Wednesday 24 June 2015

Wow, wow and thrice wow! Visby, Fifang and Stockholm

After Byxelkrok on Oland we set sail for Visby, the capital of the island of Gotland. 

According to our guidebook, Gotland hasn't always been where it is today. Apparently it used to be by the equator, from where it took 135 million years to move to its present location (huh?!!). It's still moving towards the North Pole at a rate of about 15cm per year so, if you intend to visit, best not leave it too long!

Approach to Visby

Visby was at its most prosperous from 1150 to 1350. Crusaders, monks, nuns, merchants and artisans moved to Gotland - primarily from Germany. The nearly 3.5km city wall was completed in the mid 13th century - built not only as a defence against foreign intruders, but also as protection against local farmers (a bloody civil war broke out in 1288, which the farmers lost).

No less than 15 churches were built inside the city walls and, whilst St Mary's cathedral is the only active one now, the ruins of several others remain.

The wall is the best preserved in northern Europe and, as a result, Visby made it to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1995.

Roses growing in the narrow streets of the old fishing quarter of Visby

Sculpture - spot the family resemblance?

The Almedalen - This used to be the harbour before it was filled in

Another Visby street

Part of Visby's medieval wall

Market in Stora Torget - the main square

A view over Visby and out to sea

Yet another Visby street - they're all so attractive!

Botaniska tradgarden

S;ta Katarina ruin

Cyclone in Visby harbour - right next to the town

We stayed 3 nights in Visby before setting off for the Swedish mainland once again. We had 2 possible destinations in mind - Trosa (a small but attractive town with a marina) or Fifang (an island with nowt).

The distance was about 80 miles and we didn't want to arrive after dark because the last part of the trip involved narrow channels between large numbers of rocks and small islands. So at 0330 (yes, really!) we awoke to the dulcet tones of my watch alarm and set off about half an hour later.

There was plenty of wind for the first couple of hours but after that it deserted us and we had to motor for some 7 or 8 hours. I hate motoring, but we couldn't really complain as up until Byxelkrok we've hardly had to use the engine on passage at all.

Finally the wind set in again and we managed to sail for another couple of hours before dropping / furling the sails and heading for our chosen destination of Fifang.

Now if Visby was a wow (and it really was attractive) Fifang was a WOW! Just look at the pictures below which were all taken from our deck. Absolutely beautiful!










Obviously there were no man made facilities available, but who needs them when you have the place to yourselves and all that water to bathe in? Those of a nervous disposition should look away now!



And yes, Jo did go in too! 

We spent 2 nights at anchor just drinking in the scenery (well, and some wine too...) before making our final dash to Stockholm. Our route took us past many, many picturesque islands and rocks - some inhabited but many not - and into the Malaren lake via the Sodertalje canal (one lock and 2 lifting bridges). We exited the lake via the Hammarby canal (one lock and 3 lifting bridges) to arrive slap bang in the centre of Stockholm.

The Sodertalje lock and lifting bridge

A view from the Malaren lake...

... and another. Sea views for all!

Entry to the Hammarby lock

Once again, this was a motoring trip as there wasn't a breath of wind for most of it and, when it did arrive, it was right on the nose.

Unfortunately whilst motoring into the wind at slightly higher engine speed (to maintain 5 knots through the water) the engine overheat alarm started to sound. We stopped the engine and checked the impeller and coolant level, but nothing appeared amiss. I can only conclude that the warmer "sea" water showed up the weakness of our repaired heat exchanger. This now has 7 less water tubes in its core than it should have (they were leaking), so its efficiency is reduced in the same way as a car's cooling system would be compromised by covering up part of the radiator. We'll just have to hope for favourable winds so we can sail and, if not, motor at reduce speed until the water gets colder!

Anyway, our berth in Stockholm is at Wasahamnen, which is a marina sandwiched between the funfair and the Vasa museum. It's right in the middle of Stockholm with all major sites in walking distance, so it's ideal - if expensive by Baltic standards.

And now for the third wow. If Visby was a "wow", Fifang a "WOW!" then the Vasa was a "WOW!!!" 

The Vasa museum is highly recommended in the guide books and frankly if you have any interest in history, ships or archealology, then you need to get yourself over here! Jo and I were gobsmacked. The Vasa is stunning. Absolutely, totally, stunning.

You walk through the museum doors and there it is. The Vasa. A ship launched in 1628 which made it about 1000m before capsizing and sinking. It lay on the bottom for 333 years before being raised in 1961 and put on display (OK, that oversimplifies it a bit, but you get the picture!).

