We did quite a long stretch yesterday mostly in open waters. The wind was dead against us as we left Oregrund at 7 am so we motored for three hours before setting sails. By the, wind was steady but, still heading us, so we made a couple of tacks. The wind turned slightly to the north as we rounded Brornen (Björnen) lighthouse and turned eastwards and, we could ease of the few inches on the sheets needed to give us speed

It was a quick but quite bumpy ride east for three hours before we entered the protected waters of the bay of Gavle. We have now formally entered northen Sweden (Norrland) as we passed Dalalven (Dalälven) shortly befor entering the bay. Aroun 450 nm coastlime now remains if we whant to reach the Finnish border.

SXK has an out harbour at Granskar (Granskär) where we spent the night. A brand new pontoon with electricity was available. The question is now whether there will be space available during Midsummer as we plan to come back on Friday morning.

Today we motored the 5 nm to Gavle where we have cleaned and provisioned the boat. We are now waiting for our wife’s to arrive by car late evening.

We had stable following winds yesterday. We started at seven with a nice breakfast sailing under Code 0. The Code was replaced with the gennaker shortly after breakfast. Four gibes took us along the fairways to Arholma where one has to go out in the open sea for around 20 nm. Another gibe at sea and then we were heading into a new archipelago.

We opted for a SXK boy at Sladdaron (Sladdarön) in an extremely well protected bay.

’We had some rain and a lot of mosquitoes in the evening but, our nets and cockpit tent kept most of them out of our way and we slept soundly after another nice day of sailing.

We had a slow start today as the planned distance was only 6 nm. It turned out to be 9 as we had to beat our way to windward. But, the weather was nice and the breeze perfect so no complains. We stopped early in Oregrund (Öregrund) as the forecast predicted strong northerlies (dead against) and rain today.

Oregrund is an old trading town on the east coast with a long shipping tradition. Almost all Swedish steal was exported from here during 17^th and 18^th century mostly to England where the “Argroun Irin” was highly sought after for its fine quality. There are well preserved wooden buildings in the old part of town.

We were lucky enough to find a kind man at the local museum that, despite the fact that the museum was not yet open for the season, gave us a tour and told a lot of stories from days gone by.

Today was again a lovely summer day with light winds. We had more following winds than yesterday so our Code 0 came to good use. It was unfurled and fuled a number of times as we tried to sain as soon as we had some wing. We also set a new record sailing for a long time 28 deg from the apparent wind and almost laying our mark.

The thermal wind picked up after lunch and we made good speed north along a winding fairway from Fjaderholmarna (fjäderholmarna) through Finnhamn up to Blido (Blidö) where we spent the night.

The weather today was quite different from yesterday with light and varying winds. We started with a challenge.

The Draget Canal is a protected shortcut (se last post). It was once a Viking fairway and it is first described in a cronical of a trip by tha Danisch King Valdemar 1219. The water level at that time was 3 meters higher and it was a sound between the islands.

Land rice reduced the depth and a Canal was blasted in the second half of the 19^th century. The canal today has been restored some years ago and is now 5 meters wide and 2 meters deep.

No problem for Sally with 3.56 m beam and 1.85 m draft. We did however, bring part of the overhanging trees down on deck but no harm was done to the rigging.

We sailed east after the narrow fairways around Draget to the outlying island Huvudskar (Huvudskär). There are around 200 islands around Huvudskar and the harbour/anchorage is very well protected.

It has been inhabited for centuries fishermen, pilots and later custom officers. A special law for the island was recorded 1450 and in force into the 19^th century.

It is now a protected area with special requirement on quiet activities (no motoring, loud music, parties etc). A beautifull place ión this nice summer evening.

Brother Goran (Göran) arrived in time for a nice lunch on the dock. We left Nykoping around 1 pm well fed, and, motored the channel to sea. A fresh southerly was blowing gusting 25 -30 knots as we headed east behind the islands.

It is interesting to sail behind these islands that has this forests growing on them. Sometimes you are totally becalmed behind a wall of trees and five minutes later you are doing 7 knots in strong winds. The waters are protected so no swell and hardly any wind waves as you glide along.

We sailed the winding fairway of this beautiful archipelago for a couple of hours before reaching a stretch of open water south of Sodertalje (Södertälje). Here was open horizon and free wing and we made good and bumpy speed across to the archipelago north of Landsort. Friends of ours who live nearby and sail a lot in this area gave us some alternatives for anchoring.

We opted for “the woods” and sailed strait north and far inland.

A narrow and shallow (2 m) channel leads to a number of bays with many anchoring and mooring options.

Rassavikarna are extremely well protected, we felt like we were on a lake.

We had some well-deserved beers and a light dinner in the nice summer evening before sundown but, we disappeared below to our bunks when the mosquitoes came out in force.

Patrik with family left yesterday after breakfast. Hakan set sails after some preparations (and restoring a lot of things that had been moved from their normal places in the starboard aft cabin to allow space for the family).

It was a lovely sunny day with a strong following wind and Sally made good progress north through the archipelago. Lots of islands and markers keeps you busy navigating. The crossing of Braviken was the only part were the autopilot could be left without attention long enough to allow for preparing and eating lunch.

There is a nice bay with a buoys south of Nykoping (Nyköping) for a quiet night. Hakan left early next morning to go to Nykoping to pick up his brother who would sail with him for a week.

