Fair winds and calm seas: Uto - Visby, Gotland (27 August 2018)

We left Uto on Saturday 18 August. We had a prompt start just before 0700 but it was already a sunny morning. After retrieving our stern anchor and trying to get some of the clay off it we headed SW down the coast. Unfortunately the light wind was also SW so for the first three hours we had to motor.

A little while after we changed course to a generally E direction; I say generally as we had to navigate round and through a succession of islands and rocks as we skirted the mainland. Our course was now generally more WNW so we were able to sail for the second half of our passage, after 33nm we were making our way up a shallow and narrow buoyed passage to Trosa. By now the wind was quite gusty and we opted to stay in the river and go alongside the long promenade that encloses part of the harbour. This was to be a mistake we discovered later!

Main river entrance to Trosa

Trosa has a well preserved town centre with some attractive buildings. It has been established for many centuries and achieved Township status in 1610. Although Russian invaders burned the town down in 1719 it was soon rebuilt and many of those buildings are still in evidence. The small river flows through the town and adds to its beauty.

River meanders through the town

Hotel in town centre

When we returned to Whileaway after an afternoon walk around the town we discovered that the historic steam ship Juno was right in front of us on the pontoon. We had almost intruded on their space! So we decided that maybe we should move to the other side of the pontoon and give them more room.

More traditional, older, homes in Trosa

Monday was dull, overcast and still as we cast off at 0735. Within about half an hour it started raining and that lasted until we reached our next destination of Nykoping, some 28nm to the W.
On the way we came across a couple of areas occupied by hundreds of cormorants. We were quite surprised as usually, on England's S coast we perhaps see two or three together at the most.

Cormorants fly off as we approach

Standing room only on this rock!

Here we decided to moor up on the almost deserted town quay, being the only visitors.


Whileaway on the town quay

Nykoping is a large modern town with a wide range of shops and restaurants. There are some historic buildings but it has developed more commercially than Trosa.

Old and new Council House in Nykoping

Traditional housing in the town centre

And modern flats

It does have the remains of a castle. It was originally built as a defensive tower in the late 12th century to protect the trading centre that had grown up at the mouth of the river. It was expanded into a lavish fortress in the 13th century. Apparently one of Sweden's power struggles took place here in 1317. The King had invited his two brothers, with whom he had a long running feud, to the castle to celebrate Christmas together. The King had the brothers thrown into a dungeon and left them to starve to death. The castle was largely burnt down in 1665.

Remains of old castle wall and newer additions

As we left the next day we called at the fuel pontoon before motor sailing further W, in light winds, past the industrial complex at Oxelosund, to a sailing club at the little settlement of Navekvarn.

Cafe and grounds

This is a very friendly place in spacious grounds and with a lovely cafe. The sailing club members were keen to make sure that we had everything we needed. Just to seaward of the harbour was a small uninhabited island reached by a footbridge. This turned out to be a nature reserve but also with facilities such as steps to walk into the sea and bbq equipment. All lovingly looked after by local volunteers.

The nature reserve island behind Whileaway

On the island itself

Beyond the harbour area was what was for 400 years a factory that had produced china or porcelain. It had finally shut in 2010 but the buildings were now being made use of for winter boat storage. Walking around we found there was an archeological trail related to the industrial past of this small settlement.
We noted that the channel that passed by Navekvarn had quite a lot of commercial traffic, hence advice not to moor on the outer pontoons because of wash!

Shipping in the channel

On Wednesday we headed S down the coast. We had a SE wind to contend with, in fact it became more S as the time wore on. So after some motor sailing we were forced to just rely on our engine as we threaded our way through the archipelago. Our destination this time was another small settlement with a harbour, Fyrudden. We arrived about 1330 and tied up next to a Swede, who, it transpired, spent most of the winter in Florida.

