The last trip this morning … Apart from a very short run to drop the boat over at the boatyard on Saturday, that is it for the season. For many Swedes the season is just beginning. They tend to come out to play a week or two after midsummer, but …
The end is nigh …. We are heading gradually towards Oxelosund to lay the boat up for the season, but we decided to have another couple of days in Nyköping. So we left Trosa early morning. Forecasts had been hanging over us again and we knew that thunderstorms were coming …
The wind that had been forecast for a while was due to come in the next 24 hours, so we decided to head to Trosa. We did this with a certain amount of trepidation on my part, not because of the trip, but because of Trosa itself. Sure we have …
Landsort (literally meaning ‘spit of land’) is generally considered the most southerly point of the Stockholm archipelago and is actually a village on the island of Öja. The village has around 30 permanent residents and is probably most famous for the lighthouse. The lighthouse is the oldest one in Sweden …
Forecasting is these days a highly sophisticated scientific process. The trigger for this development arguably came from one event and one man. The event was the Royal Charter Gale in October 1859. This was considered the most severe storm to hit the Irish Sea in the 19th century; 133 ships …
A short trip today which started very energetically. With a nice breeze from directly behind we hoisted full main and then after fiddling with bits of string for ten minutes poled the jib out to goosewing our way down the channel. After sitting down feeling very self-satisfied with the speed …
Once Hugh and Liz had left, it was just Anne and I on board, so in a move resembling groundhog day, we headed back past Vaxholm for the third time. We did manage to sail most of the way, but turned the engine on to get round Vaxholm fort. After …
After a suitable time to recover from the weirdness of Swedish midsummer rituals, we left Vaxholm, heading for Wasahamnen in Stockholm. This was a short trip – just 11 miles, but we did manage to sail a lot of it, taking the sails down when the wind became too fluky …
Today is Swedish midsummer. This is a big deal in Sweden and everyone celebrates in some way. Judging from the number of boats heading the other way today, the vast majority head out to the islands, but we had decided to book in at Vaxholm and see how midsummer is …
Boo is possibly one of the best named Swedish towns. It is sometimes referred to as Saltsjö-Boo, but somehow Boo seems much better. It also seems very appropriate given that Boo is at the start of the Baggensstäket. This is a very narrow channel and as you go through the …
