Luckily for me, I keep a copy of Gästhamnsguiden on the boat. This is a guide to all of the guest harbours in Sweden. While we rarely stay in any of them, the guide is a mine of additional about sights around the area, plus facilities like location of banks, shops, petrol station etc. We consulted the booklet and searched for the closest location of someone selling propane refills. We found a place not too far away - Lagnöströmmen. Hmmm... why does that place sound familiar?

We fished out the sea chart and discovered that it was on the island of Norra Finnö and about 2kms from Mon where my mother-in-law rents a summer house. And where we have spent some time both last summer and a couple of years ago. The organisation in Sweden who helps those people paralysed as a result of accidents (his mum broke her neck and back on the ferry to Finland 24 years ago) is called RTP. And they have cottages to rent (including this one at Mon), especially set up for those wheelchair bound. We had no idea that we were so close and we wondered if we would pay her a surprise visit. To actually get to Mon (pronounced Moon) is a bit complicated as it is on the other side of the island and there is only one way in to the area, threading our way between stones and shoals. But Lagnöströmmen is on the same side as we are and will only take us an hour of combined sailing and motoring. The only strange thing we note on the chart is that we must pass under a bridge with a height at high water of 15m. Our mast is 15m, plus a 1m high VHF antenna. Will we fit under? And we try and remember that bridge. We've driven over it many times and it seems much higher - surely at least 30m! We decide that we'll see if we can get under the bridge, get the propane then give mother a ring and see if L-G's brother will come and collect us and we'll have coffee with them all.

It is a beautiful morning - sunny, warm and a perfect breeze for our journey. We also had a visit from some of Bruce and Sheila's friends. We put the birds out in the cockpit and their chattering brought a flock of terns to the boat. They sat on the rails, softly tweeting and nibbling at the breakfast crumbs I left for them. There were about 10 birds aboard for about 15 minutes. I went inside and tried to sneak a picture of them but L-G likened my efforts at being quiet to "a herd of elephants" (as if he even knows what a herd of elephants dounds like!) and I only managed this pathetic effort. You'll have to imagine the other nine birds *grin*



Stop laughing. I bet you couldn't do any better! Lars-Göran kept making cracks about expecting a call any minute from National Geographic or even from David Attenborough needing an outstanding nature photographer for his new series. Man, is he learning to be a sarcastic Aussie really fast.... I'm going to have to watch this closely.

After he stopped laughing we set off. It was lovely sailing, if somewhat difficult in places to navigate (especially with our comic depth meter refusing to function when we really needed to know). Not for the first time was I envious of those fortunate people with cottages right on the waterfront.



In no time at all, we found ourselves at the bridge. And despite our belief that the low height was a serious misprint in the chart, you can see it was a pretty close call.



It is so deceiving when you look at it from land. You would believe that a huge super tanker could easily fit under it, but from down here, it is really quite low. We were relieved that we made it or we would have had to return the way we came. There is a lovely cafe on the other side of the bridge, a small pier, petrol station and yes, they have propane. Yippee!



We ring up my sister-in-law and they are delighted and surprised and agree to come by straight away and pick us up, arriving about 10 minutes later. It's a hot, sunny day and so we all enjoy fika outside on the lawn in front of the stuga.



We have obviously chosen the very best time to go out sailing. The weather this summer has been very so-so - below average temperatures and quite wet. But this week so far has been warm and sunny. It never gets really hot here in Sweden. I once looked up the highest and lowest recorded temperatures here. The warmest temperature was on 26th June 1947, when it reached 38C in Målilla (a tiny place in Småland, about 300km south of Stockholm). I giggled at that. I mean to say, 38C would hardly raise a sweat in Adelaide in summer. On the other hand, the lowest temperature record is held by Vuoggatjålme in Lappland where it plummeted to -53C on February 2nd 1966. I can't even begin to grasp how cold that would be and am thankful I don't live ANYWHERE near there.

Lambi is also enjoying her time on land, finally sneaking away to roll joyfully in something grotty. Luckily it's so warm we can easily bath and dry her!



