One of the main reasons for making this trip is to see and experience something new. So far, we have spent most days simply sailing and taking little time to enjoy the surroundings. My understanding was that the idea was to travel as far south as we could, then do a slow trip homewards, dropping in on various communities along the way. While this looked good on paper, the reality is that travelling is quite tiring, especially if the winds don’t co-operate and it seems that the wind does not listen to the forecast! While the VHF is blithely informing us that winds in our area will be NW 5-7m/s, we are actually experiencing SW 1-3m/s.

It is another bright, sunny day and I can see that the thought of spending another day fighting light headwinds is not going to be fun, so we talk about going to the nearby township of Loftahammar and spending the day there instead. One special reason is that our old boat, Olivia, has her new home harbour here and Lars-Göran still has a very soft spot for his “first love”. With those thoughts foremost in our minds, we set the light wind gennaker and drifted along the 5NM channel up to the harbour at Loftahammar.



As you can see, the harbour is quite a busy place with at least two large marinas – surprising in a town with only 1,000 permanent inhabitants. However, according to the tourist brochure as many as 20,000 come here to stay in the summer and we did see many caravan parks and camping grounds lining the route into the township. Once you come up the narrow inlet you pass a tiny opening between the cliffs into a body of water that resembles a large lake, called Vivassen. The wind today was straight up the inlet and into the harbour, so all of the boats in the marinas were bouncing up and down. It looked somewhat uncomfortable, so we nipped around the corner and dropped anchor in a shallow but sheltered bay lined with old boathouses.



Once safely moored, we launched the dinghy and rowed around to the town itself and set off to take a look. Of course, our faithful friend also had to tag along with us.



The first thing that I HAD to do was to buy Lars-Göran an icecream! Okay, it was a hot day, but honestly, sometimes it is like travelling with a small child when we go ashore. He always has his eyes peeled for the familiar icecram flags displayed outside the shops or the GB icecream clown. He was very happy to munch on his favourite (White Magnum) and after sitting in the park eating it, we then took a short walk to the church.



This church dates from the mid eighteenth century and, as in many small Swedish towns, it dominates the surroundings and is surprisingly large considering the small size of the parish. But in those days the church was a powerful force in this country and you can see that just by looking at the impressive dimensions and solid construction of these buildings. They contrast sharply with the small, simple wooden cottages that were owned or leased by the parishioners.

Loftahammar is a living community, not just a “summer town”. Part of the reason is because of companies like the popular Wienerbagarn. This bakery used to be located in Stockholm and was well known for its great buns (bullar) and what we would call Danish pastries (wienerbröd). The bakery gradually outgrew its Stockholm location and the owner, who was on holiday here in Loftahammar in the 1960s saw that there was plenty of empty commercial property here as well as people who needed employment. So in 1966 he moved the bakery here and it has steadily grown into a local success story and today employs 75 people.

The town was lovely to walk around in, especially as the weather was warm and summery. We looked at some of the older homes dating from the eighteenth century with their intricate patterned woodwork and views across the water.



Our wanderings led us back towards the harbour, as everything here seems to revolve around the sea. As you look across this “lake” you can see the narrow opening that leads to the long inlet from the sea.



We wandered along the packed piers looking at boats and of course keeping an eye out for Olivia. Lars-Göran was a little worried that she didn’t appear to be here and he fretted that maybe the new owners were not happy with her and had sold her or had moved her somewhere else. He owned Olivia for eleven years so they have a lot of history together. Suddenly, after scanning the wharf, he spotted her up on land and we went over for a sticky beak.



She has not been in the water this year at all. We don’t know why, but she looks well cared for, so he was happy to see that all was well with her, even though he’d have preferred to see her in the water.

Today’s day of resting and wandering around on land has been a great boost to our morale and we feel ready to tackle another day of sailing. Perhaps the ideal answer is a combination of longer stretches of sailing interspersed with shorter hops here and there and rest days exploring on land. It’s all a matter of finding a balance that works for us all.

We are being spoiled by the weather at the moment, with a late burst of summer cheering us all up. The stable, warm conditions are forecast to continue in this part of Sweden for the near future so we should take advantage of it while it lasts. The chilly winds of change will be upon us soon enough.