It's ****ing Baltic...

[Mark]

Mrs Markie and I have been hankering after some kind of Baltic trip for a while and we finally got round to it the week before last. We'd heard about the Stockholm Archipelago and a bit of a web search suggested it was, on paper at least, a pretty good place to go cruising.

Initially we thought a Folkboat might be nice and fit in with a Swedish theme. Then we started to think that headroom, and a shower and large water carrying capacity would all be useful and not available on a folk boat.

After considering all the factors a Bavaria 42 seemed to be the absolute minimum size that two people can comfortably spend a week on. I can't imagine how we'd have managed without two fridges, two roomy en suite heads both with shower; electric windlass on both the kedge & the main anchor. Plus of course the powerful bow thruster to fool deaf observers that we could handle a boat. (I think the choice of boat was sound - two people for two weeks not being remotely careful with water used 75 per cent of one of two equal sized tanks of water without topping up once.)

We started from Gashaga Marina and did a sort of ad hoc following the wind loop.

Route here:
http://tinyurl.com/3xfmcsa" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Seemed a pretty good place to go sailing to me. Absolutely beautiful. Friendly people. Loadsa shelter if you want it.

It got a bit busy but 22,000 Islands give an abundance of sheltered spots to spend the night alone. Also there are various 'nature harbours' which are basically recognized remote anchorages that make it into the pilot books and attract a few more people. (Typically you moor bow to the rocks to protect your rudder but many have space to swing as well.)

No tides, mostly sweet fresh water (mostly you can drink and cook with it).

Weather seemed just like the UK but we had no days with zero wind. No idea if that's typical.

Images here (with a couple of Stockholm itself):
http://fattie.freehostia.com/Baltic/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

(Note: If you look carefully I think I might have got a shot of Webbie and the Scarlet Clergyman on their secret trop to Stockholm.)

Tagged a day in Stockholm on the end and saw the "Vasa". Absolutely blew my mind. Well worth a visit, I thought, and if you don't know the story well worth looking it up.
For anyone interested, images of that here:
http://fattie.freehostia.com/Vesa/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Not quite up there with Nick's recent epic but still tough returning to work...

[Nick]

.
Looks like a great trip . . . Bavarias are very popular in Norway, every second yacht was a Bav Cruiser 42. Who did you charter from?

[Mark]

.
Looks like a great trip . . . Bavarias are very popular in Norway, every second yacht was a Bav Cruiser 42. Who did you charter from?

Bavs seem popular with hire firms everywhere. I've nothing against them, I think they're excellent boats (and I've sailed almost every model) but something different would be nice from time to time. The folk boats really did appeal (http://www.kf-yachts.se/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) but I think we'd have been a bit tied to marinas and guest harbours for water and showers. As it was we didn't need to find habitation at all apart from one lunchtime provisioning session in Kyrkviken.

We hired from Boat Charter Stockholm: http://boatcharterstockholm.mmksystems.com/?setLang=en" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;