Mother's stuga is right on the water with a lovely view of the small boat pier, guest harbour, bay and surrounding islands. She loves coming here each year and looking at the sea - it is such a change for her from her usual urban setting in Stockholm.



She is really keen for us to spend some time with her and L-G's brother and his family, so we agree that we'll spend the afternoon sailing around the island and park the boat at the Mon guest harbour. It is a quaint, quiet little spot and very cheap to moor at. These few days here will give us a chance to take a look at the furlex that is giving us some headaches as well as give us time with the family. And it will give Lars-Göran's poor hands a bit of rest. While they are looking better, he keeps irritating them by touching wet ropes and they are looking a bit raw again.

Mille drives us back to the boat and we take off again, carefully charting our way around Norra and Södra Finnö. The island is a popular holiday place, with several towns devoted to caravan, camping and summer visitors. But there are still areas that are farmland - mostly grain crops.



As we round the lowest point of the island at Tyrislöt, we are joined by a flotilla of kayaks. This is a very popular way to holiday in the archipelago. You get a marvellous view of the skerries and just pick and choose an island to camp on for the night. The people in this group were all quite old - certainly in the over 65 age group and I admired their stamina and energy. They paddled in a group and had no trouble keeping pace with our boat.



This area is so peaceful and tranquil. It makes a nice change from the busy Stockholm archipelago where it is sometimes so busy that it is stressful on some routes. Because there are no charted routes into the area, many people are afraid to venture here. I have to say that when I first saw a chart of St Anna, I thought the same thing. But we looked at it very carefully and managed to find a zig-zag way through the shoals. The scenery is lovely and the sense of peace, quiet and solitude is wonderful. We feel really refreshed and alive here.



After six hours, we finally moor the boat and come back to the stuga where we make a communal meal and chat together into the night. Lambi even makes a new friend.



We have had a wonderful couple of days. I’ve spent a lot of time chatting to L-G’s mum, who is in poor health at the moment. She is such a kind hearted person that it is hard to see her suffer so much. She has had constant stomach pains for ages now and I hope she gets someone to take it seriously when she gets home. It was also great to spend relaxing time with all of the family – enjoying meals, wine, conversation and that happy feeling of being totally relaxed in their company. I realise that I’m incredibly lucky to have such supportive and accepting people around me.

We also got to explore a little of the surrounding in the “hot� sunshine. It’s been around 28C which is warm for these parts and you can see that some family members are taking full advantage of it, working on a tan to escape the winter whiteness.



Me? I’m still in long sleeves (albeit it only a lightweight cardigan) as it’s still too cold for my tastes, though the sunshine and brilliant blue skies are welcome. However, I still wish it would get dark at night. I’m sick of going to bed wearing my sunnies!

We had a marvellous day sailing and being tourists in picturesque Arkösund. The skies were so blue they hurt your eyes and everything looked great as we sailed along the shores.



We had heard great reports about how lovely Arkösund was from our sailing friends so we felt it would be nice to check it out. We also needed to pick up some fuel for the dinghy motor and a light globe at the chandler in town. The town itself is very old and has some beautiful houses on the waterfront.



We took our time walking around to the supermarket and boat supply shop but found it rather stressing. It was packed with summer tourists, very busy with cars, people, cyclists etc so in the end we were glad to leave. I think we’ll come back here another time (but NOT July!) and take a closer, more leisurely look. Lars-Göran chatted to the marina owner who also found July an awful month. He said he did 30% of his business in July, but hated it because people were stressed, demanding and generally unpleasant if they could not get what they needed. That has been out impression as well.

After leaving Atkösund, we looked for a place to moor for the evening. Along the way we passed the creepiest place that I’ve yet seen in Sweden. Every little island around here is covered in lush vegetation – except for one location:



Now, what is with this place? We named it “Death Island�. Honestly, it was so bizarre. Unfortunately as there are so many hidden rocks in this part of the bay we couldn’t get a closer picture, but everything looked dead and skeletal here. Peering through my binoculars, I saw that the island was populated by hundreds of cormorants! They made an awful din and had virtually killed every living thing on the island with their potent droppings. How funny that they chose this place and no other island as a nesting site. I guess the fish supply must be good around here.

