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Santa Maria - Mariehamn - Stockholm - Swedish Archipelago



This part of the journey we've had another major crew change Carla, Bernd and Jürgen joined the crew, while Imke, Jürgen, Bernhard and Martin left us. I keep saying, as we keep on wearing out crew members,  it's good that we get new motivated members carrying on the slave work full of enthusiasm. Leaving Åland was made pleasant, we got a fair amount of wind and the newcomers got their appetizer.  The majority, helped by the big fraction of don't-care'rs, wanted to get to Stockholm directly to get one day more in another big city. Thus we set out on the route used by the big ferryboats.

As  soon as we got to the Swedish archipelago we kept on changing navigational directives, thus we ended up doing the inner route, and in stead of following the ones that wanted to stay overnight ,we took the longest route with  quite a lot of motoring. Late in the evening we arrived at Saltsjöbaden, on the way we observed that all of the small islands were overcrowded by houses of all sizes. Stopping over on such places is not looked on nicely by the local, part time inhabitants, not ending to share their little place in heaven.

Never thought about heaven being an over crowded place, what an awful place to go.

The visit to the Wasa museum, was a must for a group like ours. And it was kind of interesting to see how the ships from the 17th century were built. To my astonishment the rudder seemed quite small, and I couldn't find a place for the rudder's man on deck. Could it be that the wreck didn't leave evidence of such?
Well most of the navigation could be dealt with trimming the sails the right way?

The visit to Skansen gave us the opportunity to see local customs and wildlife. In the evening we opted for the ARC-barbecue on the marina. 

On the way out of Saltsjöbaden, we were in the middle of the race to the first Anchorage, where most of the 27 boats were heading. There we witnessed fine seamanship, as we motored through the narrowest passages, we were followed by Capraia (NOR){ Inventors of skis and sailing😉} which to my great amusement was tacking through the same passages. After passage she passed us easily while we were under sail as well. 

As we arrived at the anchorage, it was full of ARC boats, having turned off their AIS. Instead of two boats, more than a dozen boats were already anchored.
We found a place and ate our fishy supper, before we went to bed.



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