Sunshine! And fine winds from the south west. I think that means a sailing day. I had thought to have a washing day, but a couple of days of stable weather are forecast, so we'll go to the more northern limits of the archipelago and worry about the washing another day.

We set the sails and prepared to ease outside of the protected waters of the archipelago and head for the island group of Stora Nassa, via Bullerö, Sandhamn and Björkskär - a distance of 25 nautical miles and quite a decent day's sail from here. Downwind sailing is actually the toughest point of sail compared with any other point of sail. It can take a lot of concentration to keep the boat on course and follow the winds which is coming from directly behind the boat. Sailing downwind means less apparent wind, which means that the boat can carry quite a bit more sail area to maintain reasonable boat speed. The trick is the combination of doing the right things with the sails and constant adjustments to accommodate the existing conditions. Lars-Göran set the sails in a goose-wing and we sped along at a respectable 5 knots in the light winds towards Bullerö, sighting the little village at Hemviken an hour or so after setting out.




Well known Swedish artist Bruno Liljefors bought Bullerön in 1908, and one year later built a hunting-lodge where he and his family spent their summers. In the springtime, Liljefors and his artist friends hunted on Bullerön. Some well-known names included Anders Zorn and Albert Engström. It was their paintings of the marvellous natural environment and animals in the area that caused the archipelago to become well known in the twentieth century. The hunting lodge (pictured below looking fabulous in the sunlight) is today a museum of archipelago nature and culture, and also contains reproductions of Liljefors’ work. We were there two years ago, so it was interesting to see it from the water.




Despite these outer islands lacking in vegetation, much of this area is a bird sanctuary with a startling array of nesting birds. We could see eider, tufted ducks, beautiful velvety black scoters, oystercatchers and my favourites, the sweet little scampering turnstones (roskarl)




While the islands lying westwards closer to the mainland are cloaked in forests, those out here in the eastern extremities are bare and quite barren. Though there is still a striking beauty about them that artists like Liljefors and Strindberg captured on canvas. Some of these islands almost look alive and this one appeared suddenly around the corner rising up like an enormous whale. I looked at the chart, expecting it to be called Valön (whale island) but it was inexplicably called Fågelö (bird island). Go figure.




Beyond Bulleerö we had a choice to head past the lunacy thast is Sanhamn in July, or to stay on the outside where we were guaranteed to be pretty much on our own. It wasn't a hard choice to make, so we continued on our route out at sea, coming in close to Korsö lighthouse, which signals the beginning of the buoyed passage westwards into Sandhamn and Stockholm itself.




We looked with binoculars towards Sandhamn itself and saw many billowing sails on the horizon. I can'y blame them as it is a perfect day to be out on the water. I just have no desire to play dodge-the-once-a-year-sailor. It's enough of a challenge to avoid the shoals, so we slipped by without bothering to check out Sandhamn and concentrated on moving northwards.




The wind began to freshen in the afternoon and we made good speed, gliding into the wide passage through the archipelago of Björkskär, which lies about 8 nautical miles north of Sandhamn. We really like this island group, but not in July as the few mooring spots are quickly filled. It is owned by Lidingö municipality and they run a guest harbour complete with sauna, piers, bbq spots etc on the main island. There were quite a few people there as we passed by in increasing wind. Where did all of this wind come from?




We correctly guessed that the main mooring place at the north of the island would be popular today as it offers good shelter from southerly winds. One disadvantage of this spot is that it is a passageway, so you get a lot of traffic going in and out of the island group. Not only can it be noisy as they pass, but it can be wavy as motor boats in particular leave a lot of wash and water disturbance. Quite a few boats were already tied to the cliffs in Hemsundet and I predict that soon they will be rubbing fenders together as more boats were headed in this direction.




We sailed the last five nautical miles to Stora Nassa, a prettyouter archipelago consisting of 364 islands - one for each day of the year. As a lot of this area is a bird sanctuary, it is out of bounds at this time of the year while the birds are nesting, so that somewhat reduces the choice of mooring place. Some of the more popular places were quite full. It's no fun being squeezed in between others in a nature harbour. It's unavoidable at a guest harbour, but the idea of a nature harbour is to "get away from the rat race".




We spent quite some time drifting around trying to balance our need for some kind of privacy, beautiful scenery, a degree of protection from winds and the weather forecast and chose a compromise spot for tonight. We can review it tomorrow, as there are a few little one boat spots that are ideal in less windy conditions.


And as if reading my mind, when I turned on my mobile phone to see if we had connection so far from the mainland, there was the much anticipated SMS to announce the birth of gorgeous little baby Oscar - he was born today (sharing a birthday with Sweden's Crown Princess) and the message reports that mum and baby are well and that dad is still recovering. Typical.




Congratulations to all of you! Apparently dad is already onto his second video tape.

I say keep that camera firmly glued to your hands and pretty soon you’ll catch him doing something you can use as ammunition against him when he’s older! (The 18th birthday bash works well for that)

Congratulations Bethy, we can’t wait to meet him in person!