We had a marvellous weekend sailing away in the Stockholm archipelago. Unfortunately our return home was not a happy occasion as we were greeted with the news that my mother-in-law had fallen out of her bed in the convalescent home over the weekend and was rushed to hospital where she was extensively x-rayed and required stitches to her face. Fortunately she broke no bones, which could have easily happened at her age and there is an investigation underway to try and discover how it happened. She is shaken, badly bruised and looks like she has gone a couple of rounds with Mike Tyson. Still, it could have been considerably worse so we are grateful that nothing more serious happened and that she will be home soon.

As I said in my previous post, gale force winds were forecast and not ALL of the family was filled with joy at the prospect of a day out sailing in those conditions.



She really is a terrible wuss and much prefers the comfort of many quilts to going outside and getting some fresh air. I sometimes wonder if she is a dog at all, or a reincarnation of the heroine from the Hans Christian Andersen story of The Princess and the Pea. After we levered the dog out of bed with a crowbar, we packed up to leave home. I tried to remember what we usually took and carefully filled the bags with food, clothes and books for the weekend. It took a little time to load up the boat and remember where we stowed everything and the routine we use before we cast off, but eventually things were put away, beds were made and things secured for an early afternoon sail.

We had no particular plans of where we would end up, but the strong winds seemed to favour us heading north, so that is the route we followed, passing by the main harbour and heading towards Stockholm. In the harbour, the cruise liner Sea Princess was anchored for another visit.



I should have realised she was in port as we both noticed that town was very busy, even for a Friday lunch-time. I heard a lot of English speakers chatting outside shops and cafés, but was so pre-occupied with getting to the boat and remembering what to do that I didn't pay them much attention.

The boat really is enormous - like a floating city. The brisk wind meant that we passed this fairly quickly and soon we were passing Älvsnabben and making good speed up along the islands north of here, enjoying the fact that we appeared to have the water to ourselves. We turned slightly to the west and headed towards Dalarö Skans.



The word skans means fortress, and this one was built in the seventeenth century to protect Stockholm from naval attacks via the southern sea approach. It was strategically important when the Russian fleet came on their infamous burning raid through the east coast of Sweden as part of the Great Northern War in 1719. The Russians did not dare come within range of this skans and so most of the area escaped unscathed. A garrison was stationed there until the twentieth century. More lately it was used as a base for the sea scouts, but these days it is a conference centre and popular for weddings as well as a venue for summer concerts.

As you can see, the grey overcast conditions have disappeared and blue skies and sunshine prevail. Close by was the lovely archipelago town of Dalarö itself.



Dalarö has always been an important port and used to be the main custom house for Stockholm as well as a major fishing area. The town is very pretty and idyllic from the water and most of the houses date from the eighteenth and nineteenth century when the town was a fashionable summer resort for the rich and powerful factory owners in Stockholm. Many of the buildings are beautifully preserved and give the strong impression of how life was here over 100 years ago.

By now, it was early evening even though we had blue skies and we decided that it might be nice to drop by and say hello to our friends Bosse and Ann who are still working hard on their boat Tintomara II. Their boat club is in this area and we had never been through the fjärd up to Tyresö, so this was as good a time as any to go there. We debated whether it would be a bad idea to disturb their work day, knowing how irritated we got when people interrupted our work on Fiona, but decided that a quick hello plus the surprise factor would be fun for them as well as us.



So the captain looked around for a suitable bay to drop anchor for the night, leaving us with a short trip in the morning. We'd come around 30 nautical miles today and we were very happy with that, though we were both quite tired by the end of the day. While preparing our dinner of pasta puttanesca, I discovered that I had not checked the crisper before we left home and that our fresh vegetables for salad were still back in Nynäshamn! Not to mention the parmesan cheese for the pasta. I doubted we would die of scurvy if we went without fresh vegetables for the weekend, but it was a little annoying, so I made a mental note to write a proper list next time.

Saturday morning dawned sunny and still breezy and I awoke to the gentle rock of the boat and the twitter of forest birds. It really is charmingly simple and serene way to start the day.



After our quick breakfast in the cockpit (and this morning I realised I'd also forgotten the tea, biscuits and medicine!), we hoisted the sails and cruised the few miles up to their boat club for our surprise inspection tour. We were spotted entering the club bay by a member who recognised our boat and alerted Bosse and Ann who came out to direct us to their pier space and welcome us. Then it was on to the wharf to look at Tintomara II.



They have both been working really hard to get her ready for launching, but the more they work, the more they discover that needs attention. And Bosse is something of a perfectionist and likes everything to be done properly, so it takes a long time. We tried to infect him with our Aussie brand of relaxed attitude to boat reapir but he prefers his own methods. And his boat is really looking like a "work in progress" at the moment.



They are hoping to launch before midsummer, so I hope they can get her ship-shape by then. We then went down for coffee (no tea!) on our boat and chatted for a while. They even had to supply the buns as I had forgotten any biscuits etc at home. This was slightly embarrassing, but they didn't seem to mind and we laughed over all the things we forgot to pack.



The day began to cloud over and it looked as though the forecast rain would begin, so they invited us to stay at their pier space for the night to sit out the bad weather and they decided to give up work for the day (see what a bad influence we are) and to go home and do things around the house. Lars-Göran tied up the boat more securely and we both settled down with a good book to read.

In the early evening, there was a knock on our boat and Bosse came aboard with a shopping bag containing tea, salad ingredients and a bottle of red wine! What a wonderful, unexpected and welcome surprise and how kind of them to think of us and to go and buy those missing ingredients. But then they have proved to be generous and thoughtful friends. I was able to make up my greek salad and we enjoyed a glass of wine with our evening meal. I went to bed quite early again, while the captain wrote up the log book.



I slept badly because some of the ropes were not tied securely to the mast and in the strong wind they banged incessantly. I suppose I could have gone up and fixed it, but it was wet and cold outside so I preferred to stay in my nice warm bed. The morning was overcast and cool, with strong winds and we thought we would take a trip up to see Tyresö Castle and then start heading back to Nynäshamn.

Ann and Bosse came down mid-morning and we sat and had coffee (and tea!) and chatted for a couple of hours before we really had to cast off with their help, wave goodbye and head up the bay a couple of miles to the castle. They have included some photos and text (in Swedish) about our visit at their website.



The castle, built in 1633, is beautifully situated in sweeping grounds at the end of this long bay. When the Russians came through here in the 1719 raid, the clever owner of the estate, Maria Gyllenstierna played a trick on them at a place just south of here named Luraström (lura being the Swedish word for dupe or deceive). It is a shallow, narrow area, quite difficult to navigate so at that point she ordered the woods there be burned along with the main tower of the castle. The Russians thought that this area had already been raided and turned back and left, thus saving the castle and the whole settlement.

The sun came out as we arrived and we enjoyed our sunny position and saw the people on the shore enjoying the day at the outdoor café just across the bridge from the castle. It was quite busy and a real picture of early Swedish summer.



Again, it is a simple, rustic feel to the area and well worth visiting if you are passing by. We were really lucky with the wind as we could set sails and sail along the same area we came up the day before. The shores are lined with summer houses and really pretty to look at in the early summer with the new fresh green plants and so many lovely flowers blooming. We made fast time back to Dalarö, but then the wind turned and so we went by engine for a couple of hours until it swung around to a more favourable direction and we could sail to our club island for the night, making the hour long journey home from there Monday morning, before setting off to Stockholm and the normal working week.

It was a wonderful first sail for the season, with everything working well and the few niggling problems being far surpassed by the joy of being back in the water again.