After consulting the charts we decided on an island called Djursö (animal island). You can see it on a map here if you look towards the top and centre of the map. This area is known as St Anna’s Archipelago, named after St Anna, who is the patron saint of sea farers. And as you can see, it’s like a jigsaw puzzle of islands that you must plot a route through. Bear in mind that this map shows only the visible islands. There are masses of hidden shoals as well so we had to carefully pick our way around. But again, my husband’s unerring ability to pick out just the perfect spot came to the fore again. We dropped anchor in this idyllic place



It was quite tricky getting there, not helped at all by our depth meter which seems to have developed a sense of humour. When the water is really deep, it quite happily displays the depth, including one or two decimal places. I mean we have a draught of 1.8m, so we smile when we see that it is 98.50m under the boat! But when it is tight and we are slowly making our way through places that are 2m or less, we’d like to know when we are straying into shallow water. It is at these critical moments that the depth meter chooses to display “-----“ (basically depth meter language for “Ha Ha, take a guess�) which either gives us a heart attack or an ulcer. But we are here in the bay now and it is lovely.



The sound from the forest on the shore is really relaxing. High in the sky, three majestic sea eagles hover on the thermals. There is the gentle chirp of the forest birds and the sound of deer as well. This is the most surprising sound of all. I never had anything much to do with deer before. There are no deer in Australia (except on deer farms). Of course, I’ve seen Bambi and I think deer are these cute, gentle little creatures. “Yeah right!� sneers my husband, who sees them more as a moth eaten nuisance. I was out helping to cover the sails when I heard what sounded like a Smoker’s Convention with about 100 people coughing their lungs out with the typical smokers’ cough. I asked what it was and L-G said “Deer�. I didn’t believe him, but sure enough I saw two small deer chasing each other along the shore and sounding like they had a 5 pack a day cigarette habit. Amazing!

When I went below to check on the progress of our dinner, I discovered the oven flame was out and our lasagne was barely lukewarm. I cursed and tried to light it again, then realised that we had run out of propane! Did we have a spare propane bottle? Well, yes we did, but it was empty, too. Another of those jobs we forgot to do before we left home. I could have kicked myself as we could have got more in Arkösund today! Never mind, we’ll find a place tomorrow. In the meantime, we can at least use our Heatpal to make coffee (as Lars-Göran cannot function without several cups of strong, brewed coffee every day).

In the evening, he takes Lambi for a row to shore. She is delighted, naturally. It’s so hard to take in that this is the sea, not a lake. This is the Baltic Sea! I still can’t get used to no tides and no waves crashing on the shore. It somehow just doesn’t seem right.



Let's see where we end up tomorrow!

We set off in overcast conditions and as we passed Oxelösund, it looked so depressing that we decided not to stop. Maybe it was the weather, but the place looked like those Dickensian views of a 19th century factory that I had no desire to go there. Luckily the weather improved in late afternoon and we made our way across the water towards the large island of Arkö where we intended to find a bay to anchor in for the night.

Along the way, I spotted a strange object in the water. I peered through my binoculars and was so surprised to see it was a seal! My first sighting of a seal here in Sweden. It was the Baltic Grey Seal. I was really excited. It was so quiet, calm and graceful.



Lars-Göran had also seen it and was reaching for the binoculars when I said “It’s a seal!� He said he thought it might be a corpse! I think he’s been watching too many episodes of “Forensic Detectives� and probably imagines himself appearing on it with the voiceover “A Swedish couple out sailing in Bråviken this summer made a gruesome discocery....�

The sighting of the seal really lifted our spirits. We watched it swim leisurely through the water between the rocks and then disappear. It was quite large, so I guessed it may be a fully grown male. There are a lot of areas around here that are designated “Seal Protection Areas� and you are forbidden to go there at all. I believe that their numbers in the Baltic are declining, which is sad. Later on in the early evening, we saw a smaller seal swimming close to the boat – again the picture of elegance and charm. What delightful animals they are.

