Setting off in the evening, we were looking forward to an easy cruise downwind. All we had to do was to stay off the ferry course. They sail through the night with exactly the same destination as we had.

Most of the night was quite easy. The closer we got to Nynäshamn, the more the wind picked up and changed to a northerly direction. Time to start tacking. We could already see Landsort in the distance, but with the wind straight on our nose it felt even further away.

The wind picked up so we had to reef and the waves became choppy and slowed us down somewhat.

Nynäshamn- Runmarö-Korshamn- Arholma öst- Lidö-Degerby

We took a breather in Nynäshamn and had a good night’s sleep. We hadn’t been able to procure registration or boat name stickers in Greifswald (several day delivery…) so I had ordered some from a company in Turku and we had brought them along from our quick trip. In Nynäshamn I managed to get them in place, quite nicely. Only one thing went overboard in the process. The special sticker spatula that I’ve had for 20 years….

In the morning, the northerly wind was hitting us at 20-25 knots. The stubborn skipper had decided to leave but hadn’t prepared quite enough. Leaving the berth, the wind took hold of our bow and pushed us sideways and into the booms and the neighboring boats. Quite a hair-raising departure, with more damage to the skippers pride than to the boats.

Our destination was Svenska Kryssarklubben sharbour in Runmarö. It was actually the first proper tough wind with this boat. The waves were somewhat uncomfortable but with the second reef in we made great progress even though it was tacking all day. On the way, we tried to see if we could find a spot in Dalarö, but beeing fourth in the queue we didn’t see our chances as being great. Needless to say that when we got to Runmarö, the port was absolutely full. The northerly wind also blew right in, and we didn’t feel comfortable anchoring in the bay. We motored off to plan B, but the even though the pilot’s book totes the bay for good anchorage, it didn’t feel right.

Plan C, Korshamn. The sun was setting, and it was our first anchoring with this boat, in a completely new spot. I really wanted to do it before it got absolutely dark. We weren’t the first ones in the bay, but we found a great spot and settled down for the night.

The next morning, the wind still hadn’t died down. Over 20 knots of wind, and we were heading for the easterly harbour in Arholma. Getting there, the anchorage was quite full, and it was not as calm as I had hoped for. After having the anchor drag, we decided to go back south to Lidö, where we found a beautifully calm spot. Only the swell bobbed us up and down a bit during the night.

The next morning, for the third day in a row, the northerly wind was blowing at over 20 knots. The waves were 1-2 metres and leaving the Swedish coast was quite uncomfortable. As we were now heading east, the wind direction was quite nice. The sun came up and we head a clear blue sky for most of the day. We made it all the way to Degerby in the Åland Islands.