It is difficult to explain….

…that even if you have had a sleepless night, and that you have been almost sea-sick, and that the wind was not coming from the right direction, and that you had to go for plan ‘B’, it was still the best sail we have had so far… I know that we have said this several times before and that is why I say ‘so far’!

leaving rocks and lighthouses behind

 We had been waiting for the wind to shift from its SW direction, so that we could sail from Utö (Finland) to Sandhamn (Sweden) overnight, so that we can reach Sandhamn (a very popular and crowded harbour in the summer) by lunchtime and get a space in the marina, if at all.

But the wind did not want to shift and Madeleine was getting ‘itchy’ feet, so we left hoping that the wind would back ever so slightly southward. Unfortunately it didn’t! Once we left, we saw that we could not reach our destination without ‘beating’ against the wind for at least twelve hours… so we opted for the longer route, our plan ‘B’, which was reaching the Stockholm archipelago through the NE entrance with its very complicated TSS (traffic separation scheme) designed  to ‘sort out’ all the ferry traffic coming and going towards the Åland Islands, Turku, Tallin and Helsinki.

Needless to say that it was a very eventful night. The sea was very choppy with short and confused waves at the start, due to the many rocks in the area. The wind was blowing from a SW (4-5) and the course to Sandhamn was SW… Easy Rider is fantastic, apart when it has to beat against the prevailing wind. So very early on we decided to do plan ‘B’.

Madeleine was surprisingly on the brink of becoming sea sick, something I haven’t seen since we crossed the Irish sea fifteen years ago… very worrying indeed.

The first 5 hours we had to sail as close as possible to the wind because of all the rocks still lurking near the surface near the Finnish coast.

But slowly we got enough distance from the lee shore to sail more comfortably. The wind as well backed ever so lightly so that suddenly, Easy Rider got into full swing, sailing at a speed (6-7 kn) for the next 5 hours until dawn, when we reached the entrance to the Stockholm archipelago.

Sandhamn Marina with KSSS clubhouse

We saw many ships in the traffic separation scheme and it was thrilling to observe whether we were on a ‘collision course’ or not. Looking frantically through the binoculars we established that we did not need to avoid any of them.

We sailed into the archipelago just as the lights on the lighthouses were being extinguished around 5:00 am. They were very useful upon entering, with their sector lights.

It took us another six hours to reach Sandhamn, taking the southern route through the archipelago, a real ‘doddle’ after the Finnish archipelago experience.

Madeleine was absolutely exhausted after the night sail. She could not keep her eyes open and forgot her handbag in the toilets in the harbour, something that would never happen to her…!

old Sandhamn fishing village

Sandhamn is absolutely lovely. We have visited it several times before with Martin and Amanda and also with Beth two years ago.

We are really happy to see it again before we leave the Stockholm archipelago for good…

Tomorrow we try to go to Nynäshamn for fun, provisions and the Swedish mobile broadband.

What did we learn :-)?

If the wind is coming from the wrong direction it is still coming from the wrong direction even if you don’t like it and want to leave!

beginning of the famous Round Gotland race