I’m sure that anyone passing by our boat today would think that gypsies had come to the area. We have washing hanging out to dry, the bedding out airing in the dry sunny weather, a dog wandering around deck and the birds chirping and squawking to their friends.



We’d like to move further southwards but it is going to be a little more tricky to find anchoring places from now onwards. The archipelago pretty much finishes here and the rest of the east coast consists of low, shallow, sandy and exposed coastline which offers no decent bottom to grip the anchor and no shelter from wind and waves. The only choice is to stay at designated dredged harbours, generally located behind protective sea walls.

Staying at harbours is something that we normally try and avoid. It is the end of the season, though, so there will not be so many idiotic, drunken party animals around to disturb the entire harbour. In addition, several places have closed down their offices and ancillary services or are about to close them down. As we don’t tend to use these services anyway (toilets, showers, laundries, land based electricity) we won’t miss them and this means that we can tie up at the pier free of charge (love that word free). It will take a little careful forward planning to take full advantage of the Nordström Tight-Arse Tour but honestly, we’d much rather spend the money at the grog shop. A night in one of these harbours during the season costs as much as three decent bottles of wine and I know what I’d rather have, especially as we would normally choose to lie by anchor whenever we can.

With that in mind, we head southwards along Kalmarsund to see how far we can go and where we can tie up for free. The first thing we see, just south of the bay where we stayed was the old lighthouse of Dämman.



There is an interesting story behind this rather fancy building out in the middle of the sound. Kalmarsund was a very busy commercial shipping route and in this northern section, the depth is around 25 metres everywhere – except for this one 3 metre ground right in the middle, about 11NM south of Blå Jungfrun.

By the mid nineteenth century, the maritime insurance brokers, Lloyds of London, were getting fed up with paying out large amounts for ships that sank after foundering on this particular rocky outcrop. The area became a literal ship’s graveyard as dozens of fully laden vessels sank with valuable cargo aboard. The Swedish government was indifferent, so Lloyds began to build the lighthouse actually on the ground. This was no ordinary building, but a rather striking and beautiful lighthouse.

It remained a working station until 1969 when the Swedish authorities replaced it with a simple lightbuoy about 500 metres east of it. Poor Dämman became an abandoned and forgotten ghost house until 1995 when a local businessman bought it from the government for only 250,000 kr ($A45,000) – bargain! He renovated it totally and today it is the very exclusive Water Hotel, boasting 12 luxurious guest rooms, each with a magnificent view and a top class restaurant that is very often booked out well in advance.

We sailed by and by mid afternoon we decided to make the tiny mainland coastal community of Pataholm our harbour for the night. The guest harbour, run by the local boat club is very reasonable and we expect that we will be alone here. We have a view across the sound to Borgholm castle on Öland and the guest harbour is in a very peaceful rural setting.




In the morning, another warm and sunny day, we get out our bikes and ride the few kilometres along country roads to the township itself. We are all alone in the guest harbour and it is just as tranquil as we had hoped.



The harbour is located at Saltor, about 1NM south of the settlement. There used to be a deep harbour into town in the sixteenth century but the land levels have risen nearly three metres since then and now this area can only be used by shallow draught motor boats. From the coastal road, the small town stretches out hugging the coastline.



The township used to be a busy and thriving harbour, with a large trading centre exporting iron and timber as well as a big ship building wharf. Sadly most of this died out in the late nineteenth century and today it is a small, quiet borough of about 80 people.



The houses are pooled around a central cobblestoned square and this gives you some idea of how life was lived a hundred years ago. The township is beautifully and lovingly restored, with a folk museum exhibiting artefacts and photos from Pataholm’s heyday. Looking around this quiet, peaceful settlement today, it is hard to visualise it as an important and well-frequented trading town.



We walked around the few streets and along the shoreline where there is a pretty park and picnic area and a few small piers offering another view of the buildings overlooking what was the old harbour. The inhabitants take great pride in the buildings and gardens which were a feast for all the senses – especially the pretty cottage gardens full of flowers.



The rural scene is never far away from these settlements. They remind me a little of the area around Port Fairy where my nanna lived. Her house at the end of Wishart Street was just a few steps away from pastures where cows grazed and as a city kid, it was a real treat for me to spend holidays there. Likewise for Lars-Göran, whose grandparents were dairy farmers in Finland. He also has some fond memories of holidays spent with farfar and farmor. And to show that he still carries an affection for cows, he and Lambi ambled over to meet some new bovine friends.



I jokingly called it his harem, especially as that rather pushy brown calf was trying to give him a big, sloppy cow kiss.

Most of the houses in Pataholm date from the eighteenth century. Anything earlier was burned to the ground by the Danes in the wars that raged here over sovereignty in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It is a very pretty little market town and one that is well worth a visit for those travelling the coastal route in Småland. I believe their Christmas market is something very special.




We intend to stay here another night and in the morning perhaps head out to one of the other small townships along the Småland coast. There are several interesting little inlets and places to explore, as well as the bigger towns like Kalmar. Not to mention the island of Öland just a couple of kilometres across the strait.