Another day, another direction. North yesterday and the wind was coming from the north, so we headed west and then south today – so which way did the wind go …. West and then south ….. It’s like it knows our plans! Ah well, it was very light, almost like it couldn’t be bothered to follow us properly, so it made a token effort to blow. Or, it is saving itself for the next few days, which look like they will well and truly compensate.
Still a lovely run down, even though it was under motor and we arrived in Skärhamn in time to go shopping before lunch – a real treat, but … it had to be done.
Like everywhere around here, Skärhamn seems to owe its existence to the herring trade. The name seems to first appear in the records around 1727, but given this time was one of the great herring periods, this is hardly surprising and it is likely that the coast was settled long before this. The herring then left for quite a while and when they returned at the end of the 19th century, Skärhamn gained its local pre-eminence. The shelter offered by the bay and its good accessible position meant that it thrived as a fishery and then as a port for small cargo ships trading the coast. In fact in the early part of the 20th century it was one of Sweden’s largest ports for small cargo ships.
There is some lingering evidence of this with the Skärhamns sjöfartsmuseum (maritime museum). While the museum was not open (probably too early in the season!), it was surrounded by various historic craft. The largest was the Atene. She was originally built in 1909 in Denmark, but seems to have been sold to Norway in 1916. Since then she seems to have moved around quite a bit and in 9127 was wrecked. However, she was rebuilt and carried on trading from Malmö and then subsequently Gothenburg until 1961 when she was bought by the author Sune Broberg who was going to use her as a pleasure vessel. That was short-lived though – clearly his creativity over-shadowed his common sense and by the next year she was being used for hunting and transporting fish waste. A bit of a come-down …. In 1980 though a newly formed association bought her and has since restored and maintained her, keeping her in beautiful condition.