Thinking "Yeh yeh, heard it. We've got the Mary Rose"? Well think again! The Mary Rose is a pile of firewood compared to the Vasa. The Vasa is 95% (or 98% - it depends what you read) original and, apart from the paint which is long gone, virtually as good as new. It really is! The pictures below don't do it justice, but you'll get the idea:

















Jo and I decided that, for us, this beat the pyramids hands down. Incredible.

In the same area as the Vasa museum, you have the, er, Abba museum!



We didn't go in, but we did have a good laugh outside. I don't know what you think, but the blonde doesn't seem quite as good looking as I remember her:

Abba - or is it?

The following day we took a stroll around Stockholm - an attractive capital spread over a number of islands. All kultured out by the Vasa museum, we didn't visit anywhere else, although we did stumble across the changing of the guards at the Royal Palace.


The Royal Palace

Stockholm

The funfair next to our marina. Scary!

A square in Stockholm's old town, Gamla Stan

Street in Gamla Stan

Another street in Gamla Stan

In a day or so we'll make our way out to the archipelago where we expect to spend a couple of weeks in beautiful surroundings before heading for the Gota canal - the start of our journey home.

Just in case you've forgotten what we look like (you should be so lucky!) here's a couple of selfies to be going on with:




Ahhhhhh........








Monday 15 June 2015

A whistle stop tour of the last 2 weeks - Ystad, Utklippan, Gronhogen, Kalmar and Byxelkrok

We've made quite a bit of progress in the last couple of weeks and are now only about 125 Nm from Stockholm.

When we left Copenhagen on 4th June, we sailed 57 miles - including the Falsterbo Canal shortcut (this must be the shortest canal in the world, surely?) - to Ystad, which is on the southern coast of Sweden.

Falsterbo Canal Bridge

There are 3 things that are noteworthy about Ystad.

The first is that the male harbourmaster is very grumpy (the female one could not have been more charming)! Several of us had tried unsuccessfully on arrival to pay our harbour dues at a machine which also issues you with a card that gives access to electricity and showers (the harbour office had closed at 1600). So when I spoke to the harbourmaster the following morning I'd expected some sort of apology for the fact that showers etc. were unavailable, but he simply denied that anyone else had had a problem.!Hmmm....

The second is that Ystad is a really attractive town once you leave the harbour area itself - see pics below:
Ystad theatre

A street near the centre of Ystad

The area of the Ystad Monastery, in the centre of town

A herb garden in the monastery area

The duck pond behind the monastery

And yet another Ystad town centre view

The third doesn't apply just to Ystad, but to the whole of Sweden. I never knew this, but apparently they've been celebrating my birthday - 6th June - with a National holiday for ages! In Ystad there were many stalls and plenty of free entertainment laid on, including such delights as an accordion band and line dancers!

Ystad National Day Celebrations

Accordion band

Line dancers
 The final hurrah was the release of quite a few balloons, as the picture below shows:

Er.... balloons

Still wanting to get some miles behind us, we set off on 7th June for Utklippan - a distance of some 80 miles. It was a long day (0500 start...) and an uncomfortable sail with a F6 behind us and a rolling sea that forced us to steer by hand the whole way. Still, we made good progress and completed the trip in 13.5 hours.

Utklippan is something special. I've tried to give an idea of the place in the pictures below, but you get a better idea if you look on Google Earth. It's basically a load of rocks - two of which are big enough to be called islands - on which sits a lighthouse and a half dozen buildings. The harbour that yachts can use was originally created for the use of the tender serving the lighthouse. The facilities are a shed with a large bucket on which sits a toilet seat! It's a nature reserve so you can only access very small parts of it in the bird breeding season - you can maybe walk about 100 metres!

The approach to Utklippan

Utklippan

The harbour. The facilities are in the yellow shed by Cyclone in the distance!

Birds live in the tyres on the harbour walls. Noisy little blighters!

We'd intended to stay a couple of nights in Utklippan to recharge our batteries, but the wind was due to change to an unfavourable direction and so we took a tip from Marjolein and Alfred, a charming dutch couple we'd met in Scheveningen and who we bumped into again in Utklippen, and headed for Gronhogen on the island of Oland.

Oland is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a designation given because of the way that the landscape has been formed and changed by mankind over millenia. The agricultural landscape; alvar and coastal land; linear villages; forts, burial grounds and churches; and unique plants birds and insects are what make it special. It's also very sparsely populated, so riding our bikes 2 abreast on the roads was a pleasure.

