so fond of these islands, so we are moving on tomorrow towards the outer archipelago again. It depends very much on the weather, with the forecast not looking the best for the next few days. I hope it brightens up again soon.