Nykoping is at a river mouth. The water level was three meters higher when Nykoping started to develop in the 12^th and 13^th century and the city was then by the see. Land uplift and silting has now mode the city inland with quite a long dredged (and well-marked) channel leading up to it. We skipped the marina and tied up along the old dock in the river.

There is a lot of history over the centuries. Most well-known is probably the Nyköping Banquet (Nyköpings gästabud), the Christmas celebration 11 December 1317 at Nyköping Castle by King Birger of Sweden. Among the guests were his two brothers Duke Valdemar and Duke Eric, who later that night were imprisoned and subsequently starved to death in the dungeon of Nyköping Castle.

The castle still stands proud by the river and I am surprised that my brother suggested this place to meet up as I have heard that there are still keys in the locks to the dungeon… The walk along the river is very nice and takes you to the centre of town where Hakan provisioned for the coming week.

Sally is back for the fifth time. The last week has been lovely. We have sailed up and down the coast using Fyrudden as a parking place for the respective cars. First trip was with youngest son and his two small boys. We had some lovely days filled with adventures for the boys.

After that Hakan had a shitty day as the toilet had broken down and spilled things that should not be spilled inside a boat. Eva came up with spares on Saturday morning and once the toilet was back in shape we could leave for a lovely but short sail. Eva drove home on Sunday afternoon to go back to work on Monday. She has less than two weeks left and we (at least Hakan) are counting the days.

On Monday, it was time for the oldest son with his family to come on board for three nights. Three kids between one and a half and five makes life interesting. It was really nice to be able to spend some time with them, and their parents. They have just left for other adventures and Hakan is preparing to start sailing north on his own.

We left Vestervik after breakfast in a light northerly (nignt/morning thermal breeze) But, it did not last long into Gudingen. Gudingen is a deep fjord/bay just north of Vastervik stretching 15 miles NW.

We sailed about half of it through a nice wooded archipelago with farms and homesteads on the larger islands.

As usual in this part of Sweden some of the nice stretches include narrow and rather shallow waters. Our Navionics chars are very detailed and accurate and most parts are also well marked.

We were headed by the sea-breeze (SE wearing S in these parts) as we were leaving the bay and had some nice upwind tacks before we could turn north and run up the coast in a following wind.

We spent the night at Stugviken on Stora Alo (Stora Ålö). This is the centre for the local section of the Swedish Cruising Ass. (SXK). Some docks with nice new red stern buoys and a number of buoys provide plenty of room for members and guests in a beautiful and well protected bay.

We had a nice BBQ and dinner on the dock with fellow sailors. And, as usual, we picked their brains on the coast ahead of us.

We motored early next morning to Fyrudden where we took on fuel before mooring up for the day. Jesper caught an early buss to the train that would take him home. Friends visited on their way to their boat that has been stuck in Berlin for more than a year due to Corona. Hakans younger son with two small boys (1.5 and 4 years old) arrived for some days of adventure in the area.

Today has been another sunny and warm day with light and variable winds however, by noon it settled into a reasonable thermal wind. We have had a lot of gennaker practise unfurling and furling in changing winds and jibes.

We have followed descriptions from fellow sailors and valuable advice from our local support. Leif and Bengt have been most helpful on their respective home waters. Instead of joining the main fairway north we started by very slowly sailing west into the archipelago up a sound that felt more like a river.

Then turning north behind the island. These waters appeared unmarked both in the guides we had an on our electronic charts. Luckily, real life proved to be better with some very helpful markers part of the way. AL this was done under sails in light breeze or motoring. The gennaker was then unfurled in the more open and straight main fairway.

The archipelago is very beautiful and still quiet as the summer season has not yet started. We did not see any other sailboats on our detours and only a handful in the main fairways.

The second detour cold bee done entirely under sail as we had a following wind by then.

Vastervik (Västervik) is a nice small town. We went all the way up to the marina at Slotsholmen. Very conveniently located near the city where we treated ourselves to burgers and beers.

We had another early start today leaving the harbour at 7 am. The gennaker came up just outside the pier. We had breakfast at the table in the cockpit whilst ghosting along at a few knots in a light following breeze and in extremely calm waters.

We crossed over to the mainland and the beginning of the archipelago south of Vållö. This is the start of a 250 nm long almost uninterrupted archipelago with protected fairways and thousands of anchorages. Some say it starts further south but not for reasonably sized keelboats.

We followed Enegatan, a historic fairway used by the small sailing crafts in coastal trade over the centuries. It is in parts quite narrow winding its way through the rocks. It is very well-marked in most parts.

It passes the old stone quarry in Vanevik (Vånevik). The query was once commissioned to deliver the stones for Hitlers large victory monument, a delivery that never took place.

The winds were light but stayed this far around south. The gennaker was furled and then unfurled as the wind shifted and sometimes died down behind the wooded islands. We also used the engine to motor through the trickiest parts of the route.

We decided to leave the narrow fairway and to take a shortcut across the bay outside Oskarshamn directly to Krakelund (Kråkelund). The wind had become stronger and more varying by then sometimes giving us a 7 knot reach under gennaker and shortly thereafter less wind on the nose.

It finally settled in NE and around 8 knots giving us a close reach and some short tacks the rest of the way. We were lucky to find the SXK buoy at Krakelund free so we tied up for the night after 10 hours of interesting and very varying sailing. Nice sunny summer weather all day and a glorious evening in dying breeze.