We moored in a small bay on the north of the island and all night we heard the calls of seals in the area. What plaintive voices they have. In the morning, we sat out in the cockpit in glorious sunshine, with this view:



Tough life, isn’t it? But some of us just HAVE to do it. Even the white swan in the picture is just getting ready for the day. It is beautiful and sunny and as we look towards the horizon we see that some keen people have made an early start.



But not us! We are after all on vacation. What is it with people supposedly “on holidays� who feel they must start off at 7am and rush to the next stop? So we decided to take out the dinghy again and have a look at the skerries nearby. Even Lambi (complete with her dog life jacket) joins us for these excursions.



On the way, we passed a lovely lighthouse with lighthouse keeper’s cottage attached at Viskär. It looked so charming and had a great outlook across the water. Today, the lighthouse no longer is manned, but it is rented out as a summer cottage.



We stopped at Brändskär – one of the outer skerries that dot the coatline. These skerries (or “skär� as they are called in Swedish) are solid rock that have been worn smooth by glacial action during the last ice age. They contain little rockpools of fresh water (which is why many of them are favoured by birds and designated as bird protection areas), a myriad of plants and all in the setting of the glittering blue sea. They are quite a sight on a warm summer day.



Lambi and I took a break from climbing the rocks to rest by a fresh rainwater pool and admire the view – well, actually I admired the view, Lambi was more interested in finding something revolting to roll in.



From the skerry you can see the lighthouse on shore, framed by the stunning clouds. I really love the clouds here in Sweden. I think I’d never really noticed them that much in Adelaide, but here they seem to mass up in huge banks and fill the sky in great rolling processions. It can be quite a majestic sight.



I marvelled at the profusion of wildflowers on this bare outcrop. What an inhospitable, hostile environment for them to cling on to. But every summer, despite the stark, barren environment they manage to flower and grow.



We watched boats glide by along this section of the Sjö-Fyra, including this OE-36, which is identical to our boat. It was nice to see what she looks like under sail.



By now, it was late morning and glancing at the water, we saw a sea of white sails billowing in the distance, beckoning us to raise the anchor and join in with them. It’s a lovely typically Swedish summery sight.



We took one last look around the fascinating rocks and flowers of the skerry and headed back to the boat.



We then set off for Arkösund. Along the way, we passed many houses and cottages along the shore and lighthoses glittering in the sunshine.



Now, this is living!

We’ve been here a couple of days now. We’ve spent the time motoring around in our dinghy and enjoying the islands in this area. The dinghy allows us to visit areas that are too shallow to allow our yacht to pass. As usual, the islands were really pretty.



We manage to go into a lot of little bays and up to shore. I love being so close to the water and it is so clear that you can see to the rock strewn bottom and see tiny fishes darting to and fro in the shallows and to marvel at the underwater plants. I was reminded of a book I was reading about the French painter Monet, where he was talking about the difficulties he had trying to paint the long tresses of river weeds streaming in the clear water. The water is so clear that the long, green fingers of the weeds, moving just below the surface, can be seen easily but are impossible to paint. Or to photograph, I was also thinking. We also caught a glimpse of those less lazy than us who were sailing today.



This is a quiet little bay, almost fully enclosed – like a small lake. It’s very protected from waves and is very tranquil. On the far shore you can see a summer house nestled among the trees.



It’s hard to believe that the large town of Oxelösund is literally “just around the corner�.



I have to say, that this view of the town is awful. It looks like a huge industrial town and with the fires from the iron works burning all day and night it doesn’t look very inviting. I can’t understand why people would prefer to tie up there rather than enjoy the natural environment of the islands. Here we walked in the woods and Lars-Göran managed to find a lot of ripe raspberries that he picked and brought back to the boat for us to enjoy. I’m amazed that they grow here wild. They were really delicious and were quite literally everywhere.