The harbour - Whileaway and Swedish yacht on the right

Fyrudden is an important base for supporting the islands in the archipelago. So although the harbour is not large there are a number of small passenger launches, water taxis, water buses and some small freight ferries capable of carrying plant and small items of machinery. There are also one or two larger freight ferries capable of carrying one or two vehicles. In addition residents of local islands come in their small cabin cruisers or ribs to get shopping or collect visitors.

The local ferry arriving

Work boat with tractor and trailors

Beautifully kept traditional rowing boat

We spent two nights here, some time for doing boat related tasks and some cycling around the nearby countryside. The nearby village of Grynt had a particularly interesting old chapel, with a sea theme, next to the church.

Ships bell and lantern in the chapel

On Friday 24 August we left early to head S. Once again we had a S wind necessitating motoring and initially had to navigate some narrow channels.

Between the islands

We made satisfactory progress until, after about 3 hours, the wind began to steadily increase beyond the forecast F4. It was due to be stronger towards mid-afternoon but by around 1200 it was constantly around 24-25kn, F6. The sky was threatening, gradually darkening with rain clouds. I had just got my wet weather gear on when the wind began to sharply increase and very heavy rain began to fall. Within a minute the wind was accelerating past 30 then 40kn and the rain was sheeting down with visibility reduced to about 5 metres at the most. It took plenty of effort just to keep Whileaway facing into the wind. In the following few minutes the howling wind briefly touched 50kn before it began to fall as the squall passed over. Within another couple of minutes we were down to 15kn, the rain eased and visibility returned. Not a pleasant experience!
At this stage we were only about 2nm from our destination, the small island of Ido so we were pleased to tie up in the small harbour soon afterwards. We were the only boat there but that was to change as others appeared later in the afternoon.

The harbour at Ido

We had a walk around the island. It is clearly a rock but with some trees and also some pasture.

Paths on rocks and gravel

There are numerous summer houses and what appear to be holiday cottages dotted around the island. Different areas were protected by electric fences and a notice explained that cattle were generally allowed to wander freely around the island.

Cows keeping the place tidy!

In early evening about 8 to 10 Swedish boats appeared as apparently Ido is a favourite place to visit at the weekend! That evening our main interest was looking at the weather forecast for the next 4 or so days as that was going to govern whether or not we set off some 50nm E to the island of Gotland. It didn't appear that there was going to be any storms in that period so just before 0700 on Saturday morning we slipped our mooring and started to make our way around the island and out to the open sea. To begin with winds were light so we motor sailed but by soon after 0800 we had a W4 behind us and cut the engine. Over the following hours the wind strengthened and backed to S5 and we made excellent speed so that we completed the 53nm to Visby within 9 hours. During the passage we noted some great depths on our instruments, 130m at one stage before the numbers were replaced with "Deep". Subsequently in Gotland County museum we saw a relief model of the Baltic and discovered that part of the area we sailed over was 459m deep! Quite astounding.

Whileaway in the harbour at Visby

An initial walk around the centre of the town showed that there were very attractive streets and buildings.

Just a few of the attractive streets and houses

We also learnt that Visby is a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of its history including over 90 medieval churches and extensive and substantial town walls from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Most of the church ruins in Visby date back to the beginning the thirteenth century. Perhaps most impressive is St Karin which overlooks the town square and was completed in 1250.

Two views of the ruined Church of St Karin

The town walls nearly surround the town and are 3.4km long with 27 of the original 29 towers remaining. They are said to be Europe's best preserved town walls.

The South Gate

Walls around the North Gate

Also close to the town square are the Botanical Gardens originally created in the nineteenth century and beautifully maintained.

The rose garden

We spent a couple of hours in the Gotland County Museum. It covered the history of Gotland from its creation 400 million years ago, through the iron age settlements from 1100AD, the Romans, Visby's membership of the Hanseatic League, the Danish invasion of 1361 and their occupation for nearly 300 years, to the present day. Highlights were the Spillings Hoard, the worlds largest silver treasure from the Viking Age and unique picture stones from the Iron Age, Gotland having hundreds of them.