Trosa is a sweet little town gathered around a canalised river with plenty of bars and restaurants, much visited by tourists. It has been called the “Venice” of the North, or sometimes “World’s End”.
We had rented a cabin at the campsite so as to have a bit of relative luxury during the day off allocated for crew changeover. Nick and “big” William were leaving to catch flights back to the UK and being replaced by Barbara and my son William.
More food and booze needed buying in Trosa as it might be equally hard to guarantee finding anywhere to shop among the islands as in the first week. We had planned the provision of alcoholic drink meticulously, including buying enough for both weeks in Denmark on the journey over as it was cheaper there but unfortunately I had forgotten this fact when packing the canoes for week 1 and we had taken all of the booze with us in the canoes and drunk the lot! Carrying enough food drink and water for 5 days was a challenge, particularly as we did not live on packets of dried food but ate pretty much as we would do at home , with full meals cooked using fresh vegetables etc. I had been worried about additional weight causing a canoe to float too low in the water to allow it to be bailed out if capsized. Greg found a solution to this by putting a large amount of the additional food and drink in a large & sturdy inflated Otleib bag in the cockpit of each canoe below the helmsman’s seat. The theory was that if the canoe filled with water, the sealed bags would act as their own floatation to support the weight of the additional contents and not weigh the canoes down.
Week 2 day 1 16/06/2013
We got away by about 11am aiming to head East and cross the relatively open sound that leads North towards Sodertalje and around the Southern point near Grytnas.
We stopped briefly for a break at the Northern end of Fifang island.
We chose to head around the North end of the next chain of islands to the East but things got a bit hectic with the strengthening following wind and confused sea causing us to need to tack downwind to avoid the risk of a gybe. We decided to put in again on the East coast of this island and wait for the weather to make up its mind before tackling the open stretch.
By about 4pm there was a slight reduction in the wind strength but a heavy cloud bank could be seen coming up behind us from the West. Either we stayed where we were for the night or chanced a quick run across ahead of the coming bad weather. I was keen to push on as, beyond this section, the route would be more protected for some distance and so we might be able to make progress even if the weather was poor. If we stayed put, we might be trapped by the weather. Given the look of the weather we chose to use the fully reduced sail plan with the mizzen mast stepped forward, but kept the foremast up with its sail stowed on deck as its windage would not be a problem on the broad reaching course.
Despite some anxiety, we reached the Southern point just before the wind increased and turned up Fallnasviken with it dead astern. Even under the pocket handkerchief sails we surfed up the sound at hull speed, making very swift progress up to the low bridge at Tottnas about an hour and a half after leaving the island.
Now in well protected water, we were actually short of wind and had to paddle in some places. Time was getting on by the time we finally found a suitable camping spot on a small reed fringed island.
We found just enough fallen wood on the island to make a fine campfire.
Week 2 day 2 17/06/2013
The plan for the day was to head South and avoid having to go round Landsort by cutting through the Dragets Kanal ,one of the highlights of the trip. This was a medieval route avoiding the exposed headland which at one point gets very narrow and as a result of the land rising following removal of the weight of the prehistoric icesheet had to be cut deeper in the 19 the century when the depth in it had reduced to only 0.3m.
The day was fine but with a good SW breeze which required us to tack down the first section
but then allowed us to just lay the course down the sound.
There was a chance to relax in the sun over a long lunch
before turning North to paddle through the narrow section of the Kanal.
With the wind aft we made swift progress out into the open sound leading North to Nynashamn and headed NE towards a gap in the off lying islands aiming to then head across the main sound to the island of Nattaro. Although the wind was not strong, there was a left over, quartering, swell rolling up from the South, this caught Greg and William out in a moment of inattention and caused them to capsize half way across. They righted the canoe and bailed out.
We came ashore on the nearest island for them to sort out and change into dry gear.
The afternoon was well advanced and the weather did not now look settled enough to consider going on across the main open sound to the outer islands,
So we headed North among the islands to look for a place to camp as a thunderstorm broke.
Week 2 day 3 18/06/2013
It was a glorious morning with a light wind still from the South but the forecast was for stronger NE winds. We set out up the West side of the open sound hoping to cross to the outer island of Uto further up.
We made very good progress and stopped on a rock for a mid morning break before heading out towards the East across the sound.
After about 15 minutes the wind suddenly swung round to the NE and strengthened as forecast. We had little option but to abandon our crossing and head back towards the West. The sea rose surprisingly quickly and we took down all sail and paddled hard to get up into the shelter of a bay on the next island directly to windward. Somewhat exhausted we beached the canoes and stopped for lunch.
Although the wind moderated to some extent, we decided that it might in fact be unwise to go over to the outer islands with only a couple of sailing days ahead of us, in case we did not have a suitable weather window to cross back again. We set off again in a WNW direction under reduced sail to go round the bottom of Musko and stay among the inshore islands. Our course led us under a low bridge.
And past manmade caves used by the Swedish navy to hide their vessels:
We ended the day at fine camping location with signs of a fire and previous occupation
and went for a short walk in the setting sun.
Week 2 day 4 19/06/2013
We still had a long way to go to reach our destination near Stockholm and only two days in which to do it. Initially it looked as if the wind had too much East in it to allow us to make good progress but in fact we had one of our best day’s distance, often close to windward.
We made only two short rest stops
and reached Dalero by mid afternoon a distance of 19miles. We stopped at a marina to do a bit of shopping and then paddled through the canal at the back of the town which offers a short cut into the sound leading up towards Stockholm.
We found a perfect spot for our final night’s camping on the small island of Brandholmen just to the North.
Week 2 day 5 20/06/2013
The final day was windless so we had to paddle most of the way to Sigvard and Birgetta’s house opposite Saltsjobaden where a warm welcome awaited us.
We berthed the canoes at their boat dock
and unloaded all the gear:
The next day we put the canoes on the van and set off back to the UK via Hamburg and the Hook of Holland Ferry.
