Carra Tidings

7th-9th Aug

It was lovely to have friends Andy and Sharon join us from Finland and spend the weekend with us. Our first guests onboard and great to see that finally summer had arrived in the Baltic – teeshirt and shorts weather + plus enough wind to sail. The picture at the top of the page, Andy took and is the view from our boat in the marina at sunrise.

Our destination for the weekend was a little natural harbour called Ladau. We had just anchored when we noticed a man waving us away from a house – resisting the temptation to wave back – we moved the anchor to appease this unfriendly native. We were much further than the 200m required by law but we would rather have peace and quiet. Mags and Sharon went swimming off the boat a tropical 21C – though still not hot enough for me.

It was a lovely evening just chatting and laughing in the warmth of the evening sun. Some young kids of one of the neighbouring boats kept us entertained. First catching a fish, followed by a drunk father trying to kill it and filet it. Then the enterprising kids did a tour of all the boats proudly displaying their wares in a plastic bag. We even got the sales pitch in English – but it was an old couple that took pity on them and parted with some kroner.

The next morning was glorious but not a puff of wind as we set off. Fuel stops are few and far between in the archipelago and fortunately there was one close by and we were able to top up the tanks. Our gauge still showed full – yet we were able to fill up with 130 litres! We are still trying to solve the fuel tank gauge problem but I think we are going to have to replace the sender. There was still no wind and we motored back – taking it in turns to helm – as it was just too hot standing in the sun for any length of time.

25th July

We wanted to ensure we secured a place in Malma Kvarn, which is a lovely traditional harbour lined with little red houses. We were meeting Adam and Lynne, who we had met a few years ago at a talk about our trip round Britain. Adam had noticed we were in the Baltic, so had emailed and we had agreed to meet up. Getting up early meant that we actual got the best of the day – a great sail in full sun.  However, within about an hour of arriving it was pouring with rain. We had invited Adam and Lynne on board for Dinner and we had a lovely evening, great company + a present of British teabags – they clearly knew how to impress Mags!

26th July

As we had to catch a flight in the evening and we had a 5 hour sail ahead of us– we had a 7 am start, which is obscenely early in the Baltic. Up on deck you couldn’t see more than 200m – thick pea souper…. fog. The Swedish forecast was again spectacularly missing this vital piece of info. We set off with Mags glued to the radar and fog horn in hand. Rocky passages take on a whole new meaning in the fog. The scary bridge wasn’t so scary this time around mainly as we couldn’t really see it! After about 3 hours of motoring it finally cleared and we wound our way back through islands. We came across a pair of white tailed sea eagles fishing – you cant miss them with the size of their enormous wing span and their white tail feathers.

23rd-24th July

Ostholmen is a beautiful secluded inlet and we had found a great spot anchored right in the middle. It was a glorious sunny day, so we decided to stay put and just enjoy being there. The inlet is overlooked by a cliff on which hang some very large bird boxes. These aren’t for your average blue tit as each one must be about 2 ft tall. Breakfast in the cockpit, followed by a dose of people watching as they left their moorings. It was a great day relaxing and doing boat jobs. We took the dinghy off to explore the uninhabited island of Ostholmon – yet it has a sauna! Mid afternoon the man in the Ice cream boat turned up. Top idea! Post ice cream – we scrambled up to the top of the cliff to admire the view into glistening sun. Back onboard we ate Dinner in the cockpit with the evening sun illuminating the cliff face.

1. 23^rd July Marcus turned up at 8am sharp to replace the gps unit. Water had got into the unit and corroded the terminals. He also replaced the wiring back to the backbone and was pleased at how easy it was to access all the wiring – one of the many benefits about a Rustler.

By 11am we were ready to leave, but there was a major decision to be made. Do we go under scary bridge or not. The short cut to our next destination would save about 1.5 hours but goes under a 20 m bridge. Our mast is 19m including aerials and there is a positive water height of 16cm – which leaves 80cm. Which might sound a lot but with the optical illusion from the cockpit it looks like you will hit it. We decide that to go for it…..

…..but to go slowly and don’t look up. Our confidence was somewhat lessened as a boat in front of us got to the bridge and did a dramatic U turn. Next thing we saw was him hoisting a crew member to the top of the mast with a Go Pro and pole to film it. I looked at Mags and before I could even say anything, I was told don’t even think about it.. So dear readers, the only footage you will see of scary bridge are stills from the cockpit. I did look up just as we were about to go under and my heart stopped……

Safely under – we ghosted up between the islands. Then the heavens opened and we stuck on the engine and we headed to the Island of Moja and the harbour of Kirkviken. It looked an idyllic spot with traditional red houses lining the harbour and on old church – hence the name. But alas all the rock spots were taken, the only option was to anchor. But after the third attempt trying to get the anchor to hold, we gave up and headed for Ostholmen and discovered a gem of a spot.

22^nd  Having been raining most of the night, it was still oilies weather as we left back through the rocky entrance following our inbound track of last night. But the rock alert doesn’t stop when you leave the natural harbours. The charts here have a worrying phrase in this part of the archipelago – “all known rocks less than 6m depth are shown”. We don’t want to be the ones to discover the unknown ones. So it is relief to make it back to the marked fairways.

We had a cracking sail beating into the wind – til the channel got too narrow to make it viable. Ever since our crossing from Germany our gps unit had not been working and we had to rely on the internal gps of the chart plotter, so our next destination was the Bullando Marina to meet up with the Raymarine dealer. Bullando is a lively marina whose close proximity to the outer archipelago makes it very popular. Last year when we were looking for marinas for Carra we had looked at it but with a 7 year waiting list it wasn’t option.

I gave the locker lid a good clean with an abrasive fibreglass cleaner which has removed a bit more of the burn mark from the BBQ, much better than it was but you can see it.

There is always a task list of things to do and tonight’s activity was to put up picture in the saloon. The west coast of Scotland can have some stunning sunsets and this picture is from where Mags grew up on the Kintyre Peninsula overlooking the Island of Cara. Cara is a Gaelic word for friend and can be spelt Cara or Carra.

19^th July

It wasn’t quite the sun kissed weather we were hoping for this holiday as we left marina kitted up in our oilies. The weather forecast was 14-20 knots with the risk of gust over 20 knots being 73%! Amazing the level of accuracy 73% … if only it was correct….as it was gusting over 30 knots regularly, though technically they were correct. The Swedish weather forecaster clearly don’t feel the need for any more detail above 20 knots.

We sailed along the main ferry route into Stockholm though in the opposite direction making our way out to the outer archipelago. You might be imagining a massive boring wide channel, but no, the contrary was true, a pretty route with islands and very narrow passages. Quite impressive that the ferries weave their way through undaunted.

With the wind behind us and just the yankee set, we had a lovely sail through the islands. Along the route you get the ideal opportunity to look at all the drop dead gorgeous waterside properties. Initially main homes but as you get further away from Stockholm they are summer cottages – though some are mansions but some are no more than a hut on a rock…. Or in this case a very attractive hut.

We dropped our anchor in the tranquil deep bay on the island of Sjalbottna – with high rocks overlooked by some lovely summer cottages. The one in the banner picture had a buoy for a large boat, a sauna by the waters edge, a beach and the house on the cliff over looking the bay…  that would suit us perfectly. The clouds parted and the sun came out, so we finished the day with  dinner in the cockpit wearing shorts