Finally set off from Stockholm at 0820 avoiding the fast ferry boats for half an hour when they all started passing at very high speeds making the water very rough. We were expecting big ship ferries as well but luckily missed close encounters by diving down south on the way to Baggenstaket through a sort of gigantic aquatic railway cutting. Here are some of the most eccentric and expensive houses with tendencies to the Addams family but without the bats. Some have incredibly long flights of stairs (sometimes covered) down to the water.
Once out of the cutting we turned east into a wooded channel. Here an old factory has been eradicated – it looks like a big effort is being made to return the site to nature but just now it looks like a quarry. Baggenstaket is a very useful channel, partly natural and very narrow leading out to sea. It has its little problems;- a biggish passenger ferry uses it from time to time as does a long nosed gravel barge. This is too large to pass in the narrow sections and has a very long conveyor belt boom out in front so it can deliver materials some distance inland. We once met it at the entrance to Baggenstaket and were glad we hadn't been there a few minutes earlier.
Once out of Baggenstaket we hoisted the jib and set off south west in a gentle south easterly breeze and bright sunshine. Badger went very well touching six knots from time to time and catching and passing a cruising cat with jib only and a largish single hull boat with jib and small spinnaker. Badger is just much quieter and faster with the KIWI propeller. As we turned south west for Myssingen we had the wind on the nose, furled the jib and motored the long stretch down to Utö. We went for the first time to the south west entrance. It is a little less easy then the main one but is quieter because not used by ferries. At the entrance itself are clear if small triangles as leading marks but these are difficult to see without binoculars. We moored to a small pontoon on the mainland shore to face the breeze but were in barely 1.5 metres of water. The place was quiet with the season barely begun but changes have happened. The bakery has moved across the road and its former premises have become a large and expensive looking bar/restaurant.
Once out of the cutting we turned east into a wooded channel. Here an old factory has been eradicated – it looks like a big effort is being made to return the site to nature but just now it looks like a quarry. Baggenstaket is a very useful channel, partly natural and very narrow leading out to sea. It has its little problems;- a biggish passenger ferry uses it from time to time as does a long nosed gravel barge. This is too large to pass in the narrow sections and has a very long conveyor belt boom out in front so it can deliver materials some distance inland. We once met it at the entrance to Baggenstaket and were glad we hadn't been there a few minutes earlier.
Once out of Baggenstaket we hoisted the jib and set off south west in a gentle south easterly breeze and bright sunshine. Badger went very well touching six knots from time to time and catching and passing a cruising cat with jib only and a largish single hull boat with jib and small spinnaker. Badger is just much quieter and faster with the KIWI propeller. As we turned south west for Myssingen we had the wind on the nose, furled the jib and motored the long stretch down to Utö. We went for the first time to the south west entrance. It is a little less easy then the main one but is quieter because not used by ferries. At the entrance itself are clear if small triangles as leading marks but these are difficult to see without binoculars. We moored to a small pontoon on the mainland shore to face the breeze but were in barely 1.5 metres of water. The place was quiet with the season barely begun but changes have happened. The bakery has moved across the road and its former premises have become a large and expensive looking bar/restaurant.
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