Berg on Möja - 59° 24' 19" N 18° 53' 02" E

The Stockholm Archipelago

The Stockholm Archipelago is just stunning.  Made up of over 24,000 islands and skerries, it is a boaters' paradise with limitless anchorages, bays, island settlements and rocks.  Its proximity to Stockholm does mean having to contend with the chaos of ferries, motor boats, yachts, kayaks and every other watercraft you can imagine.  But, as with the busiest areas of the Rocky Mountains, it is also possible to find those more secluded and less frequented places - particularly when you hang out with a local!

Crayfish Party!  A Swedish summer tradition complete with crayfish paper hats and decorations.
Thanks Niklas, Carl and Myra

After popping out of the Göta Canal and into The Baltic Sea, we travelled north to Åkersberga to meet Niklas and to greet the first visitors in a merry parade of relatives and friends. Being able to pull onto Niklas' dock and enjoy perks such as borrowing his car and washing machine, greatly simplified our preparations for guests.   

Niklas kindly acted as our post box for all sorts of goodies we had delivered. 
It was like Christmas!

The Arshinoffs were the first to arrive.  Most exciting as this was their first experience of sailing and sleeping on a sailboat.  They all embraced the experience.  Julia became an expert on knots; May, a champion helmperson and Kristin and Andrew turned their hand to route planning and navigation.  

Julia and Vaxholm Fortress. 
The fortress dates from the 1500s, built to protect one of the two main routes into Stockholm.

After a day of orientation and getting their sea legs in Åkersberga, we set sail to the island of Vaxholm with its fortress and quaint village.  We squeezed Chinook into her berth at the marina pretending to be much calmer and much more nonchalant than we actually were.  We are getting used to the wide variety of mooring techniques, some more nerve-racking than others!

Deep breaths as we shoehorned into our berth

We enjoyed a few great days exploring the town, the fortress, poking around the shops and eating great food.  It is a busy place. Very popular as it is accessible by road and has a ferry from Stockholm.  Its hustle and bustle adds to its charm.

Should we let them out??

May working on flag identification

After the busy-ness of Vaxholm, we sailed to a glorious anchorage on the island of Gallnö.  Much quieter but not quite wilderness with a lovely cafe and restaurant that satisfied the need for a morning coffee and an evening drink.  The weather was warm and there was much squealing and splashing off the back of the boat.  

Rub-a-dub-dub, four Arshinoffs in a tub... 

After pouring over the charts, we discovered we could sail right into Stockholm and moor outside the Vasa Museum (and, as we were to discover, the ABBA Museum!).  Who could pass on that??  So off we set, weaving our way through the channels and around the islands until we were slap-dap in the middle of the city!  How cool.

Hmmm, should we trust these two with the navigation??

The Vasa Museum is a must visit and one of the highlights.  The Vasa was a 64-gun warship built on orders of King of Sweden in the early 1600's.  In 1628, with all the fanfare and pageantry you would expect, the Vasa was launched and sailed a mere 1 300m before she sank in the middle of the harbour.  It turned out the Vasa was a rather top heavy (some say due to a little too much design-tweaking by the King) and the slightest heel flooded her gun ports and down she went.  Whoops!

She sank in 32 metres of water and, other than the salvage of some of her guns, she rested there in the cool mud of the harbour for the next 333 years.  It was not until the 1950s that she was rediscovered.  A mammoth recovery and restoration effort taking the better part of 30 years was undertaken and the Vasa Museum was opened in 1990.  

The Vasa.  Amazing that this is 98% original from the 1600's

A model of the Vasa detailing all her original splendour

We had a great time exploring around Stockholm ... including an hysterical evening at a viking-themed restaurant.  Food was eaten with a two-pronged fork and wine enjoyed from a terracotta cup.  Music, noise, laughter and dressing up as axe and sword-wielding vikings helped create the atmosphere of some serious feasting.

Enjoying cafe life in Gamla Stan

The kiddies playing with axes and swords at the viking themed restaurant
 - what could possibly go wrong??

All too soon, we were waving them off in the VERY early hours of a rainy Tuesday. And yes, it is early - the sun rises very early at this latitude!

The next cab off the rank of visitors were Gabby and Ian.  They brought with them magical, sunny weather and lovely warm temperatures.  We spent a wonderful two weeks floating around the Archipelago enjoying restaurants and bars ashore as well as secluded anchorages and tying to rocks.  

Great to have Gabs and Ian aboard

It was a busy time.  We revisited some favourite haunts such as Gallnö and Vaxholm.  We spent a fabulous couple of days in the tiny Berg on the island of Moja.  We would have stayed longer but the restaurants were closing for the season.  We wiggled through some VERY narrow passages barely wider than Chinook and did some great hikes.

Window shopping - there are some rather nice houses..

Exploring the fortress with Vaxholm in the background

Möja - a lovely way to while away the time

Calm, sunny breakfast on Kalvholmen

Gallnö

Enjoying an amble around Gallnö

Tying to rocks on Lill Tistronskäret

With a planned overlap of Gabby and Ian with Wendy and Graeme, we decided that the best place for this was in the middle of Stockholm.  So, again, slap bang into the middle of the city we went and docked right on the Strandvägen. This is one thing we really love about Europe - being able to sail and dock right into the cities.

Well that's a pretty handy location

The ABBA Museum is also a bit of a must when one visits Stockholm.  Walk in. Dance out.  And indeed we did! (Mamma Mia, here we go again....) Lots of interactive displays and opportunities to strike a pose with the band.  Even a silent disco where you could dance away to your heart's content blasting your favourite tune through headphones.  

Sean strutting his stuff at the ABBA Museum

Gabby up close and personal

We are obviously not as big ABBA fans as we thought as we failed dismally at the quizzes.  Here is a little fact none of us knew.  Each member of the band were famous in their own right before they became ABBA.  It was Sweden winning Eurovision Song Contest with them singing Waterloo that catapulted them to global fame.  But this lack of knowledge did not stop us dancing with holograms and singing our hearts out.

Dancing Queen

"Wa-Wa-Wa-Wa-Waterloo" "There was something in the air that night, The stars were bright, Fernando" "Money, money, money, Must be funny, In the rich man's world" "So, when you're near me, darling, can't you hear me? S.O.S"  You get the idea! 

Oh, look who found a bar in Gamla Stan!

Wendy and Graeme immediately jumped on the tourist bandwagon.  Graeme found himself a bar while the rest of us explored the Royal Palace. Just stunning. Wendy and Kate felt immediately at home and could so easily have been princesses!  With very few people wandering around, we could take our time and enjoy the opulence. We did note that the Swedish Royal family are a whole lot more handsome than the British!!

The Marble Gallery

We'd make wonderful princesses, waving at our subjects

Modelled on the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles, without the million tourists

We poked around the cute shops, salivated at all the delicious food in Östermalmshallen and enjoyed the art in Djurgården. We even know a local!  Sarah Kimpton (now Burell) and her husband Elias joined us on the boat for dinner one evening - much to the envy of her Mum!!

Sarah and Kate - where are you Elizabeth??

And then, our time in Stockholm came to a close and it was time to start the journey south.