Sightseeing in Bornholm and Karlskrona
It is not often I find myself agreeing with President Trump , but after NATO prevented Festina visiting the East coast of Bornholm I was , like him, feeling somewhat uncharitable towards them! However , we decided to make the best of a bad job and tour the area by hired car instead.
The body of Bornholm is made up of prosperous looking farmland , whilst the east coast sports a succession of tiny little fishing harbours which would make a delightful cruising destination in Westerly winds. They are all a variation on the same theme with a series of breakwaters creating inner and outer harbours . The entrances are rock strewn and tiny and in onshore winds look to be terrifying . In fact with onshore winds over 20 knots they hoist a signal signifying the harbour is closed , and secure the inner recesses with gates. Like many places the fishing has dried up and tourism is now the main source of income , but at the time of our visit the season had scarcely begun. They were delightful now but I suspect get jampacked later in the year.
Despite no longer landing any herring of their own , the island is still home to a significant fish smoking industry , importing the herring from elsewhere . Most of it is now done at the wonderfully named Snogbaek , but each harbour had plenty of chimneys showing how important this industry was in the past.
We decided we might pay them a visit on the way home , but next day took a SW wind to Karlskrona, 80 miles to the North. We had been expecting a rugged end to the passage but in the event trickled into the fortified archipelago at dusk in the lightest of winds.
This year is beginning to turn into a trip down memory lane as the last time we came to Karlskrona was in Undine, 40 years ago. The cold war was still in full swing and armed patrol boats were in plenty of evidence off the Swedish coast , not that we saw them on that occaision as we crept past the forts at the entrance in thick fog . Having found our way in we breathed a sigh of relief , headed for the shore and dropped an anchor clear of the fairway but still in pea soup visibility, thinking that would be the safest thing to do. Next morning the fog cleared with the sun and a fisherman came alongside to tell us we had anchored in a minefield!
No such drama this time , in fact we took another day off to explore the naval garrison town, before setting off to Kalmar , and beyond that the beginning of the eastern archipelago