... try and find us

Moored, Scandinavian style After more than a week at anchor or tied to rocks, we sailed around the suburb of Boo and motored into Stockholm.  We tied Chinook up at the marina close to the city center so we could explore. The marina is well located - it is in the district of Östermalm and is surrounded by the National City Garden. The many trails around the island had us off Chinook and seeing what Stockholm had to offer. Walking/cycling trails lured us into the park Kate gets some aerobic fitness in while sightseeing Being a national capital, the park is beautiful.  So much public art to look at, we couldn't help but snap a few pictures. This sculpture was called Unknown and played on the Swede's strong beliefs of ties between the natural and supernatural worlds. Barnacle geese enjoying a walk along the trail Opera singer Jenny Lind, know as the Swedish Nightingale In Sweden, it is illegal to leave your dog for more than six hours without human int...

Hopping north from Kalmar And so north we continued finding fabulous anchorages between the rocks and skerries.  The coast is littered with snug places to pull in.  It is the very beginning of the season so we were alone in most anchorages.  The flag poles on the docks and summer houses scattered along the shores were empty of their festive vimpels indicating no one was in residence.  Another rocky dot of an island We had the island of Blå Frugjung to ourselves. Blå Jungfrun is dot of a rock in the Kalmar Strait.  It is national park and does not have a harbour.  Due to the rather dodgy anchorage, we sent the birders ashore while we kept the boat safe through the vicious squalls that kept blowing through.  Then the sun came out and we enjoyed one of the champagne sunsets ... just like in the brochure. This anchorage was memorable because we saw otters!  A fairly rare sight as these little critters are quite shy and are nocturnal, h...

Kalmar was our next port of call but rather than going into the guesthamn in the main harbour, we pulled up next to Kalmar Castle just before sunset!  Yay for our lifting centreboard! Our track in - past the castle, into the shallow bits, through the marsh. The winding channel was very narrow and rather shallow, Chinook may have dragged her rudders through the mud, but we made it to the dock.  Wow, what a location!  Mooring in a castle moat! The freshly manicured lawns and bursting flowerbeds of the City Gardens ... and a bird watchers paradise!  From the comfort of the cockpit, Gord and Jenny started racking up their sightings.  Merlin , the birdwatchers' identification and tallying app, was running hot.  Black-headed gulls, greylag geese, mute swans, arctic terns, mallard and tufted ducks were all merrily identified and tallied - just to name a few. And the noise ... being spring, avian hordes were very chatty! The crew posing...

Utklippan from the top of the lighthouse Our next stop was another dot of rock, this time off the Swedish coast.  Utklippan is actually three skerries. Skerries are small, rocky islands that are found in clusters just off the coast.  They are named from the old Norse word sker meaning 'rock in the sea'.  And yep, we think that is a very apt description! The harbour was blasted out of the rock in the 1930s to provide a safe refuge for fishing boats during storms.  The harbour had just undergone some major work.  We felt completely protected and Chinook loved being tied to the solid concrete walls. The harbour entrances are tight but, once inside, it is snug, calm and well-protected. Utklippan is actually a few islands with no pedestrian-friendly connections between them. The more observant reader may have noticed that the harbour consists of two islands ... neither of which hosts the lighthouse.  This was not very conducive to a li...

The harbour, taken from the island of Fredricksø looking across to Christiansø Christiansø is the largest island of the Ertholmene Archipelago, a cluster of tiny Danish islands in The Baltic, quite a long way from home! The islands have been used for defence since the mid-1600s, when King Christian V first built fortifications, until the fortress was decommissioned in the 1850s. There are about 100 people who live on the islands today.  Artists and those who support the 40,000, mostly day trippers, they receive each year.  A tiny dot in a strategic location in The Baltic When planning our passages, we always look for interesting places to visit.  And, when we have friends aboard, things that will interest them.  Gord and Jenny are birders.  Yes, those folks who wander out and about with binoculars.  And right now, as we discovered in Helgoland, is prime birding with the spring migration and nesting season in full swing. The Ertholmene Archipelago, and...