Lee and Clare, The road home

Sweden - The Boat Ride!!!

19^th September 2003

Hello there all!

We made it to Sweden and are at Neil's shop, taking advantage of some free Internet while we wait for him to finish work.

Stansted Airport was a pain in the 'a' hole, but we eventually made it through. Spent the last of our British Pounds on a caramel frappacino, yum yum.

Had an action packed day today as Neil woke us at 7 to take us out to his boat where he left us with the keys and not really much of a clue. Managed to back it out which was a good start then we took off trying to follow the red and green markers in the water and a map to an estuary. It was quite cool going down the estuary through the mangroves and looking at the other boats and Swedish houses along the sides. We moored up, taking about three attempts to get it between the posts and even worked out how to tie it up! As it was by now about 10 to 10 local time, making it before 9am London time we had a bit of snooze in the boat then ate some sandwiches and had a bit of a walk before setting off back up the estuary. Quite relaxing motoring up there in the sun. This all changed pretty quickly though as we hit the open water where it was extremely choppy and we headed straight into the wind. The waves were about two feet high and every time we hit one it was like getting a bucket of water chucked over us! We were wet to the bone and could hardly see where we were going and those red and green markers were pretty invisible to us as we couldn't see through all the water buffetting our faces. Lets just say we were pretty glad to get out of the open water to a calmer patch!! Luckily it was in this bit that we ran out gas as it would have been a bit hairy filling up from the reserve tank out there in the churn! We were very happy to get the boat back to the marina and managed to get it tied up again before we changed all our sopping clothes. Bit of an adventure that one!! We've decided not to let Neil send us out on any adventures again as our snowmobile ride he arranged was probably equally as hairy!

Neil'd left us his car (flash Saab!) so after drying off we set off in that to have a look around the countryside. Lee got the hang of driving on the wrong side of the road in a left hand drive car but it still took a bit of concentration! We headed down some little roads to look at the farmland. Quite beautiful as it's coming on to autumn now and the leaves are changing all sorts of colours. We managed to find our way back to Neil's shop without a map and we've just been testing out the lazy boys in the furniture department. We can't wait for a hot shower and to get our wet shoes off!

We've booked the ferry over to Helsinki for tomorrow night. It's a bit more than we expected because it's a Friday night (it's a booze cruise!). We'll get the train into Stockholm tomorrow for a quick look around before getting the boat at 5pm. It arrives in Helsinki at 9am. It's supposed to have all sorts of entertainment on it - nightclubs, shopping malls, movies and cheap alcohol so should be fun! We've got the cheapest cabin, somewhere under the motor, but we'll sleep anywhere after some Swedish Vodka!

Clare and Lee