Thursday 9 July 2009.
The wind has turned from NW-W to SW during the night. It is still windy. Between 12 and 14 ms with gusts of up to 17 ms. But we decide to go out and sail toward Kalmar and on to Borgholm on Öland. At about 10 a.m. we are ready and leave the harbour of Bergkvara. In the first part out there are many shallows and we have to take a sidewind for a while. Luckily we are a little protected by rocky islands. Well out at sea, we get the wind in from behind and roll northwards. Only very few boats are sailing today. Wonder why?
After 4 hours we are entering the narrow canal outside Kalmar city. We see the citadel (Kalmar slott) and decide to go into port. It is raining and we are a little tired of the choppy waves in this shallow draught hole of Kalmarsund. So we try and find a spot in the marina, which is filled to the brim. So we sail into the commersial harbour. Full. Then into the inner harbour in the old town. There we find a spot to park Isabell along a high quay with tires hanging off the side. The wind is whipping through the harbour, and we do not have the best spot. But good enough!
To celebrate our arrival in Kalmar (one of my favorite towns) we go to the marina and buy ice creams. A newspaper reporter takes our picture and does an interview about the weather and sailing to Kalmar. We end up on the front page of the local newspaper. Picture and all! Then we go into town to hide for the weather. We run into Lineke and Tjeerd again. They are just as surprised as we are to see them again. We go to the local bookstore and buy some nautical charts together. Then we each go to our own boats again.
In the evening the sun comes out and it is warm and nice outside. Christinas cousin Marita and her boyfriend come to visit and we sit in the cockpit with good food and some wine late into the evening. Goodnight!