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Nynashamn lies on the Swedish mainland at the southern end of the Stockholm Archipelago and is a gateway to the renowned cruising ground. The huge guest harbour there can accommodate over 300 boats and is packed in the summer, but in early April we shared the dock with only a few other boats. Adjacent to…

Stendorren Nature Reserve is part of EU’s Natura 2000, the largest coordinated network of protected areas in the world comprising over 18% of the EU’s land area. Stendorren includes 185 hectares of land with marked hiking trails throughout and suspension bridges connecting several of the offlying islands to the mainland. It’s a popular place, with…

A beacon has stood on Gubbo Kupa since medieval times, historians surmise, as part of a warning system of incoming enemy vessels. The cairn there today has been in place as a navigation mark since 1826. Like most hilltop navigation marks, the site offers sweeping views of the area. From the island of Hasselo, we…

The island of Hasselo is home to the exclusive pub “The Thirsty Winterswan“. It’s only open in the fall, winter and spring, and only for 3 hours a week: on Saturdays from 4pm to 7pm. The concept appealed to us greatly and we tried not to get our hopes up too much in case it…

Sweden monitors its coast closely and has even reinstated EU-internal border controls in places. So we weren’t surprised when a Swedish Coast Guard vessel made a beeline for Dirona when we came into view while anchored in the Misterhult Archipelago just north of Kalmar. Their visit was brief and friendly, and we otherwise spent two…

Kalmar was one of Sweden’s most important cities between the 13th and 17th centuries and its city seal, dating from the mid-1200s, is the oldest known in Scandinavia. Prominent when approaching by water is Kalmar Castle, one of Sweden’s best preserved renaissance castles. The castle was involved in a number of conflicts, and played a…

Oland is the second largest island in Sweden and has a history of settlement dating back to at least 8000 BC. The island is famous for it’s beaches—one guide lists 55 around the island—and Swedes flock there in the summer. But Oland also has a wide array of other attractions including Iron Age ring forts,…

After Karlskrona, we spent a couple of nights anchored at the Hastholmen-Ytteron Nature Reserve at the eastern edge of the Karlskrona Archipelago. Much of the area we’d travelled through was a restricted military zone until 1997. Just west of where we anchored is the island of Torumskar, where an international incident occurred in 1981 when…

Two Swedish submarines “escorted” us in from sea as we approached Karlskrona from Utklippan. The Swedish Navy is renowned for its submarine technology, particularly in building extremely quiet vessels that are difficult to detect. Over two years of war games with the US in 2005-2006, the Swedish submarine HSMS Gotland made repeated undetected attack runs…