Regatta participants usually only know it from afar: many have sailed the long-distance race Gotland Rund, but the island is degraded to a better waymark. However, many cruising sailors only use the island as a stop on their way to the Stockholm archipelago.
The magical attraction of the archipelago on the Swedish mainland seems too great for crews to bother with the far-flung island. A stopover in the old Hanseatic town of Visby is usually the ultimate in emotions.
Gotland is indeed different, especially away from Visby. The circumnavigation of the approximately 70 nautical mile long land mass at cruising speed easily adds up to a week or more of sailing. Not an archipelago, but a rather plateau-like island that was once the seabed and slowly rose out of the sea due to plate tectonics. Fossilisations in the soft rock still bear witness to this in many places today. The east coast is more rural and lonely, with hardly a single village having more than a few hundred inhabitants. Sailors find themselves in a lonely area, but one that boasts an almost unique landscape, such as the strange rock pillars, the Raukar.
The detailed trip report is now in the new YACHT, issue 21/10.
Andreas Fritsch
Editor Travel
