No, these are NOT a few of my favourite things! I’m talking about those pesky Canada Geese that appear to be everywhere. They are an introduced species and as such have become a nuisance in Sweden, wiping out populations of the local and much smaller geese and interfering with human pleasure by leaving copious amounts of droppings in every available bit of parkland they can find.

I’ve seen masses of them here in St Anna as well. They are large and not unattractive to look at and I’m sure they look great in Canada… but not here! I saw a group of 6-7 adults on a small island today and as we sailed past I yelled out “Hey, geese, this isn’t Canada! Go home now!� and they all flew off immediately. Even L-G was impressed, so maybe I should consider goose clearing as a future job option.

After leaving Mon, we thought of heading towards Fyrudden, (where he has fond memories of this) but decided that we’d already been there last season so we wanted to see something else. At our local boat club second hand sale last spring, I bought an old book about harbours and places to see in the east coast. While leafing through the book, I thought we could take a look at the nearby Gryt archipelago. The book spoke of good anchoring places, so we turned off the south route and headed east.

We were sailing along a tight sound between islands when we were passed by a powerful motorboat at top speed. What were they thinking? In a narrow place like this you should reduce the speed to 5 knots or less. But this guy was doing at least 30 knots! We were concerned for a group of eider ducklings that were swimming across the waterway and also for some small children that were bathing nearby. The wash from the motor boat creates quite big waves and these richocet repeatedly off the islands. We signaled for them to slow down but were greeted by an obscene hand sign. There have been quite a few accidents this summer involving power boats driving without due care and at excessive speed. Luckily nobody has been killed, but it's a near thing.

The bay we chose for the evening was really peaceful and secluded, near the village of Kråkmarö. While preparing dinner I could have sworn that I heard sheep bleating. Sheep? Out here on a tiny island in the middle of nowhere? But sure enough, there on the rocks were a small group of sheep.



A lot of the area around here is designated nature reserve or national park, so I was quite surprised to see the sheep. Lars-Göran told me that these grazing rights are protected under ancient laws and while they are nature reserves, these previously granted rights are upheld. It's not a free-for-all however. You are not permitted to build a permanent abode on the island, numbers of stock allowed are quite small and they must have as little impact as possible. It hardly seems economically viable.

He also told me of some enterprising people who tried to get around the law. They wanted to build a summer house, but that was absolutely out of the question. However, it was permissable to build a modest shelter for the sheep in case of bad weather. So this particular man built his sheep shed - complete with picture windows, fireplace, wooden floors, tv, stereo, kitchen, bedroom... you get the picture. Several others nearby (probably jealous because they didn't think of it themselves) dobbed him in to the authorities. The case went to court and he tried to argue that it really was for the sheep - they liked music, needed a view etc. Not surprisingly nobody was fooled and he had to demolish the structure.

After dinner, we rowed over to the island for a sheep's eye view of the surroundings.



Well, I can see why the sheep needed a picture window.