SEASON PREMIERE TO HUVUDSKÄR
Right up until the last moment, it was uncertain whether we’d be able to go sailing that weekend. Just a few days earlier, I had slipped in the cockpit and badly sprained my right ankle. But two days before departure, I started to feel that it might work out after all. The boat was launched the day before we were set to leave, and since the mast was already in place, all that was left to do was cast off.
It was a sunny but chilly Friday evening when David, Marcus, and I set off from Bullandö Marina. It was still only April, and the water temperature was just 5°C. At first, we considered sailing up to Säck, but when we realized it would be upwind the entire way, we decided instead to head for Lökholmen, right next to Sandhamn.
Just before 8 o’clock, we glided past the pilot house in Sandhamn. The beautiful old buildings glowed golden in the sunlight, and the docks in the harbor stood empty, waiting for the summer crowds to arrive. When we reached Lökholmen, we noticed the water was unusually low, so we didn’t dare enter the inner harbor where we usually moor. Instead, we tied up in the outer harbor, which was also much more sheltered from the wind.
The next morning the sun was shining again, and we enjoyed a long, relaxing breakfast in the cockpit before casting off around 11. With a northerly wind blowing, we decided to sail south toward Huvudskär. Soon we had the spinnaker flying, and decided to trace part of the Gullviverally course, passing landmarks like Stora Hästskär and Kalken along the way.
Around lunchtime, we had some sausages and basked in the sun. Hard to complain on a day like this—downwind sailing, sunshine, and perfect breeze!
We sailed past Biskopsön and Norsten, and as we reached Myggskären, we decided to try anchoring there. But after a careful look at the charts, it felt a bit too risky with our boat. Even the slightest shift in wind during the night could have caused us to run aground, so we played it safe and decided to leave it for another time.
Eventually, we sailed into the bay at Huvudskär. Not a boat in sight as far as the eye could see, but we were about to face a small challenge. The wind was forecast to shift from north to south overnight, so we decided the best option was to anchor on the northern side and wait for the change. We first docked at a beautiful natural harbor on Lökskär, located on the northern edge of the bay.
Photo: David Lokrantz
We grilled steaks and prepared a tabbouleh—a real favorite aboard Luffa. The wind was still biting, but we managed to find a small cove that gave us some respite.
A few hours later, the wind had eased a bit, and we gently motored over to Huvudskär to spend the night. The wind was expected to shift at midnight, and by the time we woke up the next morning, we were perfectly sheltered in the calm.
We enjoyed another relaxing breakfast in the cockpit before casting off and setting a course northward, with a brisk southerly breeze at our backs.
The wind picked up in the afternoon, and we reached a top speed of 10 knots, averaging 7.1 knots as we made our way north. We sailed along the outer archipelago all the way up to northern Runmarö, where we tacked westward back toward Bullandö.
It turned out to be a really enjoyable weekend, though a bit on the chilly side. But as the saying goes, there's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.