Our chosen anchorage of Cragaig bay looked ideal for the N to NE winds which were due for the next few days. It is sheltered from all winds except Southerlies and on getting up next morning my historical antennae began to twitch. The shelter was provided by numerous little islets and peninsulars on the North […]
The English channel and Western approaches had delivered a surprising amount of wildlife ; 3 species of dolphin including a pair of white beaked dolphin east of the Lizard – a first for us – and more puffin than we have ever seen in this area before. By contrast the Irish sea and North channel […]
With last years sailing confined to three short trips within the Channel , both Lynda and I felt that it was more than time to get back to some wild places. But where ? A very busy Spring had left us little time to plan, and so by default we decided NOT to plan , […]
Our plan was to leave Festina in Copenhagen for two weeks and come home to enjoy the British summer , help Ben in the Impala championships and spend some time with our new grandchild. The trip back from Copenhagen was then to be done by Jaap and myself , but on arriving home I went down […]
After a summer spent pottering amongst the Scandinavian archipelagos, seldom sailing more than 20 miles a day, we had left ourselves 8 days to bring the boat from Stockholm to Copenhagen; roughly 360 miles to the SW. Most of the early summer had seen NW winds which had caused much agitation amongst our Scandinavian friends […]
At first glance the weather for Jo and Davids week in the archipelago looked pretty grim, with lots of rain and wind forecast , but at least their first day , downwind from Stockholm to Träskö-Störö, was quite perfect . This was a new destination for us and looked pretty crowded so we approached and […]
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 […]
The morning of our departure from Finland we were up early and slipped out of the narrow entrance to Björkö Byvicken to be greeted by 8 knots of NE wind and a clear blue sky. This southern part of the Finnish archipelago is very open – in fact you might easily think you were at […]
Having waved goodbye to Simon and Roo in Turku we had a fast and windy sail to Stenskär, a little lagoon formed by 4 or 5 islands back in the outer archipelago, with the choice of two little quays to moor up to, one on each of the major islands, or several mooring buoys in […]
Return to Aspö One of the challenges of sailing with guests is how to match what you do with what you think they would like. Some , like Bryony and Chris are hard core seamen so that the occaisional rough weather probably just adds to their enjoyment, but Roo, though game enough, makes no pretention […]
Scandinavia was on its best behaviour for the visit of Simon and Roo . The locals in both Sweden and Finland were adamant that it was the coldest summer in living memory , but to us it was a lot warmer than our last two years in Scotland and Ireland , the winds were mostly […]
With a week to go until Bryony and Chris arrived we set out to explore the Stockholm archipelago. The wind was NW and due to stay that way so I identified some nice anchorages sheltered from this direction and ideal to try and perfect our Swedish rock mooring technique ready for when they arrived. Two […]
One of the highlights of a summer in Sweden is the wonderfully pagan festival on midsummers eve. Bryony was due to arrive in Stockholm on mid summers day so it was a no brainer to go to Skansen to enjoy the most traditional mid summer in Sweden ( or so we were told). Skansen is […]
The island of Gubbø in the southern archipelago has a wonderful natural harbour with a rock shaped like a jetty. So sheer is the face and regular are its features that quite big vessels can tie up alongside. We had the place to ourselves to begin with ( this southern archipelago is relatively deserted , […]
The last week has been all about islands. Gazing in wonder at them, dribbling round them, flashing past them, and then when we have done enough of all that, squeezing into tiny bays or indents in them. Once we are firmly anchored, or tied to a rock with an anchor out astern, or even moored […]