After a couple of days of lounging around on the rocks, enjoying the wildflowers and the peace and beauty of this little bay, we’ve decided to move along further south. So it is a sad goodbye to Lökholmen and head southwards again.

Randall set off early this morning, heading for Morocco. We spent a long time last night talking to him about taking a more inland route there. He has very little in the way of sailing experience and is ill-equipped to handle a crisis in big seas and his boat is not ready for ocean sailing. A friend with sailing experience has agreed to meet him in Kalmar and sail the leg to Denmark, which will be good as it will give him valuable experience with sailing techniques. We advised him to take the so-called “Sjö-Fyra� (Sea-Four) route down the east coast of Sweden to Kalmar. This is a well marked route through the inner archipelagoes. It is longer than merely heading west out to sea, then southwards and he will have to be alert and follow navigation markers, plot courses and watch out for other boats, but his boat will be spared the big waves and winds that can whip up in the Baltic. We also tried to get him to consider the canal route through Europe rather than take the boat out on the North Sea. The name “Sea-Four� is a take-off of the main road highway through Sweden called the E4 (European Highway 4) and we intend to take the same route down the coast as it is very pretty.

At just after 11am we were ready to cast off as well, having loaded the boat with food, drinks, pets, fuel, water etc. As we have a bigger and faster boat than Randall, we didn’t want to demoralise him by passing him out on the route, so we chose to go outside the islands down to Landsort, then head along the sjö-fyra. The going was fast in the strong southerly winds and despite it being an overcast day there were many boats out on the water.




Of course, July sailing also brings out that peculiar creature we’d probably refer to as a “Sunday driver� in Australia. This is a person who has no proper grasp of the rules of the sea but nevertheless takes out his expensive boat in July and creates mayhem on the water. Today we met a couple of these idiots – both in charge of boats worth many millions of Swedish crowns and seemingly determined to wreck their own as well as other boats. The first person was motoring along northwards in a huge, modern sailing boat. He came to a very tight, very busy, marked channel between several islands. Most of us travelling southwards were sailing at high speed because of strong winds from behind. We were all sailing in a convoy along the left hand side of the channel, leaving the right hand side for the north bound boats. Instead of passing the traffic on the starboard side and continuing along the channel as is the customary rule, this cowboy thought he’d cut diagonally between us and the sailing boat immediately in front of us. With his 40 foot sailing boat! The look on his face when he saw us powering down towards him under full sail at nearly 7 knots was priceless. What did he think we’d do? Apply our imaginary brakes? It was really close and he would have been totally in the wrong had we collided. Lars-Göran was furious at his stupidity.

Soon after I was steering and L-G had gone below. I was heading in a westerly direction across a large section of water. I checked the charts as I neared a lighthouse and saw that my course was still to be due west towards Oxelösund, though there was another route northwards towards Södertälje at the same point. Suddenly a Dutch flagged boat on my left that had been holding a similar course (though slightly behind us), began to push closer to our boat. I indicated to him that I was heading directly west. He didn’t respond and got closer and closer. I guessed that he was wanting to head north, but he could wait and pass behind me. But no. For some reason he wanted to cut in front of me. Why? You would never do that on a road, so why at sea? I indicated again that I was holding a course of 270, but he kept edging closer until there was barely a coat of paint between the boats. I was under sail, so there was little I could do to slow the boat without altering course. Eventually I called up Lars-Göran who shouted at the guy and he eased back. Maybe he didn’t like being beaten to the marker by a woman!

After that, we had fairly stress free sailing along the coast. We passed this station near Stendörren:



It isn’t advertising “Lots� of anything. In fact, Lots means pilot in Swedish, so this is one of the old pilot stations dotted along the coastline. As the waters here are so full of rocks and shoals, it is obligatory for large ships to have a local pilot aboard. They are called out from these stations and travel out to the ships to guide them safely through the area.

