Sweden & Denmark
Jul 31st - Sep 11th, 2019
Good morning Sweden 😊
First anchorage in Sweden, on the east coast
Kalmar here we come
We picked up our good friends, Jan and Caroline Holtz, in Kalmar. And, No, they are not brothers...
Långe Erik, the lighthouse on the northern part of Öland
The view from Långe Erik
Good catch. Dinner is ready
A perfect sailing day yesterday. Spinnaker sailing the whole day from Öland and through the archipelago 😊
Anchored in Gryts skärgård
Which trail is taking us back to the boat? We're a little confused
Approaching Huvudskär
Narrow inlet to Huvudskär
We had a twist in the spinnaker so we needed to take it all out and unspin it. Perfect place to do it is inside the boat ;-)
Such a coincidence, Horizon left Florida and Sundance left Fårö at exactly the right time to rendezvous at Huvudskär ⛵️
So fun to raft up with you.
A nostagic anchorage in Säck in Stockholms archipelago. A very protected and popular anchorage.
Just look at the narrow inlet on the picture to the right.
It’s dramatic weather and clouds even here in the Baltic. And this was during a classic boat race!
Going through a very narrow and busy channel, Stegesund
Approaching Vaxholm. Vaxholm's fortress in the middle. It was built to protect Stockholm.
The history of the Vaxholm Fortress begins early in the 16th century, with the construction of a blockhouse on Vaxholm by Svante Nilsson Sture, the Regent.
Close to Vaxholm's fortress
Beautiful Vaxholm with all the old steamers.
Anders mom, Stina, joined us for a short sail trip
We are now anchored outside our summer cottage, Värmdö Stockholm archipelago. It was a very special and emotional feeling to sail here with our American flagged boat, Horizon😊
We sailed in to Stockholm. Very busy traffic on the way in
We are now docked at a friend’s dock, at Djurgården.
What a great evening, having some old good friends over at Horizon. They were nice bringing all the food as a potluck
What a nice reunion. I Love these guys. So many fun memories and giggles
My very best friend from College time! Love You Eva
Lots of bubble consumption during the evening
Horizon by night in Stockholm
Horizon is docked at a friends private dock, at Djurgården in Stockholm
These crazy J-80 were competing very close to our boat two nights in a row. So much fun to watch them
This is what happens when electrical engineers from Trimble come visiting on Horizon 😆 Admiring the battery installation
This swan family hang out around our boat
Today we were tourists in Stockholm. We went to The Viking museum. Well worth a visit. We can definitely recommend the guided tour 👍
Going out south from Stockholm through this beautiful narrow canal, Baggensstäket
We met up with our old college friends. A big surprise for one of them who arrived the same morning from the US and didn't know that we were in the area ;-)
Friends that rafting together stay together, literally. All three hanging on our anchor.
Wonderful fun night with good old college friends
We did our 1000 hour service on the engine at Hanson Marine. Beautiful location next to the amusement park in Stockholm, Gröna Lund. We also got to stay the night there for free :-)
We found a new crew member in Stockholm. Time to start our sail south 😊⛵️Thanks Lennart for joining us for three days
Lennart is checking out the plotter
Going in to the narrow channel, Ryss-sundet. Beautiful calm morning
Deep discussions about prop walk and prop wash
Happy crew
Brisk close hauled sailing to Gotland in 15-20 knots of wind
Leaving early morning from Lickershamn, Gotland
This rock formations are called Raukar. They are very typical for Gotland. This is the biggest one, Jungfrun
Another brisk close hauled sailing back to the mainland
Not many boats in Västervik's guest marina this time of the year. Summer is coming to an end. Time to sail south...
Sailing out from Västervik through the outer archipelago. beautiful scenery. On our way to Öland
We're approaching Blå Jungfrun. Blå Jungfrun is one of those wonderful freaks of nature, totally unlike any of the archipelago’s other islands. It inspires reverence and respect, and there are countless tales of alien creatures and adventures relating to it. The island is also known in Sweden as Blåkulla (Blockula), a place to which Easter witches fly on their broomsticks, as legend would have it. A place where indescribable rites take place every spring.
Blå Jungfruns Lighthouse. We planned to anchor here for the night but the holding was very poor...
