And the spring finally came - 5 June 2017

A small fishing pier on Norra Udde, at the north tip of Öland. Spring has finally arrived, but will be quickly gone. For the time being, full of flowers around here.

Another view of Norra Udde.

The light house.

Belisama, along side the pier that used to be for the ferry going to Gotland. the boat ahead of us is obviously in still wintering mode.

Lilies are probably the best sign of spring. Since I arrived in Sweden 12 years ago, I always noticed their blossoming in the first or second week of June. Öland is covered with fields of lilies with a very marked scent while biking in the countryside.

Lilacs along inhabited areas.

Look at the intensity of the green in the young leaves of the oaks!

Or the pine trees.

On Norra Udde, there is a natural park called the troll forest. Along the shore, one can still see the wreck of a 34 metres three-masted schooner from Åland, called Swiks, that went aground here on 21 December 1926, during a snow storm. The seven crews managed to get ashore as the ship got on a sand bank during an attempt to get around Norra Udde to seek shelter on the other side of Öland.

Swiks kantrad. Foto: Okänd fotograf, Sjöhistoriska museets samlingar.

As seen on the picture above, the Swiks was stranded on a sand bank for quite some time, until in the 1950s', a storm broke it in two parts, one of which ended-up on the beach where it still can be seen today.

With waters rising one metre per century, the area of Grankullavik is no longer suited for boats with more than 3 metres draft. There used to be a ferry terminal to Gotland, that does not function anymore.

As in Gotland, the coast around Öland is surrounded by a coral reef dating from the time both Islands were at the southern tropic in a tropical climate. We can find fossile today in the area showing traces of life that took place there more than 40 million years ago. It reminds me the years I spent in Vanuatu, where you can hear the waves breaking on the coral reef at a distance of the coast, just like here.

Spring is there, definitively, with lots of flowers all around the coast. On the left, in the horizon, the Island of the Blå Jungfru.

An old fishermen station along the coast of the Öland straight.

The rest of the day is spent shopping in Byxelkrok, a small town and a nice harbour, where there is an ICA and a Bolaget! Back toi civilisation.

Byxelkrok, an active fishing harbour

To finish the day, the second flight of the drone as the wind went finally down towards the end of the afternoon. Nabbelund is definitively a very nice stop over for boats with a center board, as there is probably not even two metres of water were we moored...