It is overcast today, but still warm with the sun making a valiant attempt to squeeze through. After such a long day yesterday, we really took it easy this morning, having a leisurely shower, washing clothes and exploring the immediate area. The wind is blowing strongly and shifting westwards which makes our little bay less suitable as an anchoring place tonight, so we really have to move on.

We are fortunate to be in the lovely St Anna Archipelago and we can weave through a marked, though very narrow route between islands and rocks and see how far we can go. We both love this area of the Swedish east coast, so I don't anticipate any trouble finding a place to moor for the night.



This time, we choose to go in a direction that allows fast, easy sailing and after only three hours we had covered 15NM, passing the lush inner islands, looking at the cows munching on the grass in the fields dotting the islands.



We decided that this is enough for the day and a peep at the chart tells us that Harstena was just around the corner. We both love this island when we visited last year, so we were very happy to drop anchor in the lagoon outside of the little township that looks so pretty in the afternoon sun. There is no marked route to this island, but it is still one of the most visited places in this area and you can see why.



Harstena really is one of the outer archipelago idylls and gives quite a good picture of what these small communities looked like in the 1800s. And the surrounding natural environment of small islands is magnificent. There are beautiful anchoring places everywhere and a good mix of landscapes – both the large, high, tree clad islands lying directly alongside the bare lichen covered rocky outcrops. It is so unusual to see them together in the same place. In the Stockholm archipelago you have to travel from the middle to the outer islands to see both types of landscape. I really liked this tiny island with its single tree.



It looks just like a Christmas tree and I could picture it shining with glittering lights and a star on top on a deep, dark December evening.

The islands are closely packed together, but the passageways between them are surprisingly deep. In the next picture, you can see a narrow passageway that we went through while weaving south. It looks dangerously shallow but is in fact 16 metres deep.



The morning is crisp and cool, but very sunny. From this protected coastal area, we decide to head out to sea again to take advantage of the good winds and sunny weather to push further southwards quickly. This route takes us out past Häradskär lighthouse.



This lighthouse, which can be seen from 24NM away, was built in 1836 and was the first lighthouse in Sweden with a rotating lens. The last time we were here was three years ago when we were returning with friends from Medieval Week in Gotland. We’d sailed the 50NM across the Baltic from Visby to here and dropped anchor among the bare, exposed rocks late at night, using a powerful spotlight to look for shallow grounds. Little did we realise at the time that around the corner was a more sheltered area with a tiny community. Oh well, all I can say is that we learned a lot during that trip.



Once out at sea we altered course and followed the coastline, doing over 5 knots most of the day. After about 30NM it felt like we’d done enough for the day, so we headed into the coast at Storkläppen lighthouse, just north of the town of Västervik.



This lighthouse, dating from 1890 is a natural meeting point for several marked routes. From here you can go out to sea, or use the buoyed channel northwards into the Tjust archipelago, north-west to Loftahammar or south-west to Västervik. Today we are tired, so we chose to simply turn slightly north-west to the nearest large island of Hässelö (Hazel Island) and to anchor in a quiet bay, giving us a view of the lighthouse as well as a green, tranquil evening scene. We will see what the morning forecast brings us wind wise before we decide where to go for the day. Meanwhile we can potter around onboard and let the birds sit outside on this warm evening and chit chat with their wild friends.