Along the way, we also passed an enterprising person who has started a kiosk and small restaurant (or “krog�) along one of the channels. And it looks like he’s doing good business.



After several hours of sailing, (and a VERY frustrating close call with the Furlex that decided to jam at a particularly inopportune moment, not to mention an anchor that insisted on repeatedly dragging) we decided to call it a day, mooring in Stora Lökholmen (The Big Onion Island) lying halfway between the towns of Nyköping and Oxelösund. It’s always nice to finally lie in peace in a beautiful natural bay and enjoy a well earned gin and tonic in the evenings.

Today we travelled into Stockholm to pick up a 4hp outboard motor that we saw advertised in Blocket. It was a price that was well within our budget and it means we have everything we need for the dinghy. If we had bought the dinghy and engine new, we would have paid 22,000kr. Instead we paid only 6,000kr! It certainly pays to check out the second-hand market.

As the guy with the motor lives way north of Stockholm in Järfalla, he agreed to meet us in town so that we didn't have to drive so far. He was coming into the city anyway. So we met up at Norra Bantorget and completed the sale.

We then headed up to Solna to get some stuff at Öob. I really hate the one there - it's so cheap, nasty and grotty, but we really needed to get a few things so I put up with it this once. The new Öob at Haninge is so nice, clean, ordered and well organised that I prefer to go there when I need something specific, but we were near the horrible one so that's where we went.

Then on to Skeppsholmen, which was buzzing with the Stockholm Jazz Festival. It was warm, sunny and there was a wonderful atmosphere around the venue (which was in the most beautiful setting, overlooking the glittering waters with the city as a backdrop).



The smell from the food stalls was divine! Lambi looked very keen to sample the chicken from the wok stall.

We walked around the harbour and looked at the ships docked around the island. One of the more impressive ones was the charter boat Sea Cloud II. What an impressive sailing boat. I bet she looks spectacular under full sail. There are so many charter boats in Sweden at the moment. It gives the sea towns a real sense of life. Then we had a look around the island, past the funky cafe Chili Vanili. I love the historic buildings on this island. When I first came here nearly 4 years ago and we visited Skeppsholmen, it looked a bit sad and dilapidated. Of course, this was also in winter, when things always look a bit more dreary. Over the last few years, I've been gratified to see that the buildings are being restored and today they look magnificent.

We spotted a cute little puppy and talked to the young girl holding him. It was a little bundle of fuzz and so cute! The girl told us that he was 11 weeks old and was a Chinese Powder Puff. She had saved up her own money to buy the puppy. I was very impressed as pedigree dogs cost a fortune in Sweden.

A short walk further on brought us to a view of the guest harbour across the water at Djurgården. We noticed that it was very busy and that a few boats were also moored to the Skeppsholmen side of the water. Among them was a boat from Australia! I was surprised and excited to see it.



We spoke to him and he's been out sailing around the world for the last four years. He reported that his only troubles came in the waters around Malaysia (a notorious area for pirates) where a group of 10 men armed with machetes tried to board the boat. He said it was a very scary experience. He also said that he was in the Red Sea during 9/11 and that was tense as well, in part because he is a white Westerner and he wasn't sure how that would be viewed and also because he was afraid USA would retaliate and he'd find himself in the middle of a war zone. He is heading north towards Finland and Russia before heading back south. He hopes to be back home in Brisbane within a year as he misses home. Don't we all at times.

Anyway, Randall will be here tomorrow, so I better get cooking!

This comes to you from a friend of a friend of a friend who lives in the south of the country - they found this gorgeous little fawn who lost its mum and took it in. Their dog has been taking care of it and letting it sleep in his bed. Can you STAND the cuteness??




And just in case that wasn't enough, there are two more pictures here and here. Isn't that the sweetest thing you've ever seen?

We are back today after several days out sailing with the kids. We were lucky to have beautiful, sunny weather which made the time far more enjoyable for them. Today it is foggy and overcast, so I'm glad they are safely home now.

