06 July 2010; Stockholm, Sweden.

There are two ways to get into the Swedish Archipelago and from there to Stockholm. Either via the North Entrance or via the South Entrance. The North entrance is always used by ships coming from the Bothnic Gulf. I did the same last year when we came from Vaasa in North West Finland. Also the ferry’s that run a night schedule will use this entrance and some of them do not even go to Stockholm as just inside the entrance is a ferry terminal. The South entrance has two issues, it is day light restricted for over 200 meter ships and some of the very large ships, including cruise ships cannot use it at all, due to a 90o turn near the entrance. Also those ships have to use the North Entrance. However if you come from the East from the mid of the Baltic Sea as we did, then the South entrance is much closer and easier to reach. Hence us going that way and in order to comply with the day light rule, I arrived at the pilot station at Sunrise. It was perfectly timed, the moment the pilot boat came alongside the sun rose as a fiery ball above the horizon. Ahead of us we could not see any horizon or any islands as there was dense visibility due to fog.

Thus far we have been lucky with the weather as far as fog was concerned; temperatures not too high, partly cloudy skies etc. It all helped to keep the hazy stuff away. However in the last few days we had very good and sunny weather and thus with the warming of the air, and the cooling down at night time, it was bound to happen. As we were going in with the sun already rising in the East, I was not expecting that it would last very long. The sun rays would burn it away quite quickly. So it did and by 0500 it was all gone. The negative part was that we had to go through this 90o bend with zero visibility. The whole route is marked extremely well with buoys and lighthouses on poles but the deep water thoroughfare at the beginning of the turn is only about 3 ships widths wide. Then it is nicer to see where you are going instead of relying on the radar. But we had to rely on the radar as visibility was less then 50 meters and so we did. The pilot advised that as long as we stayed inside the marks, “we would be ok” and that brought it all back to basics. As long as you do not run aground then things are well. Thus I implemented the same protocol as yesterday, when going through the hole in Helsinki and also here we sailed nicely on the course line through the Swedish Hole.

It is about 3 hours to the dock as we are not allowed to go faster than 12 knots, and quite often have we have to slow down to 8 knots to avoid wake. Wake can cause boats that are moored alongside the summer houses, along the route, to get damaged. Many Stockholmers have as “ultimate dream” the desire to own a second home in the archipelago; whether it is a mansion or a shack and as a result the rocky islands are covered with them. Closer to the port, mainly on the Southside of the fairway, you see the larger mansions from the 19th century well to do. Nearly every style of design can be found but all with a typical Swedish twist of an added turret and or having been painted in bright colors. Lots of white, yellow and Burgundy red. What surprised me was the absence of satellite dishes on the houses. There were some but mainly the larger ones, or the hotels which probably had multi room reception facilities. For the rest I only saw them sporadically. As per pilot, it is not forbidden to have them, but most houses have cable connection, even on the more remote islands.

We docked in Frihamn port, which about 10 minutes away from downtown. Together with the MSC Poesia. The downtown cruise berth was taken up by the large P&O Azzura which is a 100.000+ ship and her length leaves no room for a second ship. Today the Prinsendam crew played a soccer game against the Azzura crew on the football grounds of the Seaman’s mission. Unfortunately, we lost 10 to 1. However I do not feel that ashamed as they can put a team together by drawing from over a 1000 crew, while we just have 460 in all. So we had a few unhappy chaps onboard while we sailed away. However later on Holland won the quarterfinals and that made up for something.

Tomorrow we are at sea, on our way to the Kieler Kanal. Again the weather is supposed to be sunny. A westerly wind is expected and that will mean that the temperatures will not be that high. That means no fog and thus a good nights sleep for me.