Continued from here.
Looking at the weather forecast, it didn't seem wise to continue to Utö on Friday. The wind was forecasted to be 11 m/s almost straight from the side and the crossing was around 15 km with no real shelter on the way. It would be doable, but probably not fun and maybe even slightly risky with all the camera gear and stuff.
We hence decided to stay on Jurmo the entire day. Fortunately Jurmo is a very interesting place that certainly deserves a day or more. We packed lunch and camera gear to stay out until late afternoon.
Some details being filmed.
The village.
At least there should be enough wind for sailing. It was probably smart to stay on land, even though I don't think the forecasted wind speed was entirely realized.
Bunchberry.
Shooting some details still.
The house marks of the original four houses of Jurmo? At least I remember seeing something like this in a book about the history of Jurmo.
The chapel of Jurmo is from 1846...
... but the votive ship is a hundred years older.
Not really a native species, but fun anyway.
The blueberries are ripe.
Sandvik harun as seen from our lunch spot.
After lunch we continued to the northeast corner of the island, where it continues as a long sand and gravel ridge.
Purple loosestrife.
A butterfly with a very good camouflage around the stones. I got a mail identifying it as a grayling (Hipparchia semele).
The map lichen shows that these stones have remained undisturbed.
Close-up of someone walking on the stones, I would presume.
A part of the island has been burned for conservation purposes.
The old chapel ruins were spared, though.
The remains of the once so proud Jurmo pine. There is a great tale about it being the only tree to survive king Gustav Vasa's killing of everyone on the island and burning everything as a punishment for luring ships to shipwreck around the difficult waters in the area. As many great tales, it doesn't have much to do with what really happened, though. The age of the Jurmo pine was later determined to be 180 years, but it was a very characteristic landmark.
The Jurmo pine before it fell victim to a storm a few years later.
Orpine.
Going back.
View towards west.
A quick visit to the shop before dinner. No booze is sold there, despite the decor.
An essential part of a good meal: chili, olive oil and garlic.
The wind had calmed down a lot by the early evening and we really should have taken the decision to paddle to Utö in time, since the entire evening was very nice and continued with a full moon night. Now we settled for filming, photographing and taking time lapses.
The ferry M/S Eivor, formerly Baldur from Stykkishólmur in Iceland, arrived to Jurmo and then continued to Utö.
A local inhabitant.
Shadow selfie.
I had a good time-lapse of this view going, but it stopped after 40 pictures when the memory card was full.
It eventually got darker,
The next morning we got up a little earlier, in the hope of weaker winds.
We also got going towards Utö in good time.
Since it was the first of August, many bird protection restrictions were now lifted, and hence we could take lunch on an island halfway between Jurmo and Utö, something that would not have been legal a day earlier. Most of the islands are just bare rocks, difficult or impossible to land on with a kayak, but Örskärs ören was a fascinating little sand ridge in the sea, with sand beaches to land on.
The inner of the small island only had low vegetation.
Another paddling scene in making.
There are many shipwrecks around Utö, and some are even visible above the water.
Closing in on Ormskär just north of Utö.
The water quality was excellent during the trip, except for three days earlier when we saw some small amounts of algae around Björkö.
Filming the arrival to Utö.
Interesting water labyrinths.
Johan seeks comfort in chocolate, after having dropped his second Zoom recorder in the water. I still had one left, though.
Arriving at Utö.
The tent spot as per direction by a local Utö inhabitant. Quite ok, but we later learned that it was too close to the helicopter landing place. In case of a helicopter arriving, the 30 m/s wind gusts would be a hard test of the tent.
We were now also almost completely without fuel for our stove, but the dinner was saved by a fatbike acquaintance and expert kayaker living on Utö, Jarmo, who gave us a gas canister. The evening was nice and we had company by Jarmo and his wife, who both were former Vigu students.
The night went with no helicopter arriving and the morning view was quite ok.
We got up and had breakfast early, since Jarmo was to take us on a tour around the island. Paddling with a local expert kayaker was an opportunity not to be passed.
On the water.
Utö contains good spots for rockhopping and playing, though my own paddling skills are not really good enough for much of that yet. After some harder weather, the swell can be up to four meter high around Utö, making for really hefty waves where it is more shallow.
After two hours we had to go back to pack our gear.
Our ride back, M/S Eivor. We had time for lunch at Utö Havshotell, which I definitely can recommend. I've eaten there three times, and the food has always been excellent.
An excellent trip again (are there even any other kind of trips?). Thanks to Johan and Magnus for the company!
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