Wild wild Stenskär, 26 June 2019

Stenskär (65.134695, 21.718469) means the "Stone Island". The island is equipped with a floating pontoon in borderline conditions that provides good shelter unless strong northwest winds. 

Stenskär is a very popular destination in nice summer days, because of its extended sandy beaches, lagoon type bay and picturesque fishermen cottages.

Even though we are at the end of June, we are the only boat and visitors on the island. The stone pier has been prolonged by two floating pontoons over the years because of the land uplift. The connexion between the pontoons has been destroyed by some winter storm, making it challenging to get on land.

A few hundred meters from there is a small concrete pier for tour and taxi boats.

For centuries, fishermen came to Stenskär for fishing herrings, trouts, white fish and salmon. There are twelve houses and boat houses on the island, but all now at a distance from the sea because of the land uplift (1 metre per century).

Stenskär village, and sauna.

Jacuzzi and sauna, once close to the sea shore

Dry toilets, like on most of such islands

A resident on the island saw Belisama coming, looking at Marine Traffic. When he saw us in the village, he came to greet us in French as he had noted our MMSI number. His grand father was one of the fishermen on the island, and he provided us with lots of interesting historical information. Fishermen in Stenskär where farmers from Piteå. During the fishing season, men and boys were moving to Stenskär for fishing while women and girls continued to take care of the cattle in the farm. In April and May, fishermen were hunting seals at the edge of the icing in the Bottenviken, moving up north as the ice was progressively melting. Seal skin and fat was one of the main income for them as seal fat was in high demand for weaponry given its high quality. They were equipped later with a radio that was allowing them to organise trips to Luleå with fresh fish, when the demand was sufficient.

The seal fat cooking pot.

Seven labyrinths are registered in Stenskär.

Stenskär is a natural reservation and part of the EU protected areas under the programme Natura 2000. There are couple of endemic grass species in this part of the Bottenviken.

We were told that by hot sunny summer day, quite a few people would come from Piteå and around to bask on the sandy beaches.

Long sandy beaches on the southern side of the island