We had a good night's sleep and were ready for the off by 09:45, on this a bright, sunny morning. We had one little hiccup, the anchor brought a friend up with it, in the form of a pole at least 8’ long! Happily, the pole was sufficiently rotted that it didn’t stay stuck, with the anchor, to the bottom in 8metres of murky water – not a nice prospect to have to dive down to and with little difficulty, we were able to let it go back down from whence it came. I was very relieved at that.

Once we were out in the sound, we were in quite a fresh SW wind and we sailed, beating our way down to the large marina at Nynäshamn, where we needed to get some cash and supplies and we could top up our water tank .

Coming into the harbour, we realised something was up, we could see masses of sails in the far distance and many boats had bunting flying. Also, most places seemed to be reserved and it was with some luck that we found a spot alongside a huge, several hundred metre long pontoon, brand new and as it transpired, with no water or electricity yet. Hrrumph

The reason for all of the activity was that it was the centenary celebrations of the Olympics at Nynäshamn (can’t seem to get away from the blessed event!).They were celebrating with a 17 day regatta with a whole series of races, both at the European and Swedish levels for a variety of yacht classes. It was also the largest ever gathering of Classic boats in Sweden, featuring over 30 which pre-dated the 1912 Olympics, out of a fleet of 260 vessels in all. As a result of all this activity, it was all very crowded and jolly. I of course, who don’t like crowds a whole lot and given that we couldn’t charge any of our batteries, they had no water and worst of all, it was at least an 800 yard walk ( I exaggerate not) to the toilets and showers, was anything but jolly! Still, we got our money and supplies and that was something. What was concerning, was that the forecast for the next day looked iffy, strong winds and rain all day and I really didn’t fancy being stuck here for two nights, what with the long walk and all, but we would have to just wait and see what the morning brought.