17th July. Arrive Stockholm Archipelago

By 0500 we were getting close to the complicated rocky bits and I thought it was best to stop trying to sleep. There was a ship waiting in the offing (what a great word) as I closed the main entrance channel which I’d picked as my approach. As I approached the East West going channel from the South, close hauled he started to make his approach too. It’s his right of way as I’m a sailing boat (rule 9) but he’s only doing 3 knots, it looks like I should pass clear ahead so I carry on. He turns to port, possibly to avoid me, possibly because it was the track on his gps. Anyway the wind is becoming stronger and we’re now doing 6 knots, I want to get  a bit North of the channel to be able to tack and not fall out of the South of the channel on the next tack, he carries on, very slowly, probably making an eta at the pilot station, when I’ve gone far enough North I tack and we carry on in, various other AIS targets were screaming dangerous at me on the gps plotter alarm amongst which was a pilot boat and a departing ship. I stay as far North as possible and in fact the wind frees and allows me to hug or even depart to the North of the channel as we pass the lighthouse on the rock with guns on the rock still, I’m not sure if they’re historical or still come in handy.

Anyway the pilot boat goes to the ship astern and they depart to the North, not up the way I was going. The departing ship leaves the channel to the South and we proceed in towards the archipelago.

Once inshore of the light we were now in sheltered waters and the sun was starting to blaze. We wove our way up to the North in and around various lights buoys and rocks and shortly we were wondering when would be a sensible moment to start the engine and douse the sails. The wind was gusting to 15 knots and the genoa is hard work to stow so I was hoping for a lull to make it easier but this never came so just bit the bullet and  rolled it up and then dropped the main and motored the last half mile to a beautiful anchorage in the South of Fifang island. Approaching, it appeared to be pretty busy. There were about 40 boats inside, about a dozen with stern anchors out and lines ashore to rocks or rings,  some on pontoons at the North end and half a dozen at anchor. I chose a spot, anchored, tidied up a bit and went to bed.

Awaking a couple of hours later I wondered what to do. There was still about 40 miles to proceed to Stockholm, with canals, bridges, locks to negotiate along the way. I needed fuel, laundry, groceries, a chandler (as I’ve persuaded myself a hook for the buoys would be really handy by myself - many marinas have stern buoys, you have to secure a line to it when passing on the way into the pontoon  and the more time one spends fannying about trying to secure a line to it the more the boat is likely to do her own thing as the wind, current, sod’s law etc take her fancy, the locals use a two foot stainless hook which they casually capture the buoy with on passing)

Looking at the available information (thanks Jean) it appeared that there was a chandler and fuel stop at a marina just before the lock in the canal so I thought I’d carry on up North and see if berthing there looked not too impossible.

Heading North now there was a light wind on the nose so I motored. The sun was really blazing and it was getting hotter. The navigation is not difficult because of all the buoys and lights and so on but one does have to pay attention as there are constant zigs and zags to make and the further North I went the more other traffic joined us.  I did occasionally leave the cockpit, to make  a cheese roll, for instance, but I was less relaxed doing so than normal. Almost every island has people on them and boats going to and fro, everything from big expensive new boats to paddleboards with lots of old little sailing boats and old speedboats too. We pass many beaches and barbecue areas. The landscape is low, rolling, rocky and pine covered.

Eventually we go under a couple of fixed bridges with 25 m clearance, they look a bit close but then they do tend to. Then arrive at the marina; there’s a queue for the fuel and I potter about with lines and fenders. When the two berths free the x yacht ahead of me takes the port side to, blow on berth leaving me the other one. I come in but my prop kicks the stern off to port when going astern so I ended up about 3 foot off the berth, luckily the crew from the X yacht  helped with the lines and soon we were secure. I topped up with fuel then took a berth in the marina having spent some time adjusting my bow fender to the right height for putting the bow on the pontoon. The floating pontoons are really short so I needed to construct a cobsweb of lines to hold me in and was a bit miffed that the boat opposite didn’t offer to help as I came in, the pontoon was so narrow that I couldn’t put my bow on it without hitting the boat opposite so have yet to use the bow fender. Eventually we were secure and I was pretty tired, I sat and had a  beer before heading up to the club house to arrange payment which happens via telephone and a qr code, or does once one’s queued at the bar for ten minutes to ask where to pay and is shown a perfectly obvious sign stating it.

I had a rice muck do, another Hamilton recipe, fried rice with whatever comes to hand in it before an early night.

Anchorage at Fifang

Castly house thing

Entering the Archipelago, flat water!

Zoom in - Sculptures / tree roots / art installations on the lawny bit.