Pretty wooden houses on Kalmar waterfront


It's taken us four days to cover the 200 odd miles down Swedens east coast to fetch up in Kalmar, set low down on the coast where the Kalmar Sound is at its narrowest, and the impressive Orland bridge joins Orland island to the mainland.

The weathers now changing swiftly as the Baltics summer season is coming to an end. The mornings now have a real freshness about them, and we're seeing more than our fair share of thunderstorms, rain squalls, and bursts of high winds. In between, we've still enjoyed some super sunny spells, but you can understand why the local sailors are mostly heading home - and not just to get ready for their coming winter months.

The night before we left Stockholm we got something special. I awoke at 5 am when the first spatters of rain hit, making me consider going on deck and bringing in some towels we had left up to dry. I quickly changed my mind as the spots turned into a torrent. In minutes it was thrashing down, and we were treated to probably the loudest, brightest thunderstorm I've ever seen. Probably Thor coming home for a visit. I never saw it happen, but one of the local yachts in the marina took a lightening strike. No one on board, but apparently it blew two stopcocks out of the hull, and the yacht gently sunk at its mooring......

The storm was all over by 9 am when we dried off and departed the KSSS Marina? Most motor sailed through more coastal island channels, but we took Jumbuck out offshore to use the moderate southerly breeze and beat our way down the coast to yet another idyllic anchorage, Ringsoake, about 60 miles south. Lots of the rally boats later followed us in, but unfortunately Dave and Suzie on 'Auk' a 49 footer, clonked a submerged boulder quite hard in an entrance channel. They are now a few days behind us all, having the boat lifted to check for keel damage.

Don't want you to think this is turning into a demolision derby, but a day later another rally boat, 'Tomanika', also hit bottom in another anchorage and Anika sustained a head wound that needed the coastguard to come and take her to the local hospital. They are now out of the rally, with Tom and his brother sailing 'Tomanika' back to their home port of Stockholm.

After one very still night in Ringsoake, we awoke to lighter southerlies, so along with the rest of the fleet we motor sailed another 50 odd miles and along with four other rally boats, anchored up between the small islets of Hafso, Lango and Trasso. These southern archipeligo islands are a little more barren than those further north, but it was pretty, and well sheltered from all sides. We owed out Norwegian pals a meal so invited them over for the evening. The anchorage was absolutely deserted when we awoke late and motor sailed on chasing the back end of the fleet, for our last 'anchorage' before Kalmar.

Except we opted out of an anchorage. We had identified a guest harbour in the pilot at Oscarhavn, and with the threat of strong overnight winds, paid up out £12 to stop there rather than spend a wet evening aboard. A nice restaurant 1000 metres from the boat that served up bistro food in a nice modern setting, cemented the belief we had made the right choice.

It did indeed thrash down overnight, but the forecast saying it would be all over by 0800 got that wrong. We departed at that time, expecting the 25 knot winds to ease and veer from the south to the west. They got that well wrong and with a reefed main 0900 saw us bashing our brains out skipping south, in torrential rain, and battling 30 knot gusts. Oscarhavn is nearly at the top of Kalmar Sound, but the sound itself is studded with rocks so keeping to marked tracks was a requirement if we didn't want to join the list of grounded boats. As one gets further south, the sound slowly narrows, and by midday the winds had eased, veered, and Jumbuck was slipping south at 6.5 to 7.5 knots over smooth seas.

We followed two other larger rally boats under the lap patently endless Oland Bridge, topped up our fuel (you'll be pleased to know we've only used 70 litres since Helsinki) and had our lines taken by the rally team. Over the next six hours the rest of the fleet arrived, and last night saw a round of boat parties - most of which we attended!

Kalmar itself is a very pretty historical town, with an impressive castle alongside that helped protect Sweden since 1200. We like it so much, and the weather forecast for tomorrow is so bad, we may indeed spend one more night here before heading for Denmark and the Rally round up.