July 24th Skarsgard 1

We left the anchorage after breakfast, it was a lovely day with the sun shining and light winds from the North East. Under way we set sail straight away and left our bay, returning to the main route out of Stockholm we thought it would not be easy to sail with contrary winds but they were light and we had a lovely morning sailing with a little beating, through some very narrow channels where the wind was doing an impression of a Northerly in the Kyles but we managed to ghost through without resorting to the engine. In slightly open waters after this we had a couple of tacks then with a 6 mile stretch dead to windward and the batteries needing a charge we motored  up to Lilla Nassa munching on sandwiches as we went and after another couple of narrow passages were in a beautiful quiet,  in terms of weather, lagoon with about a dozen boats moored to the rocks around about it. We chose a likely looking spot and nosed gently in but it proved too shallow so tried another and it proved likelier so we backed out again, dropped the stern anchor and nosed in again. The wind was on the port beam so we drifted off a little to port as we came in but a friendly local took our line and gave us a tug back to position and Graham and Sue leapt, like mountain goats, off the bow with long lines to attach to appropriate rocks which  although not obvious initially proved fine for securing to. We tightened up the anchor which was holding nicely this time  and  it looked like we’d managed our first mooring to rocks evolution. Swimming and pottering around looking for spots for the evenings barbecue took up an hour or so. The water temperature was around 22 degrees so very refreshing after being in the sun. There were groups of children leaping off rocks into the water with appropriate accompanying noises and everybody seemed to be having a good time. An alsation was a little spooked by an inflatable seahorse floating past  and spent some time telling it’s owner about the danger.

I walked up to the highest spot to see more boats moored on the outside of the island and there’s a little bay too but looking a bit small for us with huts around it and a jetty built for boats to go stern to on.

I found what I thought would be an ideal spot for the barbecue in a little dip in the rock where the grid could balance across the top of it and soon the sun crossed the yard arm and appropriate actions were taken. Christine was in charge of dinner and soon it was time to light the barbecue which we did.

The food and wine moved ashore and soon, well not that soon actually it took ages for the charcoal to heat up, but relatively soon we were putting the chicken on the grid. At this point a pair of locals came over from the two boats down wind of us and said that lighting barbecues on the rocks was not done, it could damage the rocks and all local boats had portable barbecues if they weren’t at a place with facilities. In telling off terms it was a very friendly one and they said that having started we shouldn’t put it out as adding water was likely to crack the rock too, we ended up having a bit of a chat with them, apologising appropriately and assuring them we wouldn’t do it again. Once the chicken and hamburgers were cooked we took them up the hillock into the sun and ate our dinner. It is a beautiful spot and once we were washing our dinner down one of the chaps who’d told us off came up with some of the children and chatted for some time and we got some tips for other islands although he said that this one, Lilla Nassa was the best so many thanks to Jennifer for having found out about it from a ticket collector   on a tram in Stockholm.

Just prior to  sunset a party of children set off with a rib and a donut and having tried to open up the throttle a little early - in the harbour were reprimanded and went off out to sea with their tails between their legs but once out to the West were seen speeding up and down towing the donut and obviously having a ball.

Once sunset had set the sun we returned to the boat for a cup of tea  and bed.