There was a lovely breeze blowing from the south today and we were keen to take advantage of it as we knew that it was going to be around for only a short time, bad weather, cold and wet, was forecast for Tuesday and with winds back to the north. We were off and sailing by 09:30, bowling along initially at 5 knots or so under the genoa alone but later, when the wind direction changed somewhat, we deployed the main also. It was beautifully warm but in respect of our visitors, I kept some at least, of my clothes on.



We were aiming for the town of Oskarshamn, back on the mainland and about 26 miles from Borgholm . There aren't any hazards en route, provided one keeps to the well-buoyed channel but interestingly, we did come across one uncharted feature, not merely a rock but a building on a rock! It was, admittedly, outside the buoyed channel, it was about half a mile from the large red pillar that denoted the channel. Neither our paper charts or electronic ones showed the building or the rock it was on – very peculiar. In case you think we’d collectively imagined it, I include a photo.



By around 13:00, the wind suddenly died and we had to start the engine. Very soon, however, the wind started again from the opposite ie northern direction and within minutes, it was howling at 32Kts. By now, we only had a few miles to go and by 15:00, the strongest gusts were over and we were safely in the inner harbour in Oskrashamn. The temperature was now significantly less and due to fall further . Fleeces on then, and off we set to see a bit of the town and more importantly, to enquire at the tourist office for connections from towns further up the coast to Stockholm, in order that the Leytons make their return flight on Friday.

We found a lovely little cobbled street up into the town and were soon in the tourist office, a few minutes before closing time. We were served by a very pretty, friendly redhead (not her natural colour but it looked nice) and she helped us with some suggestions of where to eat in town (we chose not to) and she gave us a Swedish train timetable, which confirmed that there were adequate connections from the town that I had planned to end up in, namely Västervik. Back to the boat via the local Coop (by now it was really quite cold and later we were to find out that hereabouts had both the hottest (28°C) and the coldest (14°C) temperatures in Sweden, both in the same afternoon!)

We’d put the cockpit canopy up on the boat to try to make things pleasanter but it still was too chilly to stay on deck so the evening was spent down in the main saloon with the blow heater on!