Astraia - Homeward Bound in 2015: 19 July – 7 Aug: A trip home and an overnight passage to Poland

Our car is still at the Sune Carlsson Båtvarv in Saltsjöbaden where it has been stored for the last couple of months. Charles took the train back to Saltsjöbaden to collect it and drove back to Karlskrona, and we then set off on the three day drive home, firstly along the southern coast of Sweden to catch the ferry from Trelleborg to Rostock in Germany.

We stopped at one or two interesting places on the way. Between Simrishamn and Ystad we took a slight detour to visit Ales Stenar, a megalithic Viking stone ship dating from 500-1000 AD, which forms a prominent landmark high up on the cliff …

This is the pretty little fishing harbour of Kåseberg, just below Ale’s Stones …

… and some typical cottages in the village of Kåseberg …

The farmland in this southern part of Sweden seems flatter, less rocky and more fertile – we saw lots of potato crops – Sweden is known for its excellent new potatoes …

This is the town of Ystad – I’m standing outside the old railway station, used as the Police Station in the Swedish version of the Wallander detective films …

Ystad has an attractive old quarter …

… with cobbled streets, pretty houses and roses growing round the doorways …

… and a nice main square …

We arrived in Rostock on the overnight ferry early the next morning and were in the famous Hanseatic town of Lübeck in time for breakfast. We walked into the centre past the imposing city gates …

This shows some of the detailed brickwork from the other side …

After a very welcome breakfast we had a stroll through the town and back along the river …

This is the Town Hall …

Some typical townhouses …

… and an old cobbled street …

There are many imposing churches in Lübeck, most of which seemed to be closed for renovation works. This is St Mary’s …

Here Charles has found a friend! They are sitting on The Devil’s Stone. The legend is that when the first stones of St Mary’s Church were laid, the Devil wanted it to be a wine bar instead of a church! When he realised that they were building a church, he grabbed a boulder and tried to smash the walls down. To stop him, the workers promised to build a wine bar opposite (the wine cellar in the Town Hall), so the Devil left the walls standing and threw the stone down – you can still see his claw marks in it!

Next stop was Osnabrück. We seemed to drive round the ring road and through industrial areas for ages before we found the city, but eventually we had our picnic lunch by the canal …

… and walked through the old part …

… to the town centre where we found some pleasant pavement cafés …

Final stop for the night was Deventer in the Netherlands, where they had their unusual, quirky summer bunting of umbrellas!

We had a delicious meal in a restaurant which had the atmosphere of a comfortable study or club – my turn to have a picture in the blog with a glass in my hand – the local beer!

The next day we just stopped once more briefly in Ypres …

… and had a look at the Menin Gate …

… which is both impressive and terribly sad at the same time …

Then it was on to the ferry from Dunkirk to Dover, and a first glimpse of the white cliffs …

… and the impressive structure of Dover Harbour …

We were home for the lovely wedding of Tash and Richard …

Here I’m with cousins Chris and Alex (mother of the bride) and my Mum …

I also had a chance to take Eleanor and George, my niece and nephew, to HMS Belfast …

… to the Rainforest Café to celebrate George’s birthday with Eleanor and Jo …

… and to Trafalgar Square where they had fun with the lions and fountains …

A nice view of London as I walked back over Hungerford Bridge …

We also managed to fit in a family barbecue in sunny Leatherhead …

The following day it was back to Astraia in Karlskrona, Sweden, where she was perfectly all right after 2 weeks except for one popped-out fender …

We set sail as soon as possible on a day with glorious sunshine and a sparkling sea …

… saying ‘goodbye’ to Sweden …

Well, goodbye to mainland Sweden anyway, but we made one more stop at the tiny group of islands which make up Utklippan, a couple of hours sail to the south of the Swedish coast.

Here we’re just approaching one of the narrow harbour entrances …

Utklippan is made up of two low skerries – Norraskär and Södraskär. Between the two main islands is a sheltered harbour, built in the 1940s as a refuge harbour for Swedish fishermen. The harbour is an impressive man-made structure, with retracting underwater gates across its two narrow entrances (one to the left of this picture and one straight ahead) which could be closed to protect the harbour in rough weather.

Here are two boats entering at exactly the same moment through the two entrances! It’s not a huge space, but they managed to avoid each other and moor safely …

The harbour is an extremely strong structure, built with massive rocks, hewn boulders and concrete …

There’s been a lighthouse here since the 1690s when Karlskrona became an important naval base. The first lighthouse was a bascule light – just a basket in which wood or coal was set alight and a lever to raise and lower the light.

When a manned lighthouse was built around 1840, it was a ‘fortified lighthouse’ incorporated within a quadratic defence tower, armed with 4 cannons and defended by 20 men in times of war. It’s one of very few fortified lighthouses in the world. In the 19^th century, the lighthouse was replaced with a new iron framework mounted on the old lighthouse tower.

Surrounding the lighthouse is the accommodation for the lighthouse keepers and their families which was occupied from 1840 until 1972. It must have been a strange remote existence – these islands are truly tiny (you can walk all round in about 20 minutes!) and there’s nothing here but rocks and nature.

Now Utklippan is a nature reserve, bird sanctuary and nesting ground, and home to some rare frogs! You can just see the tops of the masts peeping up from the shelter of the harbour …

It’s a very peaceful spot in the middle of nowhere. Surprising then to discover that the method of payment of our harbour dues is a modern credit card machine and automatic ticket dispenser like in a car park – rather incongruously bright red in colour and too brightly lit at night, slightly spoiling the otherwise deep black darkness, perfect for stargazing!

There are still the remains of some of the fishermen’s huts, built amongst the rocks and using rocks and boulders as floors and walls where possible.

After chatting to some Polish sailors on another boat, we decided to make an overnight passage from Utklippan direct to Gdansk rather than the nearest point on the Polish coast.

The day we left was beautiful – perfect blue skies and sunshine – I love these fluffy white clouds and the reflections on the water …

By mid-morning, the harbour was beginning to fill up with day trippers and picnickers, mostly in small motor boats, an easy trip from the Swedish coast on such a lovely day as this. It was also a perfect day for our trip across the southern Baltic to Poland – absolutely flat calm, but no wind, so we just had to motor at first.

It really was like a millpond – you can see the wake of this ferry rising above the horizon because it’s so flat …

It was so calm that I’d planned a swim mid-passage, but unfortunately this part of the Baltic was affected by a horrible sandy-yellowy coloured algae and a swim just wasn’t that appealing.

We motored all through the day and night, taking 2 hour watches during the day, longer at night to allow for a few hours’ sleep in between. Here’s the last of the sun going down …

I did 9pm-12 midnight – very dark skies and amazing stars. The most alarming moment came when I suddenly saw a bright orange light on the port bow; then it started to look like a sail on a Chinese junk! It was a huge orange half-moon suddenly rising over the horizon!

I was also on watch again for sunrise. Here’s the sun coming up at about 4am …

I liked these pink-tinged clouds at 5am …

There was a bit more breeze in the early morning and we sailed for the last few hours into Gdansk, until we had to put the engine on to motor past the lighthouse surrounded by concrete wave-breakers …