Stockholm Archipelago Sail and Camp Cruise

29 June – 19 July 2024

Bill Rollo (skipper) and Matthew Peacock (crew)

After a number of years when Covid and work intervened we decided to return to the Baltic in the summer of 2024. The area offers many choices – Lake Malaren, the coast South or North of Stockholm, the Aland Islands, Finland – but in the end the straightforward choice was the Stockholm Archipelago itself, with a stretch target of the Aland Islands if the weather was kind.

Preparation consisted principally of acquiring charts (the three SMHI Stockholm Batsportkort for the Archipelago together with the Hydrographica Planning Chart (HG61 1:100.000)) and pilot books – the RCC Pilotage Foundation Baltic Pilot, 50 Best Harbours in the Stockholm Archipelago, a second hand Swedish version of Hamnguiden 8, a Garmin card for a small plotter and a variety of apps for weather and navigation. www.kartbutiken.se provided a highly efficient online service.

The only other decision was a launch point where a car and trailer could be safely left. The Cruising Association Baltic Branch kindly gave us the address of Bullando Marina, just to the East of Stockholm, who were welcoming and efficient, despite their initial disappointment when we had to confess that 6 metres was the physical length of Askari and that their hoist would not be required for a 6 square metre.

Journey Out

Sat 29 Jun
We met at Harwich Morrisons and had supper in the Premier Inn before boarding. A quiet crossing but too short a night as we had forgotten we lost an hour! Stena asked us about flares, but not fuel or gas.

Sun 30 Jun
Dutch customs wanted to see our bill of sale and registration document but were then content to let us through without further documentation. There was no examination or questioning about food. We could probably have brought more food ‘for personal use on board’ on the same basis as a cruising yacht.

Traffic in Holland was heavy but moved freely. In Germany there were many staus and there were too many similarities to the M5 on a Bank Holiday. Traffic improved as we moved North of Hamburg. We stopped near Odense for a short night.

Mon 1 Jul
Next morning began badly with an unexpected 420kr payment for the Storbaelt bridge – an intelligence failure as it would have been possible to register for a discounted crossing as for the Oresund Bridge. However, at the Oresund bridge the car was recognised and the barrier opened automatically. An easy drive across Sweden in light traffic followed, getting to Bullando c1700, where we failed to find Helen, our contact, but were looked after well by the young Harbour Captain.

Askari’s Cruise

Tue 2 Jul Bullando to Findhamn via Sack 18 miles
Wind WSW 5-13 knots.
After stowing the boat we went East from Bullando and then crossed to Falljorden Light House. We stopped at Sack, a very sheltered anchorage in the 50 Best Anchorages book, for lunch and continued to Findhamn where we found a spot just out of the main harbour on the very shallow channel running East, beside a moored aluminium dinghy. Many signs which we thought would say ‘Private’ in fact said ‘Welcome’! Even the dinghy was repositioned for those walking round the island to use. The islands are a wonderful nature reserve and were a great place to start.

Findhamn

Wed 3 Jul Findhamn to Stor Stenholmen via Furusund 20 miles
Wind S 10-15 knots
We left Findhamn c0830 and sailed out into the marked channel which led North past Hugaro and up a long channel between Yxlan and Blido to Furusund for lunch. The exceptionally helpful harbour master offered to lend us his car to go to the supermarket in Nortallje 10 miles away. In the event we settled for the garage store after walking several hundred yards in the wrong direction after failing to spot it! Furusund was shabbily elegant with a smart bar on the quay. Otherwise noteworthy for a very sinister Swedish Defence Forces batboat manned by 2 young Swedes who followed us in and an exceptionally nice family – 3 generations of women – who lived on Yxlan. We then motored 4 miles West to Stor Stenholmen – another beautifully protected anchorage which we had completely to ourselves. Weather forecast for increasing wind on Thursday and strong wind overnight.

