After yesterday's glorious weather, we weren’t expecting a repeat performance, especially as we had torrential rain in the late evening and overnight. It was a grey start but the clouds looked like they would break up so with a sense of optimism, we set off from our lovely, (albeit 'crowded’) anchorage at 09:15, switching the engine off once we’d safely re-entered the buoyed channel. The wind was blowing fitfully from the NNW, when I say fitfully, during our sailing period, our speeds ranged from 1.7 knots to 6.6!

Our destination was 17 miles away, the small town of Valdermarsvik, at the head of a 10 mile deep fjord – it looks like a fjord, with relatively steep wooded sides and deep water ( 45m or so) . By 10:00, the sun was out and by 11:00, we were really quite warm. We got really warm and excited at position 58°.04.93W and 16°.48.30E, just in the channel between small islands off the island of Torrö Stickskär. The reason for this was the fact that we spotted no fewer than 6 white tailed eagles all at once!! An incredible sight. This time they were all in flight, 4 of them heading off inland and 2 were soaring above us. I’m not sure whether cormorants are part of their diet but it does seem coincidental that there was a large nesting colony on one of the small islands and we did see one take a seagull last year. Anyway, it was exciting and we were now keen to spot either a bear or a wolf, both of which have been sighted in these parts in the last few years!

No such luck, thought seriously it would have been a minor miracle or a very sick or blind bear/wolf if we had seen one, and within 4 miles, after crossing a relatively open piece of water we turned left to make for the entrance to Valdermarsvik fjord and put our sails away, our direction now being straight into the eye of the light breeze .



Two hours later, we found ourselves at the head of the fjord looking for a space in the small guest harbour. Here they had nothing but pontoons, all of which were too narrow for us, so we eventually tied up alongside the fuel berth (no service, the supermarket who man it only had two checkout girls on duty and they were both busy checking out) so I left Julie to guard the boat whilst I went to the Tourist Office, where dues are paid and details of codes to the facilities are provided. There, the helpful husband and wife team (I think) suggested that we moor against a wall opposite, which we had ignored due to the large reserved signs on it – they explained that this was kept for the likes of us anyway, so it was the right place to be. Here also, they have internet access but they asked me to report back if I had difficulty accessing it – apparently others have and the IT department of the local council refuse to accept that there is an issue (there is, we failed to connect!). However, in compensation, it is very cheap here, 100 SEK / night and the third night free, so we can’t complain.

Whilst I was getting the information, there was a dramatic change in the weather and the heavens opened to a very heavy cloudburst, fortunately it didn’t last long and I was able to wade back to the boat through the puddles and rivulets. Julie took a photo of it and you can see the explosions of the raindrops as they hit the water.

Boat moved and bedded down, there was not much else to do other than a minor shop then we settled down for the evening, with intermittent light showers and drizzle ending the day.