Astraia's Baltic Adventure: Wed 24th - Fri 26th July

Wed 24^th – Rather a grey day, so we caught up with some domestic drudgery – 3 loads of laundry, a ‘big’ shop at the supermarket and a trip to the Systembolaget, the government owned chain of liquor stores in Sweden. It’s the only place to buy wine, spirits and beer or cider with an alcohol content greater than 3.5%, and it’s open for quite short hours and only in sizeable towns, so it’s important to make sure you catch one open!!

In the evening we went to a free concert at the local museum – two young music students playing piano and trumpet – very pleasant and a chance to look around the museum, too …

Just as the concert finished, we heard a roll of thunder and the rest of the evening and most of the night was taken up with a spectacular storm – lightning that turned the sky pink, loud thunder overhead and at times torrential rain …

By complete good fortune the rain just held off for 20 minutes at the precise time that Caroline arrived at the station. Other than that, we battened down the hatches and stayed inside – except briefly when the people on the boat next door brought over some ice-cream for us! [You have to finish ice-cream up immediately as most people don’t have a freezer on board.]

Thurs 25^th – More new crew – we now have both Caroline and Rebecca on board …

We left Vänersborg, past this rather striking piece of art …

… through another lifting road bridge …

… which looked like this from underneath as we went past …

… and out into Lake Vänern, the third largest lake in Europe, which contains about one third of all Sweden’s islands. As the morning wore on, the sun – and the boat’s hammock – came out …

Later that evening the sky looked pretty awesome …

… but the ‘mozzies’ came out in force, so we abandoned plans for a barbecue on the rocks and battened down the hatches again!

Fri 26^th – The day dawned very misty …

… but by 10 am it had cleared up into a beautiful day with perfect blue skies and sunshine. It was warm enough (20°C) to go for an early morning swim, then we went for a walk round the small uninhabited island of Storön …

… which was beautiful and very peaceful …

… with wildflowers growing out of the rocks.

Back to the boat, then 'up-anchor' and we carried on through the rocks and islands …

… and some very narrow channels …

… and tied up against a jetty provided by a boat club, with an ‘honesty box’ for people to make a contribution towards the services provided, such as loos and a barbecue pit …