A standing stone and a wally with his trousers tucked into his socks

Our trusty steeds for our 25km excursion

Now our bikes may look a little small - in fact the sight of me cycling past in Portland has been known to move Chinese girls to fits of spontaneous laughter - but they're the biggest that will fit easily into our cockpit locker. And there is a serious side to the trousers being tucked into socks too. It's actually a tic defence, as these nasty little critters carry some very unpleasant diseases in this part of the world.

The track to Lange Jan Lighthouse - rather like the New Forest, we thought

Lange Jan Lighthouse

From Lange Jan lighthouse on the southern tip of the island, you can see massive seals sunning themselves on the rocks. No pictures I'm afraid, as you needed binoculars to spot them!

More standing stones. There are loads of them!

There are a lot of these too. This one had graffiti dated 1878

Eketorps borg was an interesting find. They are recreating it with sections within the walls from different eras of its history. The walls themselves are dry stone.

Eketorps borg

Inside the fort

More from inside

And more from inside

And more from inside!

Finally from Gronhogen, the picture below shows the view from our boat. Not bad, eh? We spent a very enjoyable evening on board with Alfred and Marjolein (who I mentioned earlier). When they left, it was actually starting to get a little light in the sky - at 0100! Maybe it never got completely dark? It is light enough to see perfectly well by 0300 here (that's 0200 in England) which we find amazing.

The view from Cyclone in Gronhogen

Finally finally from Gronhogen, I must mention Lennart! Lennart introduced himself to us when walking his dog past our boat. We invited him to join us for a drink the following evening and he spent quite a long time with us, suggesting places that we should visit as we headed north. The following day he came back and invited us to go with him for a hospital check-up. That might sound a little strange but his plan was to drive us half the length of Oland and drop us in a town while he was seeing the doctor. He'd then take us for a scenic drive around the southern parts of the island, pointing out the different birds and sites of interest. A really charming man who we were lucky to meet.

Turning down the offer of a free night's berthing in Gronhogen (buy 3, get 1 free) we set off for Kalmar on 11th June. Here we met 2 new (to us) methods of berthing, The first was the boom moorings pictured below - so called because of the noise your bow makes when it clouts the pontoon whilst you're trying to work out how to get your stern line through the tiny ring at the end of the boom itself (OK, maybe that's not why they're called that)! The second was the stern buoy and pontoon combination which you'll see better in the later photos from Byxelkrok.

Boom moorings. They look like pontoons but aren't designed to be stood on. 

Friday was school graduation day in Kalmar. This is traditionally celebrated by the students hiring lorries - which have very loud horns and music systems - in which they dance around whilst getting drunk and driving around in circles!

School graduation day - Swedish style!

Kalmar has a long history and a very impressive castle. Forgive me if I don't go into any detail (my fingers are getting tired!) but the border between Denmark and Sweden has changed a lot over time and Kalmar was once a border town - hence its castle and walled nature.

Kalmar Castle

The Queen's reception room. No chairs for guests, as if you weren't Royal you stood!

Now according to our guide, the Royals used to like a drink or two and also a little entertainment at mealtimes. Apparently some privileged people were allowed to stand and watch these meals on occasions. One such visitor documented the food on offer and what went on. The table below reflects what he wrote. What it doesn't show are the leeches that were placed in eggshells floating on water and which would try to get to the water making the eggs move in the process. It also can't demonstrate the small animals, including birds, that were drugged and put into the pies. They would wake when the drugs wore off and then escape to run and fly around the room. Hilarious, apparently!

A typical banquet

A street in Kalmar's old town

A sign to amuse those of a juvenile disposition!

We attempted our first stern buoy / pontoon mooring in Kalmar in a bid to escape from the very noisy large motorboat that was moored near to us. It wasn't pretty as the new £70 tool I'd bought to secure the buoy wasn't big enough to fit over its metal loop. Fortunately we had help from the shore and we got secured without too much fuss. I even managed to retrieve the fender that had been pulled off in the process! The help was provided by Nicholas, a CA member who had introduced us to 2 other CA members with whom we'd had drinks earlier (Janet and Simon), and the owner of the adjacent boat - Conquest. We got chatting to Conquest's owner and suggested he might like to visit Byxelkrok at the north of Oland, which was to be our next stop. We're glad he did as we shared a very enjoyable evening together on our boat when he arrived. I appear to be getting sociable in my old age!

Byxelkrok harbour. It was much more full when we arrived...

And again

Cyclone on a stern buoy mooring - note the unforgiving concrete "pontoon"

Our next stop is Visby on Gotland (about 45 Nm) after which we'll make the final leap to the Stockholm archipelago. It's starting to look like we're actually going to make it!