Stor Stenholmen

Thu 4 Jul Stor Stenholmen to Graddo via Granhamn 17 miles
Wind S 10-20 knots
We left Stor Stenholmen at 0800 and headed East back to the Furusundsfjarden in increasing wind. We reefed and sailed up to Granhamn – small, very sheltered, with a shore WC, and a lovely old wooden proper gentleman’s motor boat – then rather reluctantly put to sea and motored slowly straight into a very fresh wind for a mile alongside an old Aland sailing boat before turning North up to Graddo where we luckily (the gasthamn was jammed) found a snug berth next to a small German boat recently bought by a German girl to take back to Berlin. Unfortunately its engine had failed (it also had 3 leaking fuel containers on the coach roof) and her crew were hard at work trying to fix it while she provided moral support from the cockpit. Difficulties were countered briskly by “We are sailors not engineers”. In turn we tried to mend our sprayhood and enjoyed Matthews’s excellent omelette. Graddo was a functional place with lots of marine industry of all kinds.

Graddo – the Berlin boat is beyond Askari

Fri 5 Jul Graddo to Nortallje 10 miles
Wind SW 5-10 knots, stronger overnight
In an unexpected disaster a malevolent gremlin inserted a sharp object into the most vulnerable point of my phone. As Matthew’s was also unserviceable its repair became the Main Effort and we decided to go Nortallje to solve it. We had an interesting sail up the Nortalljeviken to Nortallje, tacking when necessary as the wind shifted off the shore, were in by early afternoon to a smart marina located in a pleasant municipal park and with the assistance of a number of extremely helpful people were able to get it sufficiently repaired to work. In the evening we had a drink with the only other British flagged boat we saw in the entire trip – James and Debbie’s Vancouver 34 – and a long conversation with 2 enterprising Dutchmen who were sailing a Folkboat back to Holland for a lady who had sailed her up to the top of the Gulf of Bothnia in memory of her husband, whose ambition it had been. When not doing that they bought the few remaining Folkboats in Sweden for Euros 3000 and sold them in Holland for 8000. One answer to why there appeared to be no small boats in Sweden!

Norrtalje – the last small boat in Sweden beyond

Sat 6 Jul Norrtalje to Lido 12 miles
Wind W 5-10 in channel down to Graddo then 10-20 outside
The forecast was for increasing wind with gales on Sunday. We did not want to be stuck in Norrtalje, pleasant as it was, so decided to head for Lido. In the event we had a pleasant and gentle sail back down the fjord to Graddo and then a more sporting half hour in the open as we went round the corner to Lido. There we found the Archipelago Foundation had installed a new system of buoys to avoid the need for stern anchors and allow the bottom grass to regenerate. We resisted all invitations to go in between the usual array of 40 foot cruisers, went to the right of the line and pulled the boat right into the shore where we were completely sheltered.

Lido – Askari almost invisible on the right of the moorings

Sun 7 Jul Lido
Wind S 16-32 knots
For once the weather was as anticipated. Not a sailing day but sunny. We found the remaining WW2 gun emplacement and then walked to the Hotel where an Anglo Swedish wedding had taken place the night before. Very nicely, as we were not dressed to the standard of the party, we were provided with coffee and watched the rather hung over survivors leave on the ferry. Fascinating history of Count Oxiensterna – related to Gustavus Adolphus’s chancellor – who had built a smart house on the island only to have it burned, along with every other building in the Archipelago, by the Russians in 1719. The present house was built by a local man who went from ship’s boy to successful merchant captain, and returned to marry the vicar’s daughter. In the 1930s there was a mink farm with 7000 of the animals and a dedicated team of fishermen to feed them. The market collapsed in the war and in 1945 the house and island were bought by Stockholm City Council as a home for exhausted house wives before becoming a hotel in the 2000s.

