Slussen apparently dates from around 1715 when it was marked on a map as Slusa. The name sounds as if it should come from the word for a lock, but in fact comes from the Norwegian word slusa which describes the rushing of water in a stream. This seems quite appropriate given the history of the village as a bathing resort.
The origins of the village as a bathing resort stem from a herring canning factory which was built on the beach here in 1926. This company though went bankrupt in the early 1930s and so the building lay dormant for a while. A woman called Alfrida Berg bought the building in 1938 and converted it into a bathing guesthouse, which she ran until 1965. This is known as Slussens Pensionat. Her pivotal role in the history of Slussen is celebrated in a mural on a shed by the guest harbour.
After a relaxed breakfast we motored round, in almost complete calm, to Henån and stocked up for the week. We filled up with diesel (50 litres, making our consumption so far about 2.3 litres per hour) and then sailed on to Gullholmen. We had a lovely sail in about 10 knots of breeze, but sod’s law, it was coming from straight ahead. Once again we discovered the joys of a self-tacking staysail and short-tacked the entire way through to the narrows just before Ellös. The final few miles to Gullholmen we motored, but overall, a lovely sail.