Geographically Southern Norway merges imperceptibly with the NW coast of Sweden ( known as Bohuslan), but there are several clues that you have crossed the border. Obviously the percentage of Swedish flags increase , whilst Norwegian boats diminish . Maybe the rocks are more pink and the archipelago is more extensive, but perhaps the most obvious difference is that here sailing boats sail everywhere, which sounds like a classic case of stating the bleedin’ obvious. But I mean everywhere ! The inner leads in the archipelago can get pretty tricky and narrow , and the narrow sounds where some of the fishing villages lie are crazily congested, but nothing daunts the Swedes and they take a pride in tacking and gybing through these places, missing rocks by inches and their willingness to tackle any situation under sail can at times make a crowded start line look like a walk in the park.
Needless to say we joined in with enthusiasm and until Gulholmen , the narrowest sound of them all , we were doing OK , but here the traffic got ridiculous . What made it worse was a big modern 41 footer flying a German flag coming up astern, whilst various slower boats were converging on the narrowest part from all directions. I should have furled the genoa and let him go through but the competitive instinct kicked in , the wind came ahead and I thought we could squeeze through ahead of him as he fell off to lee. He was pretty competitive too and the end result was that 4 boats somehow fitted into a space that should have taken 2 at most, and despite no incident occurring, we temporarily headed for the offshore route to mop our brows and relax a bit!
Squeezing into our night time stopping places can also be a bit nerve wracking, but we do this at ultra slow speed under engine, and once secured to the rocks we can relax and admire the stunning scenery. One reason it looks so good is the weather – hot and cloudless – and the evening sunshine brings out the colours of the rocks to perfection. We sail, even to windward, in shorts and tee shirts , and can scarcely believe our luck ( earlier in the summer we would have had about 8 layers on , plus gloves and scarves!). For two days the wind blew 20 knots from the East ( ie off the land ) sending us charging along in flat water at nearly 8 knots ,although after Gulholmen we did furl the genoa for the tricky bits. Latterly the winds have eased, but swing round to the West at midday under the influence of the sun , allowing us to trickle along in complete comfort, which is even nicer. We spent most of one day under kite , although that felt a bit dodgy when a German boat a few boat lengths away hit a rock with a horrid crashing sound. Mind you, he was the wrong side of a cardinal buoy, but seemed to carry on after a while looking none the worse for wear.
Then came two days with practically no wind , so we have anchored up in a perfect little bay just South of Marstrand to await a bit more wind for our move South to Denmark , and hopefully a meeting with Mike and Louise, who are coming round the bottom of Sweden towards us .This is an awesome place , ( check out the map) and we are seeing it at its very best , but I suspect we have one more day of perfect weather and after that it will be time to start making tracks towards home.