Utö – Furusund – Stockholm
12th – 13th of July
After yesterday’s unpleasant ‘near miss’ experience in Jurmo, we were rewarded with probably the nicest sail of our 2010 cruise so far! The wind was coming from S – SW at a force of 4-5 Bft which allowed us to reach towards our entry into the Stockholm Archipelago basically in one long tack of 78M with an average speed of 6.2kn (we only had to motor against the wind for 3 miles out of Utö, which took about one hour (!) and was unpleasant and very choppy indeed! But rewards come to those who try, and later, for most of the 13 hours we were cruising along at about 7kn. Out there we only saw three sailing boats and two ferries in the distance.
Furusund had clearly had a facelift when compared to our early season experience: one new pontoon and many new red stern buoys to facilitate mooring bows-to. Again, most places were taken in high season, but by using our longest line, we just managed to squeeze in to the pontoon, tied up, and headed quickly towards our bunk after a long day and a good welcome drink prepared by ourselves.
The next day brought us in quite gusty winds towards Stockholm where we arrived early afternoon, again to find no free spaces inside Wasahamn. Yes, you guessed it: it was completely full and we didn’t even try to get in with crosswinds gusting at 24kn (after our experience in Jurmo) we were quite happy to moor alongside a large beautiful Dutch sailing boat on the outside pontoon. It is very hot today in Stockholm: 33º C! It feels almost unbearably hot. It almost makes you yearn back to June with its cold days… We also saw the Queen Victoria (a skyscraper on water…) this afternoon, gently reversing out of her berth, just opposite our harbour.
PS: we are almost back to reality…during the last very hot night, while everybody was trying to get some cold air, motorboat neighbours behind us were burgled through a slightly open door while the crew was sleeping. A computer with all the navigational charts, watches, mobile phones and a binocular were taken away.