Between a Rock and a Soft Place
We now had a week to further explore the Stockholm archipelago before Jo and David arrived to join us ; no hardship here as despite it being high season there were literally thousands of mouth watering little anchorages to choose from . One , Stora Alskär, fellt a bit exposed to the fresh NE wind and so rather than possibly having to up sticks in the middle of the night, as evening fell we sailed a few miles to the more sheltered Rönningsfladen on Eknö. There are two entrances to this perfectly sheltered sound , one of which is 3 m deep but scarcely wider than the boat , and the other much wider , but with a least depth of 2.2 metres. We draw 2 metres so opted for this way , and gingerly approached at dead low speed.
BANG! The noise as we hit a rock was horrid even though the speedo was registering 0.1 knot and the engine was in neutral. A hurried check showed no water ingress and we went for plan B ( which we should have gone for anyway!) which was bow-to to a steep rocky shore with plenty of depth.
A quick dive showed that there was no movement at the keel joint , and the filling for a previous ding at the bottom of the keel had collapsed – possibly absorbing some of the shock. That may be so, but it did nothing for the shock we both fellt , and it was two rather shaken individuals who cooked supper on what should have been a perfect evening on a sunny west facing rock.
I reflected that perhaps it was a good lesson ; its all very well nosing into delightful little place but in the future I must not to be too cocky and leave bigger safety margins or next time we might not get away with it .