our advantage by visiting places
which are inaccessible to larger
boats with deeper draught.Preparing the boat
Our boat, Aurora, is a Cape Cutter
19 and her sail plan makes her
adaptable to a range of conditions,
as well as being easily sailed
single-handed. Her internal space
is maximised by clever design, so
all four of us can sleep
aboard, while a
custom-made galley with
a meths stove meets our
catering needs. It’s not exactly
luxurious, but with a bit of
pioneering spirit, we have enjoyed
many trips afloat. As a family of
four, we have explored many UK
locations, but we were looking for
more of an adventure with this trip.
Aurora is fitted with basic
instrumentation – depth, log,
compass and simple GPS. She
has VHF and nav lights at the
masthead, although we used the
former very little and the latter not
at all. The electrics are powered by
a large deep-cycle battery, which
we kept topped up with a pair of
30W solar panels. The biggest
drain on the battery was gadget
charging, but the solar panels
easily kept pace with this demand.
Mosquitoes can be a problem in
the Baltic so we made weighted
mosquito nets for the forwardhatch and companionway,
allowing us to maintain ventilation
while excluding insect life in the
evening. In fact, mosquitoes are
only a problem for a relatively short
period at dawn and dusk, when
long sleeves and long trousers
are needed to keep the insects
at bay if you’re outside.
When not sailing, Aurora is
powered by a 5hp four-strokeoutboard. This is very economical
and was not used for long
distances: I carried a 20lt fuel tank,
supplemented with two 5lt petrol
cans, and this was enough for the
whole trip.Travel details
I considered several routes to
bring Aurora to the Baltic. One
option was to use a short sea
crossing at the Channel, followed
by a substantial road journey. The
alternative to this was to use a
longer ferry crossing, and this
was my preferred choice because
the journey time was reduced, as
were the road miles, and the costs
were comparable.
There are fewer ferries crossing
the North Sea than in the past:
there is no longer a passenger
ferry from Harwich to Esbjerg inDenmark, but DFDS run several
freight routes. The DFDS freight
ferries are a convenient way to
reach the Baltic, running six
times a week to Göteborg from
Immingham (at the time we
travelled, we used a similar
crossing from Tilbury). This route
provides easy access to many
Baltic areas within a day’s towing.
These crossings have limitations:
they can
only be
booked
up to six
weeks in advance, and space can
be reserved for no more than two
people per vehicle.
Accommodation aboard is in
simple but comfortable twin
cabins: all meals during the
26-hour crossing are included,
and eaten at set times with the
crew. On our trip, my older
daughter and I travelled by
sea, while my wife and younger
daughter took a low-cost flight to
Stockholm followed by a foot-ferry
to meet us in the archipelago.Launch and recovery
The Baltic climate is such that the
sailing season is short, and boats
must be recovered at the end of
the season. There are currently
fewer marinas than in the UK, with
many harbours being run more like
a club. However, more marinasseem to be opening up in recent
seasons. There are also lots of
boatyards and private marinas
which will crane boats in and out of
the water. However, for a trailer-
sailer, the good news is that there
are also many public slipways,
which are often free to use.
I found researching this aspect of
the trip in advance challenging at
times, but through a combination
of sailing forums, internet searches
and emails I could be fairly certain
of suitable launch and recovery
locations. In this search, as well as
other aspects of planning the trip, I
also found the resources of the
Cruising Association to be
particularly useful.Navigation
On the one hand, the Stockholm
archipelago has no tides or
currents to worry about, but on the
other there are a fearsome number
of rocks. This can be quite
intimidating at first, but this intricate
terrain is part of the attraction. The
best charts for the Baltic are the
small craft charts provided by the
Swedish Maritime Administration.
These are provided in A3-size
folios and are very detailed: the
archipelago is criss-crossed with
buoyed channels in which you will
not encounter any hazardous
rocks. It is a simple matter to make
passage along these by hopping
from one buoy to the next.
However, for a small, shallow-
draught boat, this misses out
some excellent opportunities. It
also reduces the number of
destinations available and can lead
to passages which are longer than
necessary. Furthermore, there is
far more pleasure in sailing off the
beaten track, close to the islands,
where one can admire the wildlife
and scenery much more easily.
The electronic charting available
is very detailed, and we used a
tablet to zoom in and navigate
between the rocks and find our
way between the islands when we
were out of the main channels. We
saw very few other boats while we
were doing this, which increased
the sense of adventure for this trip.
A GPS in one form or another is
essential in this area, as from a
distance the islands can look very
similar and it would be easy to get
lost among them if navigating
visually from the charts. Visibility
can also be poor at times.Catering aboard
For this trip we deliberately chose
to explore quieter areas, so shops
were few and far between. We
brought with us as much
long-life food as we could,We visited places which are inaccessible
to larger boats with deeper draughtTrailer-sailer to the Baltic
➜
Maze sculpture on Storön,
with the distinctive cast iron
lighthouse in the backgroundA well-earned
swim while
anchored
at Kallskär.
INSET Charles’
wife at the helmCharles’ daughter
takes the helm,
sailing round
Svartlöga