Look, the mark we were looking for!

Friday 04/06/2010

Early in the morning, that is 9.45 in non-tidal waters for us, we left for the Northern exit route from the Stockholm Archipelago, towards  Mariehamn on the Åland islands. Every morning since we set off, during the navigational warnings and weather forecast we were warned by the Swedish MSI on VHF that …”due to severe ice conditions this winter floating aids to navigation may have been damaged or moved from their charted positions”. This affected not our sea area and we were quite amused by it. However when attempted to enter the very shallow natural harbour (1.7m) of Kapellskår (59º42,5N,19º02,7E), we were missing a crucial green mark which was shown in our German pilot. Once in the harbour (after a second attempt), and moored by stern anchor we were by far the ‘biggest show in town’ (village). The friendly harbourmaster, who was also running the campsite 800m from the habour charged 7.00 £ for boats of any lengths, only on weekends during early season. Kapellskär is part of the Riddersholm Naturreservat and is a great place for walking. While on our coastal walk, I suddenly pointed to Madeleine: look, the mark we were looking for! And there it was, in the grass, hopefully waiting to be replaced at the entrance.