Nykoping

Kalmar was a nice stop. The guest harbour is right in the centre of town close to the main line railway station which has good connections to both Copenhagen and Stockholm. It is however, not noisy and there are very good facilities. We stopped in Kalmar for two days to stock up on pilot books and food because from here north we planned to stop at natural harbours rather than marinas wherever possible. We also did the tourist bit and visited the castle / walked the town.

Kalmar Castle

On Wednesday 5^th June we sailed north in sparkling sunshine to our first natural harbour Kiddeholmen. These natural harbours are why the east coast of Sweden is so popular. The entrances are usually between granite rocks, so care is needed, but the passages in, although they may be quite narrow, usually have plenty of water.

Kiddeholmen

When we  had anchored we knew why we had taken all the trouble to come this far!  Hardly a ripple on the water, all by ourselves and we could hear the birds singing in the trees close by.
We sailed on North to a little marina called Ido, nice but both the café and restaurant were shut. It is a bit bizarre but a lot of places like this only open from mid June to mid / end August. The season here is evidently very short!

The closed restaurant at Ido

 

If all the small marinas are effectively closed lets stick to anchorages we thought, so apart from one marina stop at Fyrruden for fuel and water, the next few days we stuck to anchoring at natural harbours.

The photos below give an idea of what they are like:

 

We are at anchor, but there is a boat moored to the shore

 

Close to the rocks in 8m of water

 

We are now at Nykoping, (10th June) which is actually at the start of the Stockholm archipelago. We will stay for 10 days while we do some minor chores, (like service the anchor winch and the manual bilge pump), and Pete goes back home to visit his Mum.