I won’t subject you to another list of strange names and foreign experiences which will mean little to you until you have been to Scandinavia. Instead I hope to persuade you to try it for yourselves.

Scandinavian cruising is quite unique. Mile after mile of coast is totally protected by a screen of islands, allowing you to sail in most weathers, and with fascinating pilotage and secluded anchorages. The people are friendly, the scenery is beautiful, varied and unspoilt.

How to get there

To Denmark there is a ferry from Newcastle and Harwich to Esbjerg, but then you must trail across Denmark.

To Sweden there is a ferry from Newcastle and Felixstowe to Gothenburg. You can explore the west coast from there, and trail a short way to the lakes, or trail rather further to the east coast. There are frequent ferries from Stockholm to Finland.

To Norway there are ferries from Newcastle to Bergen, Stavanger, Kristiansand and Oslo.

These ferries are all fairly expensive: they are now all run by DFDS who have pushed up the prices. A single ticket for one person now costs between £30 and £56, depending on the route and period of the season. A car is another £20 or £30. Trailer fares are calculated by the metre and it is usually worth writing to the ferry company and saying you will handle your trailer separately, so it can be charged at the car rate. If you can car-top your boat it is obviously cheaper.

The Cruising Areas

Denmark hasn’t got the sheltering screen of islands, but I have met people who have enjoyed dinghy cruising there. The Limfjord, at the northern end of Jutland, and the islands south and west of Copenhagen are the best areas.

Sweden

The Swedish west coast is the best place to start: the weather is usually pretty good, the islands are bare but charming, the pilotage is as easy or as difficult as you want it, and the area is easy to get to.

The lakes of Sweden sometimes suffer from a lack of wind, but the scenery is often superb. The Dalslands Canal is a series of lakes north-west of Lake Vanern, joined by canals. Lots of Swedes go canoeing there and camp on the wooded shores. The water is so clean you can drink it. Roger Pilkington described it as the most beautiful waterway in the world. The Gota Canal runs from Gothenburg to just south of Stockholm. Half the distance is lakes, which are lovely, but in the canal (which is charming) you need an engine or a lot of patience.

The east coast of Sweden is an archipelago of wooded islands. It suffers from being close to Stockholm. There are more boats (especially motor boats) and lots of summer houses in the islands. The pilotage is more intricate than the west coast, but less satisfying as everyone else is doing it!

Finland is a country I have not yet visited. An old member of the Royal Cruising Club described it to me as his idea of heaven. It is a less crowded version of the Stockholm archipelago and the weather is usually better than elsewhere in Scandinavia. The Aaland Islands between Sweden and Finland are the densest in Scandinavia and the ideal boat to explore them is a dinghy. Unfortunately you have to trail across Sweden to get within reach of them.

Norway is the friendliest country I have ever visited. This year a Norwegian family met me off the ferry, towed my boat to a marina, and entertained me royally for a day at each end of the cruise. I met a man for half an hour in Trondheim and he found me somewhere to lay up Eel for the winter!

The Oslofjord is long, crowded and not recommended for dinghy cruising. The south east coast from Kristiansand to Sweden has better weather than the rest of Norway, but the islands are split into four stretches with open passages between. One reef off Larvik is particularly nasty. However it is not difficult and I had my happiest weeks of cruising on this coast.

The west coast of Norway is spectacular, with mountains, glaciers and fjords to be seen. But it is wet, and it can blow, especially just north of Bergen. The islands between Stavanger and Bergen are nicely sheltered and a charming cruising ground. North of Bergen the scenery is spectacular; you can explore the Sogne Fjord, the longest and deepest fjord, and sail round the famous Statt promontory. But there are squalls off the mountains and a couple of open sea passages, so a bigger boat is better here. Around Trondheim the mountains become tamer and the islands give more shelter. There is one island here surrounded by a hundred square miles of rocks and islets which I spent a happy three days exploring. North of Trondheim you can cross the Arctic Circle, visit a glacier which comes within a mile of the sea, and go where very few yachts, let alone dinghies, are ever seen. The Lofoten Islands are one of the most spectacular vistas in Scandinavia and have been explored by Frank and Margaret Dye (see their new book). North of Tromsø, anchorages become fewer and further between, but the island screen continues from Stavanger to the North Cape with only six breaks in a thousand miles, none requiring a passage longer than twenty miles.

I hope this persuades you that the countries and the people are well worth visiting. It may be expensive to get there and to live there, but the great advantage of your dinghy is that it is cheap and easy to move around. Take advantage of this and visit Scandinavia. I’d be only too pleased to help with charts and advice.

p.s. Eel covered 750 miles in 50 days this year, and she’s laid up just inside the Arctic Circle ready to explore the Lofoten Islands next year. If anyone is interested, I hope to get an account of the cruise included in Roving Commissions, published in May by RCC press.