It was strange to come into a bay on an Island in Sweden, and have someone call ‘Karen!’ from a nearby boat.
In 2014 as a newly qualified ski instructor who knew nothing, I had been put in charge of eight teenagers learning to ski in Courmayeur. My fellow instructors were really helpful, and none more so than Dave and Jeannette Hardy. We also shared a love of sailing. And here they were, tied to a mooring in the same bay, on board their MG335, Free Spirit.
During the winter, they had heard from mutual instructor friends that we had bought a new boat and planned to call it Melodrama, and sail in Sweden for the season. So when Northern Irish accents were heard pulling into the sleepy bay, organising ourselves for yet another tricky stern buoy approach, they knew it must be us.
We had a lovely afternoon cup of tea with them, exchanging seafaring and snowy tales. It is a small world.