25th July saw us back on board Melodrama, with our great friend and crew member Brendan. Brendan has cruised most of the Swedish and Danish coast with us, but never the Stockholm Archipelago, so the cruise plan took us on a tour of the islands.
The weather has been excellent, with light sailing breezes and warm sun, ideal for anchoring and swimming. Of course this being the height of summer, every nook is full of sailors.
But when the ice cream boat comes by, offering ice cold Magnums on a stick, who can say no!
Landsort on Ojä was a real highlight, we arrived in good time to grab a space from a departing yacht, by chance a Dehler 38 too. We hired bikes and cycled to the former hidden military base , all underground, with gun turrets on the rocks. It was disbanded at the end of the Cold War, and since then, tourists have been allowed to visit.
Young Max, a summer resident and ice cream seller, gave us a tour of the iconic lighthouse, built over 400 years ago at the behest of King Vasa. He is deciding whether to take up his military service request this year. It’s recently been reintroduced, but is not compulsory.
And before we said goodbye to Brendan, we spent a day on Broken Island, a delightful sailing club venue, with great facilities, and lovely walks.
We were particularly impressed with the weather station
There are so many of these super little places, each with its own unique charm, it would take a lifetime to explore them all. We can try!
Love it all, especially the weather station. Missing the daily new discoveries, and the Baltic swimming. Thanks for the update, cycling sailors. Rxxx
Lovely pics of perfect conditions, but is there enough breeze?
Off shortly to Jilly Porter’s memorial event at St Columb’s cathedral in Derry. This is the second such event this week, it must be our age group’s opportunity of a get-together.
The other one was our old friend Christine Wright’s, widow of Michael whom you might distantly remember, William, in Tyrone Knot. Christine was a great lady in the Arts world and had many friends including ourselves for 40 years or so. A great sendoff in Tullylish church, which fortunatelyis quite large, then a tea for 400 or so of us at Derek and Ann Shaw’s, they having been neighbours and friends of the Wrights for many decades,