Back home for a day or two "pitstop" before heading out again into the archipelago. The Stockholm archipelago consists of at least 20,000 large islands, islets and skerries. From Landsort in the south to Arholma in the north it is 150 km, so there is plenty to explore.



Lars-Göran's son John and his girlfriend Emily will be with us for a few days, so we'll stay in the southern areas closer to home. Depending on the forecast winds, we'll go to Huvudskär, Biskopsön or perhaps Landsort. Wherever we go, it's bound to be beautiful and as Emily hasn't sailed before I'm sure any of these locations will be a perfect introduction to sailing and to the archipelago.

We've managed to get our bikes and given them a test run. You can see a step by step lesson in their assembly. First, take the folded bike out of the bag:



Then you unfold it according to instructions - it takes all of 30 seconds!



And now you are all set to ride around to your heart's content:



The last photo was taken at our boat club pier, with the lovely Nynäshavsbad conference centre in the background. And please note the difference in our attire. While the Swede opts for t-shirt and shorts, the sensible Aussie knows that despite the deceptive blue sky, really it's COLD and one needs thermals, long pants and a spray jacket. Lambi is lucky to have her own fur coat - believe me you need it here in Sweden.

Bruce and Sheila continue to astound us with their adaptation to boat life. I never expected Australian desert birds to be so versatile. My friends in Adelaide are also amazed that these birds survive so far away from their natural habitat. They are thriving in the boat and enjoying sunning themselves out in the cockpit and generally being highly inquisitive.



We have had a steady stream of enquiries about them from other sailors - word spreads fast in a small community. Since I wrote last time, we have been out to out club island of Lacka. We thought it may be quiet there during the week, but we forgot this was July and the place was full, though with many of them being friends from Nynäshamn it was fun to catch up with people and see what they had been up to. When we pulled into the bay, we moored close to two of our friend's boats. Immediately Lambi leapt across to the nearest boat (another OE-36 like ours) to say a big hello to Nils and Gerd. She even shamelessly scammed food from them!



When the food ran out, she then moved along to the next boat - a huge Wasa Atlantic owned by our friends Ulf and Maggan. Again she gave them the "starving dog" look and they fed her some left over meat from their bbq



Having done the rounds she decided to “slum it” again on our modest boat. Such a little furry turncoat! Over the next 24 hours, other friends turned up in their boats and so we had quite a social few days, drinking wine, sharing conversation and boat hopping. Here you can see our boat moored alongside Nils’ boat, while our friend Thommie sails in.



We all had such a good time that we’ve decided to organise a meeting of owners of OE boats here on August 21-22. With a great clubhouse, sauna, picnic area and beach playground, it will cater for everyone and for the vagaries of the Swedish weather systems.

We have been quite lucky with the weather up till now. We had nice, sunny days in Gotland and also in Nynäshamn (which has the reputation as the sunniest district in Stockholm county). This is in contrast to both Stockholm itself and the rest of the country which is experiencing rain, clouds and extensive flooding. It has apparently been the wettest summer here in Sweden since 1928! Some areas in the south received their July monthly rainfall in just three hours. Each evening, the news highlights the plight of people being evacuated from their homes as the water levels rise.

Well, we got a taste of this ourselves yesterday. We decided to head home for a day or so to do some small repairs and anyway the forecast was for rain. A lot of rain. We set off, wearing full raingear and for a while the weather gods were smiling upon us. As we approached Nynäshamn we were gratified and somewhat smug when we saw the town bathed in blazing sunshine. Obviously we were looking just a tad TOO smug and the weather gods’ retribution was swift. Behind us appeared an enormous black cloud, heading our way. We tried to outrun it, but just as we closed in on Bedarön the rain pelted down. Mercilessly. Relentlessly. Everything was drenched – sails, ropes, deck and more importantly…..US! We docked at our pier, whipped up the tent and hung up our dripping waterproofs to dry.



I’m hoping at least that the rain will disperse the awful blue-green algae that plagues the coastline during the summer months. We saw quite large patches of it outside the coast of Gotland last week and signs of it beginning in the waters closer to home. It has been an increasing problem in the Baltic for a number of years, with superphosphate-enriched run-off from agricultural lands being implicated in the spread of the algae. It looks like a huge patch of brown water and the first time we saw it, we got a scare because we thought it was rocks.



It smells gross, too. The offshore winds drive it into the bays where it sits and robs the water of oxygen, killing plants and animal life.



Anyway, let’s hope the sunny weather begins again and we can enjoy true summer sailing



and add another chapter to our ice-cream tour of Sweden:



Now I’m going to watch an Aussie movie on TV3 Me Myself I with Rachel Griffiths.