As many of you know, our boat is a classic Scandinavian built OE-36 - one of the boats designed by world renowned Swedish designer Olle Enderlein. There is a club here, the OE Yacht Club of Scandinavia, set up for people who own any of the boats in the OE fleet and we have been involved in this club for the last four years. There are members from all over Sweden and this year for a change, the main annual meeting was held in the west coast city of Göteborg. This is Sweden's chief seaport and second largest city and lies about 500 km southwest of Stockholm. As one of our friends, Bosse, was driving down for the meeting, Lars-Göran decided to go along as well. Anne and I didn't go as it would entail taking Friday off work and as the plan was to drive there, attend the dinner, sleep at a friend's home and drive back on Saturday it seemed a lot of effort for just a few hours.

The boys left bright and early on the frosty Friday. Everything here still looked very wintery and beautiful as they quickly passed through town and hit the open road.




The church you can see here is in nearby Sorunda, dating from the twelfth century. It looks so different in winter compared to how it looks on a summer's day. After Sorunda, it was a matter of joining the main south-west highway and drive through the snowy countryside. There were several breaks along the way for coffee and fresh rolls, but the outdoor conditions did not encourage lingering for long.




There is no really direct route across Sweden as the way is blocked by two enormous lakes. The easiest way is to head to the tip of one lake, follow it roughly south west, then head northwest up towards Göteborg. They made really good time and were able to stop for lunch by Lake Vättern just on the outskirts of Jönköping. We will be sailing through this area in a few weeks time, so I hope it has thawed out a bit more by then. It still looks quite Arctic out on the water. As it is a fresh water lake, it will take a little longer than the sea takes to be completely ice free.




As they reached Göteborg, the temperatures rose, the air was milder and in the actual city itself, there was no sign of the snowy white blanket that covers the east coast and there was a feeling of spring in the air. In general the climate is much milder on the west coast because of the north atlantic stream that brings warm currents to the area. Where we get snow, it is rain that is more common over here. I'm not so sure I'd like that. However, at the moment, Göteborg looks like it is in another country - a country with no snow and lots of warm sunshine.




First stop was to drop off the bags at the house where they were staying for the night. The home owners have two cats and in no time at all, they zeroed in on the new things in the room and started investigating them thoroughly. I adore cats, have always had them as pets and actually I prefer them to dogs (don't tell Lambi I said that!) I especially like the way they just go off and do their own thing regardless of your views on the matter.




The boys then went to the meeting and dinner afterwards. Lars-Göran tells me that he spoke a lot at the meeting, but as it was after he'd had a couple of glasses of wine, he can't remember what he said! However, he enjoyed meeting the west coast members who are very open and friendly - so much so that we have a summer invitation to visit them when we are over that way. Perhaps he didn't say anything unforgivable after all.




The night was punctuated by visits from the cats - several times Lars-Göran awoke to see the tabby one sitting on him and staring intently at his face. He could hear the ginger cat meow a few times, but it wasn't till morning that he discovered the cat inside the clothing cupboard! Life is never dull with cats around and this one at least tried to make itself useful by helping out with the washing up.




After the breakfast farewells, the boys retraced their steps back to the east coast. This included a stop for coffee at the same place near Jönköping where they stopped on the way over. And what a difference a day of sunshine makes - it looked so different with the ice starting to disappear. It won't be long before the shore is lined with water birds bickering over nesting spots and potential mates.




That of course brings its own worries over the new bird flu that is claiming both birds and now mammals (mostly minks at this stage) in Sweden. We worry about the impact on our own birds as the government is starting to clamp down on movement of domestic birds between safety zones set up around infected areas. Most migratory birds will be back by the time we leave, so we'll have to review our plans when the time comes. Sometimes pet ownership can be a bit of a trial as far as border crossing is concerned. The dog has always been a problem, but never before have the birds been subject to restrictions. I think this is about to change as the bird flu panic starts over here.

Anyway, that is in the future. Lars-Göran arrived home tired but happy in the early afternoon. He had expected a warm greeting from Lambi who surprised us both by her coolness towards him - a very cat like response. To be fair, he had interrupted her playing with her best friend, Bamse, so she may have been miffed that he cramped her style. I hope she forgives him soon as I was quite looking forward to being forsaken by her for a day or two.