Time to move on and so we top up our water tanks and prepare to set sails for the 20 nautical mile trip across the bay to the outlying island group of Hallands Väderö.

On the way out of the harbour, we had a better chance to look around and noted how different it looked in broad daylight. When we came in here in the pitch black the other night, it was more or less via blind faith. We merely followed in a cargo ship, figuring that if he could fit through, so could we. There was so many different lights shining that it had been hard to sort out which were lighthouses or buoys and which were just harbour lights. Very confusing at the time, but so much clearer today. Of course a decent scale chart might have helped, too. I must ask Lasse about that.

The sail across was strange - the seas constantly changed directions, the sun shone then disappeared behind swirling clouds, the wind was flaky and couldn't make up it's mind whether to blow or not. We faced a constant battle to increase sail, decrease sail, start the motor, stop the motor, sail straight, try tacking etc that it became quite a battle. Fiona is also sailing very slowly at the moment, so we really are going to have to check her bottom for barnacle growth. Let's hope we will have a warm day tomorrow so I can nominate Lars-Göran to dive under and check the hull.

I was really nervous as we approached the island group and sought shelter as these islands are full of reefs, but we took it slowly, used the chart on our GPS and soon found ourselves in a popular bay with several other boats - all foreign!




Hallands Väderö, despite its name lies not in Halland, but rather in north west Skåne. It's possible that back in the mists of time when this was Danish territory, this area was also part of Halland. No-one really remembers the reason for that name anymore. The island is 3.2 km long and only 650 meters wide and has quite a varied terrain, being made up of woods, marshland, open pasture and rocky beaches. There are a couple of sand beaches on the other side of the island, which we hope to explore - wind permitting. The other added advantage of being out here is that very little rain falls and it has the second highest average temperature in Sweden.




Because the winds are blowing from the north west today, we are in Kappelhamn, on the south east corner of the island. I'd really like to visit the lighthouse, which of course is furthest away from where we are. Still, it's only just over 3 kilometres to walk - far less than what we had to do in Falkenberg!

It is lovely and warm today and more and more boats arrive from Torekov, on the mainland. Many of those are daytrippers and the traffic going past is almost constant. We have set up shelter and the birds are sunning themselves and sqawking at the passing boats, which is a real hit with the kids. Lars-Göran did dive under the boat and reports that, as we expected, there is quite a lot of growth on the hull. He scraped some of it away, but it looks like she will need to be hauled out to really clean her properly.

The next day, the early morning forecast predicted that the wind would turn to the south west, so before breakfast, we moved the boat around to Sandhamn. We decided to take the zodiac into land after Lars-Göran looked through his binoculars and spotted a kiosk on the island - and that means ICECREAM.

We bought his precious icecream and followed the well marked trail around to the lighthouse. It was a fascinating walk, taking us through the woods, along the coast, over marshes and across open grassland. As it was a hot day and poor Lambi is really feeling the heat in her old age, we enjoyed the shady woods the best. They were full of wood anemones and small groups of grazing sheep. We also ran into a group of very curious horses.




They were really eager to investigate Lambi. Obviously they had never seen a fluffy white dog before and they were utterly fascinated, following her and staring really closely and intently, which freaked her out a bit. Luckily, pappa was there to pick her up and protect her from the horses. What a softie he is!

After a long, hot trudge, we came to the north west corner of the island and saw the lovely red cottage that used to be the lighthouse keeper's home. This was surrounded by a herd of contentedly grazing cows. The lighthouse was manned from 1887 until 1965 and the keeper and his family lived here all year round. Today has been converted into small apartments that are rented out to summer guests. What a fabulous location and a beautiful view.




A mere 250m further along was the lighthouse itself, sitting on Bagganäsan and pointing out across the waters of Kattegatt. When you look at the calm, summer waters you can hardly believe that a lighthouse would be needed here. But in fact, during a severe storm in 1884, five ships went down off this coast with the loss of all lives and this tragedy was the catalyst for the erection of a lighthouse. A thirteen meter iron structure was built in Stockholm, then shipped here to this isolated, windswept spot in pieces and bolted together.




