One bridge too far...to Stockholm

We continued with Martin and Amanda mainly in the Northern Stockholm Archipelago. Last year we only saw parts of the Southern part. In Sandham we experienced yet another way of mooring, the ‘corps mort’ approach where you closely approach the pontoon and trying to find a mooring line on the bottom of the harbour to which you then tie your stern. After a noisy night with never ending parties, we sailed through the Möja Västerfjärd northwards past Husarö and finally between the islands Yxlan and Blidö towards Furusund.

We stopped on our way at a small inlet on the island of Södra Stavsudda (59º 23’,5 N 18º 49’,6 E) to try out the Scandinavian way of anchoring – stern anchor and bow-to onto rocks. We managed all right but we still have to refine our technique of jumping ashore, since we almost lost Martin during the procedure… It proved to be a very slippery affair!

The narrow channel leading towards Furusund was enchanting as last year. The only way to proceed was to do the pilotage from the cockpit, ticking off each mark as we passed it.

Furusund (59º 39’,6N 18º55’,2 E) is a small, recently updated harbour in the main channel for the ferries leaving Stockholm towards the Åland Islands, Helsinki and Estonia. We watched a string of large ferries leave in the evening only to return the next day.

The last day before our friends were due to leave we returned to Stockholm, via the North Channel between the islands of Furusund and Mjölkö and the mainland towards Resarö, Vaxholm (with its castle and gorgeous houses) and finally….ooops! two bridges with a clearance of respectively 5 and 14 meters on our way. We had to track back and take another route to enter Stockholm (Wasahamn), a detour of only 5 M in the end, with the mast still standing.