Let’s Go Offroad… Sailing? Cruising the Gulf of Bothnia

The huge construction of Svartklubben lighthouse looms on the horizon. Standing on the small Swedish island of Singö, it guards the doorway to the Gulf of Bothnia. Passing it appears like we’re opening the pages of a brand new e book.

That morning, we’d hauled our anchor out of the mud within the stunning Arholma anchorage, the northernmost island of the Stockholm archipelago. Sweden has so many glorious cruising grounds, every of which may preserve you busy for a lifetime.

We’d spent a month on the south-east coast of Sweden, meandering between the hundreds of islands. However now we have been going to the place even Swedes not often sail: the Gulf of Bothnia. From the Stockholm archipelago to the northernmost level of the Gulf it’s roughly 400 miles in a straight line. However we will likely be crusing a circuitous route, and there are various distractions alongside the best way.

Selecting sides

The very first thing to resolve is whether or not we’re going to loop across the Gulf of Bothnia clockwise or anticlockwise. The prevailing winds are south-westerly, however after we have been there they tended to blow from the south-south-east.

To keep away from having to sail lifeless downwind, we resolve to sail north alongside the Swedish coast and south once more alongside the Finnish coast.

Our first cease is the quaint village of Öregrund, the place we discover a great place within the small visitor harbour. Öregrund is a type of little cities the place it appears as if time has stood nonetheless. Wood homes are painted within the typical crimson or yellow, trimmed with white. You’ll be able to inform that it will get very chilly right here in winter: every dwelling has small home windows, huge chimneys.

There are sturdy church buildings, every with a neighbouring bell tower, and fishing boats within the harbour. Vacationers stroll round and we be part of the throngs for an alfresco dinner at one of many many terrace eating places, celebrating our first step into the comparatively unknown Gulf of Bothnia.

View of a typical village on Sweden’s Excessive Coast. Picture: Frida Gruffman/Getty

Cherry selecting

Once you ask Swedes concerning the northern Swedish coast, they invariably discuss Höga Kusten, the Excessive Coast. That is an space in the course of the Gulf, simply south of the island Kvarken. Between Stockholm and the Excessive Coast, the land is comparatively flat and lined with forest.

Many islands dot the coast, so there are many choices to anchor or tie to a rock ‘Scandinavian model’ with a stern anchor to maintain the bow away from the arduous stuff. In lots of locations alongside the Swedish and Finnish coast, you have got the selection to go ‘exterior’, the place there may be extra sea room, or ‘inside’ between the islands the place you discover extra shelter.

We moor Anna Caroline in a membership harbour on the island Granskär. These membership harbours are fairly frequent in Nordic nations. Principally, it’s a harbour at a beautiful island that has been owned or leased by a membership for many years and members come from their totally different house ports to spend the summer season trip there. Guests are sometimes very welcome.

Svartklubben lighthouse guards the doorway to the Gulf of Bothnia

A clubhouse, together with the inevitable sauna, is normal, however generally the harbour has a restaurant or café as nicely. At Granskär, they not often see a international boat, so we obtain a heat welcome and are spoiled with all kinds of helpful recommendation for our journey additional north.

To resolve on our subsequent stops, we take a look at the map and on the time we have now obtainable to sail right here; summers are brief on this a part of the world. “Why don’t we cherry decide?” Wietze muses. We select to sail in a single day to the Excessive Coast to maximise our time there.

Once we forged off it’s midsummer: we sail by means of an evening during which the solar doesn’t set and the skies preserve superb us with their hues of yellow, orange and crimson. Within the early hours of the subsequent morning the wind drops and we motor into the Lustholmen membership harbour. There’s not a soul to be seen on the moored yachts; solely recent leaves rustling within the wind.

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After tying up, we put the kettle on and surprise what midsummer partying went on the night time earlier than because the island slowly comes again to life. Once more we obtain type hospitality and plenty of details about nice locations on the Excessive Coast. “Ulvön and Trysunda are well-known and delightful islands,” fellow cruiser Stig feedback, “however come to my village Häggvik. We’ve a harbour that may accommodate your boat. It’s the very best spot on the Excessive Coast.”

It’s a beautiful sail to Häggvik: the excessive cliffs create sudden windshifts and preserve us on our toes. It appears like dinghy crusing once more. When the channel narrows we drop the sails and search for the slim passage to Häggvik – it’s a lot narrower than we thought.

After some nail-biting moments, with the depth sounder screaming at us, the golf green widens once more and we arrive on the loveliest little marina shared with enthusiastic cruisers. For provisioning we will borrow bikes to cycle to the closest city with a grocery store.

The visitor port of Baggviken on the Swedish island of Mjältön

We spot reindeer on the shore of an island on the opposite facet of the Ratan anchorage, after a brisk sail from the Excessive Coast to Ratan, a ravishing secluded bay. That is near the narrowest a part of the Gulf of Bothnia; the half the place the landrise is most seen.

As soon as the final Ice Age retreated the land of the Nordic nations began to bounce again. And it’s nonetheless occurring, albeit at totally different charges. Within the northern a part of the Gulf, it’s roughly 9mm per yr. Rocks that have been marked at sea degree a whole bunch of years in the past at the moment are metres increased.

