Today we were headed north to Hanö, a lovely (we were told) little island en route to Karlskrona, if you didn't mind a small detour to the west. Again it was only about 33 miles so it wasn’t too onerous, apart from the wind being quite strong at times (F4-5) which tends to slow one down and make it seem colder than it actually was, indeed out of the breeze it was really quite hot.

By 13:30 we were safely tied alongside the wall in the cute little harbour in Hanö . There were 2 other yachts and a fishing boat, and that was it, apart from a ferry that came and went a couple of times. The harbourmaster obviously has time on his hands but at least he uses it to good effect, he has laboriously painted the dozens of tyres that act as buffers between ships’ sides and the hard granite walls of the harbour and this, together with the pretty houses, made for a very picturesque and peaceful scene.



Hanö boasts a small but enterprising little community of some 30 full-time residents. However, this is but a small fraction of the population of the island during the Napoleonic wars, as the British Royal Navy was based here between 1810 and 1812. Every other week, a fleet of several hundred west-bound ships would gather in the sound between the island and the mainland and in 1810, 1000 ships arrived at one time – quite a sight!! Today, all that remains is a cross to commemorate the dead from these times (15 graves), albeit the cross was not erected until 1973 by the crew of a frigate, HMS Plymouth . Apparently, every time a British warship is in these parts, it always stops and a service is held in the cemetery. Given the size of our navy nowadays, I guess this doesn’t happen very often…

Of course we wanted to see this cemetery and indeed the island, so off we set. Now apart from 30 humans, the other large mammal that is on the island is the fallow deer, first introduced in 1956 when 5 animals were released. Now there are over 100 and whilst there is enough for them to eat during the warmer months, they are fed in the winter. The trouble is with deer is that they eat things and when you are a gardener, you might get upset if all of your efforts are laid to waste by a bunch of fallow deer. To avoid this, there is an island long deer-fence ( I presume, at least we had to go through one on the path to the cemetery and the lighthouse). The other trouble is with deer is that they are hosts for ticks and at this point, I will make a small digression.

Ticks in Scandinavia are a problem, not only because it’s not very nice to have a relative of the spider come and suck your blood until it more than doubles in size, it’s because they can pass on diseases such as Lyme disease ( bacterial infection) and TBE (Tick-borne encephalitis, a virus infection) . The former is usually successfully treatable with antibiotics but the latter is more dangerous, especially in older (ie us) people but fortunately, it is not yet that common here in Sweden. Now Julie of course, is an expert on these matters and took extreme measures to avoid any visitations, by ensuring no skin below knee height was exposed (see photo)

We had a lovely walk, saw some deer, saw the small cemetery and the lighthouse and then worked our way back to the boat. It was so peaceful here, there are no engines as there are no roads, so all you could hear was bird song and the ever-present strong breeze, ruffling the leaves. It was idyllic.

Back to the boat to have the rest of the ham in a salad and yet another episode of the Killing. We thoroughly enjoyed the day, apart from the lack of sailing but we were pleased to have seen this lovely little island.