We set off after work last week and went a short distance to Lindskär for the night. On the way, we passed an elegant old sailing ship lying by the guest harbour pier. She is called Najaden and was built in the Netherlands in 1918. These days she is a charter boat, ferrying 32 passengers (for a rather staggering fee!) around the archipelago. She does look quite grand and stately and certainly dwarfs anything moored close to her.



Once safely past the harbour, which was quite busy with ferries from Poland, Ventspils, Visby and Nåttarö arriving or departing at the same time we set sail for Lindskär. It is a very pretty little group of islands.




As it is close to Nynäshamn (literally round the back of Bedarön) it only took an hour or so of gentle sailing to get there. That was a good introduction to Emily who had never sailed before. She was very happy with the little bay we chose to anchor in.




Once lying by anchor, I prepared dinner and we sat and chatted late into the night, before settling down to sleep. Luckily we have sleeping for 6 adults on the boat so there is plenty of space and a degree of privacy.

The morning was glorious - a clear, bright warm summer's day. After breakfast, the kids relaxed and took in the sun for a while, enjoying the opportunity to be out in nature.



As it was too good a sailing day to spend by anchor, we proposed going out into Mysingnen and sailing north to a little island we like to visit outside of Muskö. Joppe was keen to have a go at sailing for himself, so after a few pointers from L-G he steered the boat himself.



And before anyone reports us to the child protection authorities, I swear that we feed the boy. Would you believe that he eats like a horse? Like his father, he has a fast metabolism (much to my annoyance) and never gains weight. Somehow, it's just not quite fair!

After a couple of hours of brisk sailing in the glittering waters we arrived at Lacka and moored alongside several sailing boats in the protected north side of the island



The island itself is very pretty, especially this time of the year. There is a large wooded area full of beautiful chanterell mushrooms to collect, along with masses of delicious lingonberries and blueberries. You can walk across to the south side of the island for a spectacular view of the outer waters from Utö to Landsort. Most of the time we enjoyed sunning ourselves, socialising with the other boat owners and chatting together over a glass of wine. Even the following morning was really sunny as you can see *grin*



It's hard to believe that it's so foggy today after enjoying a weekend like that. But today wasn't a total loss. We went into Stuvsta to pick up a Zodiac dinghy that we found advertised for an excellent price. That made us both very happy as we have missed having the dinghy around. This one is quite a bit larger than our last one and as it has an inflatable keel, it's also much more stable. We can't wait to try it out.

We are also hoping to catch up with our young American friend, Randall, who is about to sail to Morocco. He rang last week to invite us to his farewell party, but we were out sailing. However we've been in close phone and SMS contact with him. The poor guy has been having engine trouble that has delayed his departure a few days, but hopefully we'll see him and his boat "Ishallah" on Friday or thereabouts as he comes this way on his journey south. It's quite a dream he has to sail to Morocco, but he has such determination that I feel sure he'll get there - and learn a lot on the way.

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.

We thoroughly enjoyed our few days at Klintehamn. This is a charming little coastal society, in a beautiful rural setting. We really love to find these small places to visit and enjoy wandering around. But we missed having a bicycle as there were a couple of "ship burials" nearby that I would have liked to see. We both felt that if we had bikes with us, we could have explored much further afield than we did and we determined that we would purchase foldable bikes as soon as we could.

The actual township is about 500m inland from the harbour area. It has about 1400 inhabitants and we wandered around looking at the lovely homes and the busy little centrum area. Despite the small size, there were two large supermarkets with excellent prices, many small interesting boutiques, cafés and so on.

It is quite an old township and the harbour area is visited by about 300 large ships each year, picking up raw timber, wood products and limestone as well as dropping off goods needed on the island. But the small boat harbour, lying next to the main wharf is quite charming and protected with a lovely view across the bay.