The small village of Hölick on Sweden’s Hornslandet peninsula. Picture: Henk Hulshof/Getty

The far north

From Ratan we make use of a gradual, 20-knot south-easterly. We’re having fun with such a terrific sail, with hardly any waves, that we resolve to maintain going and do an overnighter to Luleå, one of many larger cities of northern Sweden. There’s a nasty low approaching, so we tie up within the giant marina.

Whereas we look forward to the climate to move, we go to the location the place Luleå was first constructed; because of the landrise they needed to transfer the city 7km additional east to maintain the harbour at ample depth. There’s a ravishing previous city constructed of 404 tiny picket cottages round a fifteenth century stone church.

Crusing by means of the Luleå archipelago is at instances difficult with our 2.15m draught, however we benefit from the solitude of this comparatively unknown cruising floor. We see fishermen working trout and salmon nets, and a handful of crusing yachts. However principally it’s us, the birds, wooded islands and the excessive summer season solar.

Swedish Cruising Membership harbour on Bergön on the northern finish of the Gulf of Bothnia

The membership harbour on the island Bergön is a very magical place. Members have constructed a clubhouse, a wood-burning sauna and a hearth underneath a round roof. On lengthy tables on the jetty, members and cruisers meet and share tales on countless summer season days.

From Bergön we motor eight miles to Töre, the northernmost navigable level on the Gulf of Bothnia, a literal excessive level, and turning mark of our voyage within the Gulf. An enormous yellow buoy marks the spot. Along with two Finnish boats, we around the mark, then tie as much as a wall and stroll to the close by campsite. Simply 30 miles south of the Arctic circle, we’re in shorts and T-shirts, having fun with brilliant sunshine and 25°C temperatures. Töre has just one,100 inhabitants, however is a big stopover for yachts due to the enduring yellow buoy. On the native campsite we even get a certificates for rounding it.

Bergön is common with Finnish cruisers, so we take the chance to collect up-to-date data. We meet Niklas and Johanna crusing their Grand Soleil 40 Zeieten across the Gulf anticlockwise, and talk about the very best technique for the Finnish coast. For miles and miles offshore it’s very shallow. Rocks are in all places, and have a tendency to maneuver with the ice in winter. So, there are dredged and marked channels to the larger cities and the principle ports.

Pilot buildings within the bay at Ratan

Lighthouse route

To get in, you typically should sail as much as 20 miles by means of a channel. And the identical distance out once more; which deters most individuals from crusing alongside this coast. “Go for the lighthouses,” Niklas says.

“When Finland was a part of Russia, the federal government wished the cargo ships to journey alongside the Finnish and never the Swedish coast. So, they constructed an entire collection of lighthouses with small harbours on islands all alongside the westernmost rim of the shallow a part of the coast. These harbours can accommodate authorities vessels, so they’re deep sufficient for a yacht.

“Decide the locations on the mainland the place you wish to go and for the remaining you keep ‘exterior’ and use the lighthouses.” It’s a splendid thought.

We’d sailed into Bergön as strangers and go away as mates; it’s that type of place. Unexpectedly, the wind turns to the north. We rush south, to make good use of it. A fast go to to school city Vaasa, then on in additional northerly winds to historic Rauma, a UNESCO World Heritage website. Each marinas in Rauma are too shallow for us, so we find yourself within the fishing harbour, the place we discover a heat welcome.

‘Nature harbour’ mooring on the outer fringe of the Stockholm archipelago. Picture: Mikael Broms/Shutterstock

Our first lighthouse harbour is Kylmäpihlaja, a decent match for our boat, with a stiff breeze blowing throughout the basin. With the assistance of Ari, a Finnish fellow cruiser, we bought our strains ashore and safely tied up. Nevertheless it was value it: the island is a gem. It takes about 20 minutes to stroll round it and we make a number of laps to benefit from the ever-changing mild. Ari additionally presents glorious suggestions for anchorages within the well-known Turku archipelago, additional south. “It’s the very best cruising floor in Finland,” he guarantees.

We take every week to meander by means of extra stunning islands: one other lighthouse landmark, and but extra cute anchorages or villages the place we will tie up. The archipelago can get fairly crowded in July, however by August issues are slowing down, and slowly the nights get darker. It’s sufficiently quiet that as we strategy Turku by means of a winding, shallow channel, an elk swims throughout our bow.

Marina berths are often bow in with mooring rings

Again to the west

Town of Turku feels very cosmopolitan after the small villages we’ve visited. We sail proper into the centre of city, the place a marina is located on the banks of the Aura river. It’s a preferred place for crew modifications, restocking and sightseeing. However after just a few days we head again into the archipelago.

The slim, winding, and in locations shallow, observe makes for difficult crusing within the shifts and calms. Our final cease within the Turku archipelago is the small island Kumlinge, the place the identify of the tiny harbour and adjoining restaurant is Glada Laxen: the Laughing Salmon. Once we ask supervisor Markku what their speciality is, he replies: “Perch.” We now know why the salmon is laughing.

The subsequent archipelago is nestled between Finland and Sweden. Åland is formally Finnish, however Swedish is spoken. Once more, you may go for the broader channels which might be utilized by the massive ferries that ply the route between Helsinki, Turku, Mariehamn and Stockholm. Otherwise you select one in every of many narrower fairways between the smaller islands.

In a gradual south-westerly breeze we sail from island to island earlier than we attain Åland’s capital, Mariehamn, and eventually full our Gulf of Bothnia loop. However I’m undecided this chapter of our cruising is totally closed.

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