The forecast for the foreseeable future was for pretty indifferent weather – for indifferent read cold, cloudy, rainy. Our only consolation was that the UK seems to be going to experience similar conditions – there is nothing worse than being away in poor weather when the folks back home are basking in a heatwave! It's a shame, as after all, there isn’t a lot to the islands of the archipelago other than 'nature’ and if the weather precludes getting maximum enjoyment out of the scenery, then one could get stuck for things to do. However, as we needed to get to Västervik for Thursday afternoon, there would be more than enough to see and do for Jeff & Greta, even if they have to wear lots of layers in order to stay comfortable!

After breakfast, Julie introduced Greta to the joys of northern European recycling in the local coop . Basically, almost all supermarkets of any size have machines that accept bottles (plastic or glass) and cans, provided they come from that country and that they have a legible barcode. All of these items have a deposit on them and when you’ve finished returning your used containers, it spits out a receipt with a value on and this can be redeemed against purchases in the store. Very clever and a good way of ensuring that people recycle albeit I shudder to think at the level of investment required to deploy and maintain this equipment.

At 10:15 we were off, with precious little wind so we knew we would be motoring the 23 miles to Blankaholm. It’s quite fun piloting in this part of the world, one has to have current charts and ensure that one keeps to the marked channels – all over the place you see rocks that are just below the surface, a few yards outside the channel so straying could be potentially disastrous. Technology, in the form of the chart plotter and which I have raved about on numerous occasions, is a huge boon in these circumstances and it makes passage-making much more enjoyable . After a couple of hours of progressing in this manner , our marked channel joined a wider one, one that was denoted by much larger buoys and with deep water, > 20m, so this would be used by ferries and freighters and so on – not that we saw any. After another hour, we then turned to the west and started our approach to Blankaholm, chosen in part due to its convenient half way location and in part due to the intriguing mention in the Swedish pilot and I paraphrase ‘Blankaholm is a community that refuses to die out and is investing in the future and the World Wide Web. From its origins as a copper mining area and later, boasting one of the largest sawmills in Sweden, once all this industry closed the community opened a development centre to attract new businesses and the building in the harbour is a unique combination of tourist bureau, internet café providing IT courses, ice cream bar, kiosk, guest harbour and chalet reception’. Or at least it did up until 9 days prior to our arrival, when all was destroyed in a cataclysmic fire – see photo of the ruins.



What we got when we arrived then, was an empty pontoon and that was about it – even the building that may have housed some form of toilet was locked and it looked very shabby. Additionally, between the end of the pontoon and this tatty building there was a great deal of ‘industrial archaeology’ ie old bits and pieces of concrete etc – all in all, not a very prepossessing place. Having said that, we were tied up alongside safely and there was electricity, so we decided to stay put, figuring that it would be a free night. We were disabused of this notion in the early evening when the harbourmaster, very pleasantly, asked for his 180SEK for the night. Now if you recall, the extremely pleasant, modern and clean harbour in Figeholm, with all mod cons including free laundry facilities, only cost 170SEK and here there wasn’t even a toilet! Actually, this proved not to be true as inside the tatty building, were brand new fittings which were perfectly adequate, or at least they will be when they finish installing them, but we were able to find one shower that worked in both the men’s and women’s areas and of course, the ‘loos worked fine. Anyway, before I knew this I remonstrated with the harbourmaster, pointing out that his near neighbour was so much cheaper and better so he said give me 150SEK then, which we did – still not great value but there you go.



We spent the evening like every other, chatting, drinking and consuming too many nibbles prior to the main meal, this time presented courtesy of the Layton’s and consisting of a nice beef madras accompanied by an excellent dhal. Thank you both!