Sea kayak to Håkanskär and Tjärven

Yet another beautiful sea kayak trip to Håkanskär and Tjärven

Spent a few late August days with a good friend sea kayaking to Håkanskär in the northern part of Stockholm archipelago. Beautiful low islets. It’s almost as if they were shaped for sea kayakers tent camps. I have been sea kayaking in the area lots of times before, summer and winter, and will for sure keep coming back.

And of course, we made a mandatory visit to the remote lighthouse islet of Tjärven, known from John Ajvide Lindqvists fantastic horror zombie novel “Tjärven”. Tjärven is a 100×200 meters islet, reached by a 6+ km crossing from Håkanskär. It’s a ship route crossing, so watch out for those ten floor floating luxury hotels. They move faster then you’d expect.

The best spot to land, on a windy day possibly the only spot to land, is on the north side of the islet. There’s a really narrow passage, it will barely fit a sea kayak, that leads into a small sheltered bay. If there are swells coming in from the north, it will be really difficult to make the passage. On a calm day like this, the only swell to look out for is the ones from the big cruise and cargo ships passing east and west of the islet. The swells will of course not reach into the bay, neither wind nor ship swell will, but they will for sure stop kayakers from going in and out.

The lighthouse has of course been refurbished and modernised since it was first built in 1903. The building has a quite unusual shape for a lighthouse, and a visit to the island has indeed a spooky feeling. Maybe that’s just my brain (brrraaaain) referring to the zombie novel, I don’t know. Probably is. Hey, what are those shuffling, moaning sounds coming from the shadows down by the bay?

Anyway, I can highly recommend both the John Ajvide Lindqvist novel and a visit to Tjärven.