Blog 2 Stockholm harbour to Erikstorviken 24th - 27th May 2015 Vasahamn yacht marina lies as close to the centre of Stockholm city as you could wish to be. It takes its name from the Swedish Royal warship which sank minutes after being launched in 1628 and now, in a state of astonishing preservation,ies next door to the Vasahamn itself together with the skeletons and forensically reconstructed re-creations of some of the souls who perished on that day. It i...

Blog 1 Heathrow has much improved the process of checking in - machines have taken over. Waiting for the call in a cavernous space of retail temptation under a domed canopy of interleaved shields like some off white giant armoured creature. A 5 Mtr tall handsomely chiselled face, unshaven for three days and see-through ice blue eyes told me Giorgio Armani was the name to buy and fellow passengers came and went, one leaving his passport on the empty seat - he wi...

Blog 19 Stockholm This blog takes us from Stockholm to the islands and rocks of the archipelago where we spent a couple of weeks before thinking about laying up Talisman at the end of this trip. Stockholm shares with Venice the attractive characteristic of being built on a number of islands. Bridges connect most of them and ferries, water taxis, tour boats and water bus services run non stop at nail biting speed between them. There are three main sea routes thr...

Blog 18 Nynashamn for the want of a better name - How odd I seem to have missed blog 17 - it is there but not a lot happened and only one pic which was the dog in blog 16! It tells you something of sparsely populated Sweden that when you get to a "big" town like Nynashamn, you could walk its width and bredth in the time it takes to eat an ice cream cornet. It has one brown monolithic church, architecturally fashioned after Lego, which is mounted on top of a mas...

Blog 16 up to Nyköping It is at this point that the North South sailing highway begins. You can either weave your way along with everyone else between rocks and islands along a narrow proven and buoyed route with lots to look at or you can set out to open sea and take a longer route - which we did and regretted that it was so boring but relatively rock free. Fyrudden has seen some changes, from an old fishing village to a pleasant leisure centre with a small m...