Modern miracles can still happen and this was proved the other day when Lars-Göran's oldest son rang and asked to come out sailing with us.

"So what?" I hear you ask "What is miraculous about that?"

Well, Micke is a confirmed land lubber and couch potato who usually breaks out into a cold sweat at the mention of sailing, especially with his father. Actually boats and water in general are not on the best of terms with him. He was a teenager when Lars-Göran first got a sailing boat and never really took to the lifestyle, being far more interested in skateboarding and playing his guitar. I've heard that he often fell in the water from piers, dinghies and the boat and the last time he went out on the old boat (and that was 15 years ago), there were strong winds and his inexperienced dad had far too much sail up (hmm... some things never change). The result was that the boat heeled at an alarming angle, with him and his younger brother inside pressed against the salon wall from the force, with plates and cutlery flying across the boat as though possessed by a poltergeist intent on murdering them.

Needless to say, this experience has coloured his idea of sailing and he was sufficently scarred by it to declare his intention of never setting foot on the boat again.

Until now.

And why? Cue 10CC's hit single The Things We Do For Love. Yep, he has a girlfriend who is a very keen sailor and he has now decided that he'd like to give it a go again. I guess he's hoping that his dad has learned a thing or two in the last fifteen years. He also knows that our current boat is bigger and hopefully more stable than the old one and that his three siblings have survived days out on Fiona.

So today, he and Jenny came down for a sail. The weather was cool, sunny with much more wind than they predicted. The weather gods must have seen Micke get off the train and chuckled to themselves, sending a stiff breeze to test him out. We wanted this to be a good experience, so we thought carefully about where to take them. Originally, with forecasted mild south-west winds, we had thought to go to Landsort. We'd have to tack to get there, but sailing home would be gentle downwind with a lightwind sail. However, I know that the sea can be really choppy outside of the islands in strong winds and I was concerned that it was too much for his first attempt again.

In the end, we went out into Mysingen, tacked around the island of Bedarön, then hit on the idea of taking the inner route through Draget's Canal and across to Torö for dinner. That way we could have some adrenaline pumping tacking and real sailing to please Jenny and some gentle gliding through the rocky channels to test her navigation skills and give a calm but still interesting sail for Micke. Lambi of course slept through the whole thing!

Jenny is extremely competent with the tiller and she had no trouble steering, tacking, setting sails and navigating.



She has been brought up on sailing boats and her father has a boat the same size as ours which she has sailed by herself many times. A couple of weeks ago she and a few girlfriends took it out for a week's sailing around Sandhamn and Möja and even Micke came aboard for a sail. She must have a special kind of magic to get Micke on the boat. I used to worry about him not getting enough fresh air. He doesn't play sports or like the outdoors much, spending a lot of his time indoors running his music studio, Garaget at Solna. Jenny loves sports and competing (not to mention winning). She is a singer, dancer and athelete so I'm sure that will have a positive impact on his lifestyle now that they are living together. He's even talked about riding a bike to the studio. Micke??? Exercise???

Anyway, Jenny was a real asset today and I hope she enjoyed sailing the boat. Lars-Göran acted as winch gorilla during the tacking manoeuvres and Jenny steered and directed the crew. Micke was put to work setting the mainsail and pulling up the anchor. I did my usual looking after the dog and keeping the crew supplied with regular mugs of hot coffee and buns.



After coming in from the windy fairway outside of Järflotta, Lars-Göran shooed the happy couple up on deck while he steered through Dragets kanal. The current canal was finished in 1852 though there is evidence of the existence of a canal here since 1219, when the Danish king Valdemar Seir passed by. The water level was 3 metres higher at that time and Draget was a channel between Järflotta and the mainland. Because of silt and rising land levels, by mid 17th century Draget had become so shallow that it no could longer be used and by the midlle of the 19th century the depth was only 30 cm.

Some efforts were made at that time to dredge it and make it navigatable but these were only a temporary solution and trade boats often had to use the outer route. This continued until the mid 20th century. The navy had purchased some torpedo boats which turned out to be not so seaworthy. They really had to use the canal to make it southwards safely, so the navy blasted and straightened the canal to its present form.

By the 1980s the depth in the canal was down to 1.5 m., so a new rescue operation took place using money from both private enterprise and local government to dredge and line the canal to 2,2 m. Many pleasure boats use it as a short-cut to the south, but we mostly go this way if we have guests on board as it is a really pretty route and most people really love the calm and seeing the boat go through a narrow space with the mast in the trees.



We then sailed and tacked southwards to a quiet bay on the east of Torö where we had dinner of Tortellini Arrabiata, Italian salad and garlic bread before sailing around the southern tip of Järflotta and the easy downwind sail home. The evening sun came out and it was warm, sunny and fast sailing along the fairway to Nynäshamn. Even Lambi was thrilled with the day's finale.



One great thing that happened was that Jenny and Lambi got on so well. Jenny is terrified of dogs, having been attacked and bitten by a dog when she was a small child. I fully understand that something like this can scar a person, so I tried to keep Lambi away from her as much as possible so that she would be more at ease. But in the end it was Lambi's gentle, quiet nature that won the day and by the afternoon, after Jenny had fed Lambi a big piece of bun (thereby ensuring that she instantly became Lambi's new best friend!), the dog was sitting on her lap, enjoying being patted and fussed over. And Jenny said that she wished that everyone who had had a bad experience with a dog could meet a dog like Lambi.

It's been a great day and we loved having the kids aboard. They are talking about buying a small sailing boat of their own, which only goes to show the power of love. I could never have pictured Micke as a boat owner.