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| 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.
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| 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, hiding in their holts (dens) during the day.
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| Sometimes cruising is sunsets and champagne! |
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| ... and sometimes it is washing day! |
Another deserted anchorage at Lotsskackelhanm gave us access to the Hulöhamn Nature Preserve. We would have been forgiven for thinking we were hiking in Muskoka. The rocks and trees were eerily familiar but oddly different. We did some research - the trees of the Swedish Archipelago are predominately pine and birch with some spruce and alder mixed in. In Muskoka, it's mixed hardwoods and conifers such as maple, hemlock and oak. So yes, familiar but different.
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| Birders! |
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| What a magnificent oak tree |
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| Kawagama? Muskoka? It could be a lake in Ontario... |
The sun came out and the water temperature started to increase as we jumped from one anchorage to the next. We came across more and more boats as we inched closer to Stockholm.
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| We seem to have discovered Swedish cottage country |
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| Sharing our anchorage in Örnö ... still not very busy. |
We savoured this last night at anchor, with the ducks and twittering terns as the noisiest things in our evening view from the cockpit. We knew tomorrow would be different.
The next morning, out we popped - into the main thoroughfare to the city with its crazy number of ferries, cruise ships and pleasure craft. Onwards to our first marina in a while and Gord and Jenny's first taste of Stockholm!
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