Tues. June 26th: Christian Juslin at Rodhamn had recommended a deserted bows-to anchorage just north of the island of Banö Ön about 20nm to the north east of Rodhamn and we were eager to cast off and check it out.
The day dawned overcast with not much wind, but we persevered with the sails up for perhaps an hour during the six hour passage, finally giving up due to too much shallow water and too many tight channels. It’s one thing to move slowly, it’s quite another to get backwinded just as you’re tacking out of 8ft of water in a bottleneck. But our disappointment at having to motor evaporated when we arrived at this heavenly anchorage. Banö Ön is a large bay, perhaps one mile deep and three quarters of a mile wide. There was just one other boat in residence, lying at anchor on the other side of the bay. We headed to the north west corner and spied a promising spot. We did a couple of slow drive-bys, decided on our preferred spot and talked through the plan. J had never done a bows-to mooring before so it was important he was clear on the procedure. I also put him on helm since the bowman has the most important job. It went astonishingly smoothly as we motored in at minimum revs, dropped the stern anchor three boat lengths out, put her in neutral two boat lengths out and whispered forward, adding a little reverse perhaps six feet out so the boat came to a stop right in front of a large granite rock, allowing me to step off easily and run the line to an imposing pine tree to windward and a large rock to leeward.
J can be a brooding fellow at times but his mood was positively giddy as we trimmed the lines. He had clearly been nervous about pointing the boat towards a granite rock, but the ease with which we moored released a mood in him which was half relief and half amazement at the location. While I went for a swim in the cool but still-comfortable water, J scored some more great drone footage, which you can see below. The evening was calm and idyllic and we enjoyed a peaceful dinner in the cockpit before turning in around 11pm. By now we were almost over our jet lag, mooring in a gorgeous spot in the middle of nowhere. Honestly, what’s not to like?
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