...so we sailed over to Öland. And we got rewarded with this stunning sunset over Blå Jungfrun
Sailed under Ölandsbron, again. A very long bridge connecting Öland to the mainland
Anders is busy shaving and drinking Jaeger under Ölandsbron ;-)
Now we're docked in Grönhögen, södra Öland, Very nice marina and town.
Great restaurant close to the harbor
Sailed from Grönhögen, southern part of Öland, to Utklippan. Utklippan is Sweden’s most South East Island. This is a must do visit if you’re in the area, but only in good weather. Very special. It's like docking in a swimming pool
Beautiful views from the lighthouse at Utklippan. This is a very remote and tiny island, but so unique
A lots of cute seals came to say good bye when we left Utklippan. Hard to see in the picture, you have to zoom in 😆
A fast beam reach sail today from Utklippan till Christiansö, Denmark. In 9.5 knots wind we did 8.3 knots of speed 😀
Approaching Christiansö
Harbor inlet
We feel safe here, lots of canons protecting the harbor where you can see Horizon's mast
Typical Danish houses
We love the Baltic sea- weed. It was really nice in the water, 21C
We got invited to a danish boat for Happy Hour together with a lot of locals 🍻
I had a tooth problem. My crown cracked and fell off. Since we have a dental kit in our emergency kit we thought it would be an easy fix. But no, it didn't stick. The crown fell off again. then we tried to protect the tooth with the temporary filling but that didn't stick either. So much for that effort. Oh well at least it doesn't hurt :-)
The marina in Svaneke, very picturesque. And we loved this place.
We biked to a forest to do some mushroom hunting. Beautiful forest, and we found four chanterelles. Yay
We rented bikes to bike to the forest to go mushroom hunting
Beautiful old mill. That's actually functional and spinning.
Very small, but tasty, chanterelles
Heligdomsklippen, An old ritual place, specially during summer solstice
On our way down in Sorte Gryde, the black bowl. It's a very narrow tunnel that goes at least 60 meters in.
Anette is coming down the ladder to get in to the Sorte Gryde.
This is the top of the entrance, Lots of rocks
Anders is in the narrow part of the tunnel
Anders is taking a picture of me towards the inlet
We hiked to the "biggest " waterfall in Bornholm. It wasn't much but the forest was stunning
View from Hammer Odde fyr. Lighthouse, in the northern part of Bornholm. You can see Sweden from here
Rytterknegten is build on the highest point of Bornholm, 162 m over the ocean. It was built 1856 to the memory of a visit of Fredrik VII. It's been extended by then because the forest grow so now it's 172m over the ocean
Hassle harbor harbor swim. Impressive dive structure built
Dueodde, the most South Eastern part of Bornholm. All beautiful white sand beaches
Back in Sweden. This is the small harbor of Kåseberga in the southern part of Sweden, Skåne.
A short steep climb up the hill right behind the harbor. Stunning coastline
At the top of the hill are the famous Ales Stenar. It's almost like the Stonehenge
Ales stenar. It’s believed to be an ancient gigantic sundial, solar calendar. The sun rise and sets on different parts of the year. It was erected sometime between 500-1000 AD.
Lots of kItes were flying on the hillside, late evening and early morning
Fast approaching Öresundsbron, that connects Sweden with Denmark
And of course the traditional Jäger
Beautiful Rainbow
We are docked at Bäckvikens hamn on Ven. We rented Bikes to go up and visit the Tycho Brahe Museum. Well worth a visit. Very interesting. He was a great scientist and astrologist
Another narrow channel
Another day of fast sail up the west coast of Sweden. We are now docked in rainy Marstrand., and Martrands fort. It sure feels like fall today 🥶
It’s not very busy in the guest harbor today 😆
We didn't meet many sailboat, and specially not no EU boats. But we did meet this Canadian boat and one US boat :-)
We are now in Smögen, the most famous and popular West coast town. During the summer it’s super busy. It’s nice to be here off season, we have the whole place to our selves 😊
From Smögen we sailed mostly inshore since they were calling for bad weather and gale. This is a long narrow channel, Sotekanalen. We had to call this swing bridge, via VHF so they opened it for us
We arrived in Strömstad where we will stay for a couple of days. We are visiting my mom and prepare for our next leg to Norway and then Scottland