Lido Hotel

Mon 8 Jul Lido to Arholma 5 miles
Wind S-SW 5-10 knots
We decided to go to Arholma as we needed food and the farm shop at Lido had proved elusive. Slipped at 0720 and a lovely gentle sail saw us there by 0845. We walked over to the other side of the island where there was an excellent shop for coffee and ice cream (everything we needed except for camping gas – long canisters unavailable except in Bullando and, probably, in Nortallje), admired the impressive 18th Century light house and then moved up to the battery at the North end of the Island – well preserved, and, interestingly with a new shroud on one of the guns…

Tue 9 Jul Arholma to Norrpada 15 miles
Wind SW-S 6-12 knots
Left Arholma at 0830 having spoken to James and motored South to the fairway. Turned South East off Kapellskar and had a good beat down the Adskarfjarden to Norrpada where we found a lovely spot in the middle of the islands next to a family with a huge motor boat but no one else – the outer anchorages seemed jammed. We were surrounded only by swans trying to learn to take off (into the wind helps!). Replaced battery which had died, as usual at the critical moment.

Norrpada

Wed 10 Jul Norrpada to Moja – Lanvik 16 miles
Wind SE 14-20
The forecast was again prophesying doom for the evening with a Low over Southern Norway producing 22-28 knots overnight. Decided to go somewhere secure where we could charge batteries. Left at 0715 and had a slightly slow sail down the Kobbfjarden to Moja Lanvik. The new outer jetty was full to bursting but unusually had 3 small boats including an immaculate H boat – apparently a Finnish design – very long and slim. More importantly none of the services were working. We therefore moved to the inner harbour tying up in our now accustomed position next to the Sopor (rubbish) berth.
Moja Lanvik was hot, scruffy and sleepy with a blues band playing at the rather ramshackle restaurant located in what had once been the liquor Baron Jeppe’s establishment just up the hill. Power and showers were fine. The modest payment was required in cash unless one had access to the Swedish SWISH payment system, which needs both payer and payee to have a Swedish bank account. Fortunately we had Euros as there was no ATM on the island.

Moja – Baron Jeppe’s Bar

Thu 11 Jul Moja
After heavy rain overnight we woke up to the sound of two parrots on the motor boat next to us. As there was little wind we decided to have a Make and Mend day, cleaned the boat and hired bikes. We then worked our way down the island, stopping at Ramsmora to admire the outside of the museum to the artist Roland Svensson complete with his traditional boat carefully protected under an open-sided shed, and the waiting hut for the ferry with a bookcase for swops and a semaphore arrangement to tell the ferry to stop. All simple, sensible and civilised. Went on to Moja Berg at the southern end of the Island to an excellent pizzeria with a kind proprietress who changed some money, a very good Coop store and an excellent history board which gave the background to the Russian harrying in 1719-21 – the result apparently of Swedish prevarication over ending an unsuccessful war and Peter the Great’s determination to bring it to an end.

Moja Inner Harbour

Fri 12 Jul Moja to Bjorksskar 8 miles
Wind S4-10
WInd very light so motored across to Bjorkskar where we went past the moorings on the NW-SE channel to the small harbour at Krakvilan. Despite initial reservations from Matthew at the sight of a jetty around the rocks (‘this looks very commercial”) this was in many ways the nicest place we visited – as much because of the people there as the place itself. We met an Australian-English couple with 2 children who had rented a small boat off Click&Boat. She was a GP in France on the border with Geneva who had navigated her way through the local bureaucracy with the aid of friends in the local choir.
A second Australian-English couple (Rob and Zoe) with a lovely Vindo yacht, with a beautifully varnished coach roof, who very kindly gave us supper. Rob had served in the Rifles and was currently working at the Swedish Defence University.
Marlene and Henrik and their daughter from Lake Malaren who had the motor boat next to us and who lent us their SUP to try.
A sadly unnamed crew of 3 from the Northern Archipelago whose leader had finished a traditional wooden open cargo motor boat ( a snekkar?) and equipped it with a fantastic tent/mosquito net through which they could see the stars. They apparently normally cruised with 7 – two families – which must have been very cosy. With 3 she seemed to us huge.
Two redoubtable ladies with a racing boat. One apparently a well known racing skipper, the other an environmentalist who explained the absence of fish, seals, and most varieties of sea bird as the product of excessive nutrients in an almost landlocked sea, and majored on the risks of ill directed clean ups following environmental disasters.
The guardian – Kim – who offered us his spare room on the second night when it rained and blew heavily.
With changes in the weather, we formed a new plan to go South to Gronskar, then Napoleonviken, Vaxholm and back to Bullando.

