Since our last update from Ekenäs about 10 days ago, we’ve been sailing 170 nautical miles along the coast towards the north. On our sail yesterday, we crossed the 58th degree North, which means that we are now further north than the northern tip of Denmark.
Last week we spent some days in a lagoon on the northern tip of the island Öland. From there, Paul and Alex went on a two day shelter trip in the big forests, while I decided to explore the island by bike.
Once the crew was reunited on board, we got the idea of sailing at 2 am the next morning, thinking that it would be really cool to start our crossing back to mainland Sweden in the darkness and then seeing the sun rise above the open ocean while sailing. Additionally, the wind predictions were really good for the early morning hours. We knew that the sun would rise at around 4 am, so we thought it was a pretty solid plan to start at 2 am – but when our alarms woke us up after a very short night at 1:30 am, we were surprised to see that the sky towards the east was already coloured in red and yellow shades. Although it was still quite dark, there was enough light for us to prepare the boat and leave the harbour without headlamps or other lighting to help us. A little after 4 am the sun joined us for the rest of the way, and at 7 am we could safely dock on the little island of Idö to have a well deserved nap.
As nights are still getting shorter for some weeks, and we will be heading further north, we are excited to see what ‘night sailing’ will be like at the end of this month.
Now we have been making our way up through the beautiful archipelago landscapes for some days. It’s really special to sail in the narrow straights with rocky islands on both sides of the boat – sometimes only few meters away! There are many beautiful spots and it’s hard to pick some of them while skipping so many others – but as we know that beautiful stops keep appearing everywhere along our route, it’s alright to leave some places undiscovered for future adventures.
Our goal for the next couple of days is to get to Södertälje, as we will leave from there to Denmark for a weekend to celebrate my dads 60th birthday. From here, we consider going through the lake Mälaren to Stockholm or alternatively taking the more southern route to Stockholm along the coast. If anyone has some tips about either route, feel free to share!
By the way, talking about routes – we have set up a little page on this blog showing our route so far. It can be found right here:
All the best from us on board,
Liv
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