Opposite us was a small island, reachable by a footbridge that has a lovely little hotel on the beachfront called Pensionat Warfsholm. You can glimpse it through the trees here:



We went for a few evening walks over to the hotel and really, it's a lovely spot to unwind and enjoy a quiet holiday. Check out the view from in front of the pensionat across to the islands of Lilla and Stora Karlsö:



Remember, I said this was an evening walk! It is around 10.30pm, even though it looks like midday. I couldn't believe that the girls were out swimming. While it was sunny, the water was quite cold and there was a brisk wind blowing from the sea towards land. They are far more resiliant than I am. *grin* The hotel also has a nice little, private sand beach in a protected bay - ideal for a family holiday.



This, too is a late evening picture. I just don't know how Swedish mothers get their kids to go to bed in broad daylight. I know that I've forced Lars-Göran to put up covers for the boat's skylights so it is dark enough for me to sleep. He can sleep through anything, but I like it to be dark first.

We also watched other boats sailing in and the tour boat to the Karlsö islands come and go.



We would have liked to go across to Stora Karlsö, as it is supposed to be a beautiful nature reserve full of rare and colourful wildflowers and an abundance of birdlife. But unfortunately, pets are not allowed to come across to the island and we can't leave Lambi alone to wait for us, so we had to pass up that trip. Perhaps another time.

On Sunday in warm, sunny conditions, we set off for home, with the view of the Lilla Karlsö to accompany us.



You will notice a green marker buoy in the water. This marks the channel, with a series of green markers on the left and red markers on the right. You must keep between those markers, where the channel has been dredged to a decent depth. There was quite a sobering site about half way along the seaway, just outside of the marked area where a ship did not heed the markers!



The trip home was uneventful, and not too comfortable as we had to sail downwind with strong winds and choppy waves of around 2 metres behind us. We reefed in the genoa a couple of times to make the going more comfortable for the passengers. Funnily enough, Bruce and Sheila (being true Aussie birds at heart) ignored the whole thing and calmly went on eating and chatting to each other as the boat pounded along in the waves. Any doubts I had about their ability to withstand boat life have been well and truly answered on the trip home.

The bulk of the work went to poor Lars-Göran who steered us safely through the night to the Landsort lighthouse - several hours of it alone! When I came out in the early morning, it was calmer and he looked so tired that I sent him below to sleep while I took over the steering. It was beautiful! Early morning (4am), blue skies, sunshine, calm waters, rocky islets and the familiarity of being in home waters and a mere 15NM from our pier!



He slept solidly for two hours. I didn't have the heart to wake him and anyway, I know these waters well, I had the sea chart in front of me and I used this to take the boat home. It was so exciting to see my first glimpse of Nynäshamn, but not as funny as seeing Lars-Göran wake up and peep out of the window and realise just how long he'd been sleeping and that his mad wife had steered the boat through the rocks and grounds of Gårdsfjärden right up to out boat club. I don't think that either of us thought I'd be brave enough to do it. It just goes to show what you CAN do if you set your mind to it!

So we are home until later today. Yesterday we went into Stockholm and bought those bikes we wanted. How's that for fast! We got this bike, though we chose the dark blue ones rather than the silver ones. At 2,000kr they were an excellent price and are foldable and able to be stored in a bag on the boat and then quickly unfolded when we need to use them. I can see we are going to get a lot of use from them.

Our other project is to sell our small inflatable dinghy and buy a bigger one. A friend of ours has the model we were considering and we met him at his boat yesterday evening to try it out for size and stability. It was perfect and I felt secure in it, even sitting on the pontoons (something I can't do with our current one). The downside of this is that we can't store a bigger, wider dinghy on deck, so we'll have to tow it along behind us. But it will increase our ability to go and visit those remote outer islands together, which will be a bonus. Now we have to sell ours and shop around for this one!

Next week we will be taking out Lars-Göran's son and his girlfriend for a few days sailing in the archipelago. Emily has not sailed before, so we are waiting for good forecasts so we can take her out in sunshine. Rain and clouds are forecast until early next week, though it is very sunny at the moment. We are going to load up the boat, change library books and head out this evening to find another group of islands to enjoy.

And for those of you who read Swedish, we have a Swedish sailing blog at Fiona.seglar.nu...

Till next time!