North Country boat

Sat 13 Jul Bjorkskar
Fog
We were up at 0445 and RTM at 0615 but there was really heavy fog (less than 100m) which did not burn off until 1300 when visibility and wind both increased. We did not move, as Sandhamn seemed likely to be very full on a Saturday night ,and enjoyed the swallows, terns and geese. A relaxed afternoon finished with the first bastu (sauna) for many years. To our relief this included swim gear and repeated dips in the sea but did not include over enthusiastic Finns and birch branches. We slept well, planning to use a weather window as the depression moved through with a light easterly for 3 hours to make some ground to the SW before the SW kicked back in and increased.

Bjorskar Krakvilan

Sun 14 Jul Bjorkskar to Sandhamn 9 miles
Fog. SW 16-23
The weather window appeared but so did the fog. At 0800 it lifted slightly and we decided to head for Sandhamn and then take a view depending on the strength and direction of the wind. In the event the wind turned smartly to the South West – almost on the nose – and increased. After trying a reef and then the main only we settled on jib and mizzen with outboard which allowed us to, more or less, hold our course to the narrow and unmarked NE entrance to the Sandhamn archipelago. In the event we came in North rather than South of Stor Alskar which gave us some welcome relief from the waves. In retrospect I think the timing was justifiable. I’m less sure about the route. Entering a rock ridden coast in poor visibility with no marks places heavy reliance on the accuracy of the plotter, the behaviour of the boat in the sea conditions of the time, and last but not least my ability to see the plotter screen in heavy spray!

In Sandhamn we went for Lokholmen as the quietest and most sheltered of the three marinas, finding our usual spot next to the Sopor building before taking the ferry across to Sandhamn itself. Sandhamn, a customs post since the 18th century and more recently a major yachting centre, was picturesque, crowded with both boats and day visitors, had loud and continuous musak, and was a fairly brutal re-entry into normal life. All relieved by a lovely varnished 12 square metre moored in the fairway; a super cool man standing up on a powered fin equipped SUP who cruised down the main fairway as we crossed to Sando; efficient shopping and excellent raspberry and liquorice ice cream, and the lovely sight of a 4 square meter solo crewed by an elderly man sailing quietly in amidst the chaos to his usual spot to do the shopping. He told us that only 4 of these boats were built during the war when materials were extremely scarce. Depressingly he also told us that there was now no place to buy charts in Sandhamn as all the chandlers had been turned over to either coffee shops or clothing outlets.

After supper we joined the crew of another skerry cruiser – Erik, Lise and Daniel – and put the world to rights until midnight. The boat had been in the family for 10 years plus and had had a mishap with its nose manoeuvring into its position which Erik had been mending. It then sported a washing up bottle nose!

Sandhamn

Mon 15 Jul Sandhamn to Gronskar via Namdo Lanvik 17 Miles
Wind S/SW 5-10 knots.
Our plan was to go out to the fairway buoy South of Sandhamn and decide then what course we could make. If the wind was sufficiently West we could make Bullero and Hallskar. If sufficient South we would sail across to Runmaro, try the anchorage at Lanvik at the top of Namdo and then work our way down to Gronskar. In the event that was what we did, finding Lanvik sheltered but uninviting despite its bastu, and then able to sail as far as Hemskar after lunch, tacking as necessary before motoring the final mile into Gronskar through its narrow but well marked entrance to, again, find a place next to the Sopor hut and an unusual wooden cruiser. Gronskar was a very sheltered anchorage and not crowded. Saw our one and only eagle earlier on. An excellent sailing day.