As with the lighthouses at Nord Koster, Måseskär and Nidingen which we passed earlier in the summer, Hallands Väderö is another weather station mentioned in the daily wind reports we get on our VHF, thanks to our subscription to Stockholm Radio. It's been interesting to visit all of these places and put a "face to a name" so to speak.




We took a different route back to the zodiac and this brought us out onto a sandy beach which was packed with summer guests. Many of them streamed over on ferries from the mainland, loaded down with picnic baskets, kids, dogs and even strollers. I'd never seen anyone pushing a stroller on the beach before. Fiona is one of the boats moored happily in the bay.




It really is an outstanding view from the island, looking across the water to the mainland. The coastline you can see is Hallandsåsen, an imposing 200m high ridge that dominates the border area between the provinces of Halland and Skåne. It is a unique landscape in Sweden, so unlike anything I've seen here to date. I could almost believe that we are in another country. The air is really warm, the breeze is balmy and the water is warm. No wonder it is such a popular place for family holidays.




The final stretch through the flower filled woods was like stepping into another world - a real, storybook forest. I looked around expecting to see Goldilocks come skipping by on her way to the bears' home or perhaps Little Red Riding Hood stopping to pick a bunch of wildflowers on her way to see her grandma. Quite beautiful.

We returned to the boat quite rejuvenated and sat outside sunning ourselves and looking at some of the boats around us. One Danish boat made us laugh as the crew sat on these ridiculous seats built in to the aft of the boat. We called them "knob chairs" as they looked like a couple of idiots sitting high up surveying the peasants around them. Though in this pose, she looks like she's on the loo - it reminded me of the strange medieval toilet we saw at Läckö Slott.




We don't normally bitch about those around us, but these two were among the most thoughtless, selfish people I have come across. Every day they started their motor in order to charge their batteries. Quite why you would need to do that every day is something of a mystery - were they growing dope in there? Anyway, as soon as they started the motor, they hopped in their dinghy and went to land where they stayed for three or four hours, leaving the engine running. I guess they didn't want to be annoyed by the noise and the diesel fumes - what a pity that the other dozen boats moored around them had to put up with it. Talk about completely clueless! What a pity this wasn't somewhere in the Med where trheives would have stolen the boat as soon as they were out of sight. By day three, even I was sorely tempted....

Next day, the wind shifted back to north, so we nipped around the corner back to the bay at Kappelhamn where the waters were calm and still. This time we went for a walk around this part of the island, which was more marshy than the northern part.




The wind sweeps across these more open plains and the fields were dotted with grazing animals. It was quite a contrast to the woods we saw yesterday and also to the more rocky beaches. It is easy to understand why they call this place "Skåne's west coast archipelago in minature" - it really is it's own little world.

Several of the rocky islands offshore are in a seal protection zone and apparently support about 400 seals, though I didn't see any of them while we were here. We did however see several types of birds, including one of our favourites - sädesärla (pied wagtail).




These busy, delicate little birds, instantly recognisable with their bold black, grey and white plumage and long, frequently wagged tail are always a joy to watch. They approach quite close as well and we even have them visiting the boat and resting on the rails. They were not the only visitors we had. Lambi managed to collect no less than FIVE ticks while she was walking on land, which is unbelievable. I thank god that she is white, so the little buggers are easy to spot before they get a grip on her. *shudder*




We have enjoyed three restful days on this enchanted island, walking around, breathing in the clean, fresh air and marvelling at the beautiful surroundings. This will be the last island group we can visit until we get to Blekinge on the east coast. From now onwards, down the 400 kilometres of sandy beaches which makes up the coast of Skåne we will have to stay in harbours. While I will miss the freedom of being able to lie by anchor in my own little world, I am looking forward to seeing some of the towns in southern Sweden. All being well, we set sail tomorrow towards Kullen lighthouse and beyond.