The end is nigh …. We are heading gradually towards Oxelosund to lay the boat up for the season, but we decided to have another couple of days in Nyköping. So we left Trosa early morning. Forecasts had been hanging over us again and we knew that thunderstorms were coming later in the day, so, an early start it was to try and avoid them. It was a good attempt, but we failed miserably. Just over halfway through the trip the sky darkened, visibility closed in and …. predictably it started raining. It was the sort of rain that needs some sort of additional description – ‘raining cats and dogs’ might have worked given that there was hail combined in with it. Alternatively verbs like ‘pelting’, ‘tipping’, teeming’ or ‘lashing’ would have worked equally well to describe the rain. At this stage of the journey the navigation through the channels around the rocks was fairly intricate and the lack of visibility that accompanied the rain made this even more challenging – to the extent that I started the engine to ensure we were more maneuverable. However, the rain went nearly as quickly as it came and left us dripping, bemoaning the fact that the word waterproof does not mean that they don’t let water in ….
The same happened about half an hour later on the entrance channel to Nyköping, though not as intensely and we arrived at the gasthamn feeling that we had just gone through a rinse cycle in the washing machine. The trip was 27 miles in 5 hours and 25 minutes.
We spent the time in Nyköping exploring some parts we hadn’t seen, visiting the Sörmland Museum and Nyköpingshus – the castle where the infamous Nyköping Banquet took place and doing chores like filling gas bottles. A very pleasant town to spend time in.