Gronskar

Tue 16 Jul Gronskar to Bullando 14 miles
Wind S 0-5 knots
Rain overnight was followed by a glorious morning. A pre breakfast walk to try to reach the other side of the anchorage found huge Elk pats which would have disturbed any Man Friday but was otherwise abortive. We slipped at 0830 and motored across into Namdofjarden where we sailed very slowly North and then motored and sailed up to Bullando. The channels close to Stockholm saw a marked increase in motorboat traffic, often passing very close at very high speeds – perhaps a product of the ferocious Swedish speed limits on land? – which left one with a desire for a full complement of homing torpedoes. Back in Bullando by 1330 in time for troll hunting for grandchildren. The huge marina was very full – mercifully as its 1200 or so boats were not out in the Archipelago.
We were given a convenient berth next to the slip and – you guessed it – the Sopor. The marina bastu was impeccably smart and stylish but a cold shower was not as refreshing as the sea. We were clearly going native.

Journey Home

Wed 17 Jul
We recovered the boat, changed a trailer tyre which had acquired a nail and set off about 1300, reaching a motorway stop at about c2300 on Sjealand in Denmark.

Thu 18 Jul
A short and noisy night saw us get up at 0330 and set off, arriving at the Hook of Holland about 1500. Stena Lines was as comfortable and efficient as ever.

FrI 19 Jul
Off the ferry and home by tea time!

Reflections
The journey to and from Stockholm was straightforward. Estimating time for the return journey is always more difficult but 2 days is comfortable @ approximately 500 miles a day.

We covered some c170 sea miles and 16 anchorages or harbours.

Sailing in the 20,000 or so islands of the Archipelago required concentration especially when away from the small number of marked routes. A combination of large scale (1:10:000) charts and a simple plotter worked well although we were lucky not to have to change chart pages in the rain. More protection for individual pages would have been ideal given that the charts did not cover more than 10 miles and, like battles, one’s destination seemed often to be at the junction of several sheets. A combination of the Skippo app which shows the mooring places, Hamnguiden which comments on them and Hydrographica charts showing the anchorages in detail might be ideal but requires fully charged mobile devices. Most local sailors seemed to use Skippo and SMHI batsportkort.

The principal limiting factor was the weather. While the prevailing wind was South to South West (and this could have influenced our planning more than it did – it would be possible to plan to start in the South and work North) local sailors felt the weather overall was abnormally poor and difficult to anticipate as different weather systems over the North Sea, Norway, Poland and Russia battled for predominance. This made it difficult to plan longer passages over open water such as the potential trip to Mariehamn. As in Scotland flexibility is required. We became more relaxed about this as the trip progressed. In fact we became more relaxed full stop.

Although we wanted to find isolated anchorages, in a first trip one tends to go for known and therefore well used anchorages and harbours. In a different trip a different approach could be taken. However, many of our best moments were interactions with other sailors which would not have occurred if we had succeeded in our initial aim of splendid isolation. If we had really wanted the latter we could have found it in most areas.

The boat and our systems, subject to a couple of minor breakages, worked well. We rapidly became used to being the smallest boat by a considerable margin, and the overall lack of small boats, although there seemed to be more in the later anchorages – and to be unfussy about the Sopor buildings. Our stern anchoring technique improved, including the need to work out which direction the boat needed to lie in as the anchor came up in small harbours with little room to manoeuvre. Fitting a large carabiner to a warp to clip on to a buoy where these were provided as one went past to a bow to jetty mooring was also useful.

Our independence was limited only by our small 7 amp battery’s life where repeated dull days prevented the now rather aged solar panels from fully recharging them – though this seemed to work better after a boost from shore power on Moja – and food and water, where we also seemed to get better at sourcing low bulk high value nutrition over time.

Overall we scratched the surface of a wonderful cruising area to which we would happily return. On the other hand, other places also beckon – notably Finland perhaps in conjunction with Raid Finland and using a route out via Calais and Travemunde, or the Baltic coast of North Germany and Poland.

Written by Bill Rollo, October 2024