14-16. August 2022
Some people sing about stormy weather; we have made experience with stony weather.
I still have a few days off. We decide to have a look at skerries on the outer, eastern side of Stockholm – the famous skerry garden. We sail through Stockholm: Årstaviken, under three bastule bridges there, and then the lock of Hammarby. The latter one is very stressful: quite a traffic and strong win in lock’s chamber.
After these passages, we are in the main bay of Stockholm and can admire the Old Town panorama. It is an interesting experience, but quite difficult due to an enormous traffic there.
Then, we sail towards the southern part of the Stockholm’s skerry garden. We plan to try to sail home, to Nyköping, via the outer route close to Nynäshamn. The main route through skerries leads close to Vaxholm island more to the north, we however go through passages Skurusundet and Bogensstaket. These are very narrow passages, we need to use the engine all the time, in some places it is difficult to pass by boats going from the opposite side. The route is poorly marked and requires a constant attention, so no photos from that part of the voyage.
After passing that, we are totally fed up with traffic and crowds. We decide to spend the next days on the islands, without going to harbour, up till when we need to go somewhere where I can commute to the office, by the end of the week. Meanwhile, we pass by marinas at the eastern end of Stockholms metropole and then we are on wider seas, where we can sail without stress.
We choose the cove of Tvättfatten on the island Agnö as the target for today’s sailing. This bay offers a comfortable and protected stay, but the entrance is complicated. According to the guide, the strait leading to the bay is only slightly deeper than our keel and there is the stone in the middle of the strait. Agnieszka stands on the bow to watch for that stone, while I drive the boat very slowly through the strait.Suddenly, Agnieszka points left. I turn slightly to the left. Agnieszka points stronger to the left. I turn stronger to the left. We hit the stone and stop dead in water.
Keel damage on the stones – visible after taking the boat out of water in the autumn.
After thinking about it for a while, we do the simplest thing – I give the throttle back and the boat leaves the stone. Then we move a bit to the right and without any further adventures enter the cove, drop the anchor from the stern and pass the moorings and herrings ashore. I dive near the boat to check the hull damage under water, there is nothing on the rounded part of the hull. In the evening we have the cove to ourselves, we walk around it by land.
The next day, on Monday, August 15, when we leave the cove, we have a bit of stress, whether we will have enough water under the keel, but everything works out.
We sail among the islands with no particular destination. We just want to learn what sailing is like here. For the evening we find a cove on the island of Stora Husaren. We moor in the usual way – anchor from the stern, two bow moorings and herrings. However, the wind changes soon, the cove turns out to be open to the waves that pull the herrings out for us.
We leave this cove and search on the map for the next location fr the night. We find a promising place on the islet of Lilla Husaren and go there. Unfortunately, in the bay we choose, a yacht anchors in the middle, making it difficult to reach convenient places on the shore. And even to identify them! We confuse the promontories and instead of a convenient place with a steeply descending bottom, we hit an underwater stone with a great bang.
Keel front damage, visible in the autumn
We give up the Hussars and sail in the falling dusk to a completely different bay, where, according to the pilotage books, there are a lot of protected places to moor. Already in the dark, we enter Napoleonviken on the island of Agnö – on the other side of the same island where we were mooring yesterday. We moor without any problems and spend the night peacefully.
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