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 will be very worried in a while.

You know you are in Sweden when the first thing to look for at the car rental bureau is a ticket machine then wait to be called - they are everywhere and it is normal life - how orderly. A novice traveller went to an unoccupied agent and was firmly told to get a numbered ticket and only then was he served by the same agent who had nothing else to do - there was no queue. I had already taken two tickets just to be sure.

There is some nervousness I find when being given a brand new shockingly white upgraded Volvo automatic luxurious rental car because the lowly Fiesta I had ordered was unavailable. It had more buttons and controls than an aircraft and was clearly very intelligent - apparently more so than me in fact - It had that smell saying don't dare hurt me, then blinked lights and made sounds of alarm whenever it thought I was in danger of doing so, sadly I never discovered what all of the alarms meant. The Sat-Nav lady was so charming, pleading and coaxing me in her shady honeyed voice to obey her commands - so polite yet declined to say thank you at the end of the journey.

Arriving at Saltsjöbaden and at the Sune Carlsson boat yard it was wonderful to find a warm re-union from two yachts we had met in previous years, one French and the other from Chichester both making their boats ready. The yard had already launched Talisman and done most of the hard work for us - a luxury we felt it was time to indulge after years of doing the hard and dirty work ourselves. After a bright morning, grey skies and increasing cold rain dampened the afternoon but nonetheless, Valerié and François together with their intrepid black cat "Pirate" invited us on board Cybele for drinks, a fine supper and talk of plans ahead - we were to cruise in company with them for the next month or two, crossing tacks here and there, both of us changing guest crew several times.

Lars, a local Swedish surgeon who loved sailing was to be Cybele's first guest crew and he and his charming wife were so kind to insist that they dine us in style at their wonderful multi level waterside home perched among trees high on a grey stone massif which is typical of the whole area. His graceful moored yacht could be glimpsed gleaming white through the trees and below steam drifted up from the outdoor pool heated to 37 deg C from a geothermal source. Hardly had all six of us had arrived when there was champagne and the first of several experiences in their sauna which we were told required three sessions with periods of wallowing in the hot pool in between. The supper prepared by Lars was simply superb and talking and laughing long into the night left everyone with the most memorable start to our Swedish sojourn.