Wednesday June 28, 2017

Photo: Stefan and Jon Holmgren, at the hat party on Harmano. Real antique firearms and swords.

The whole cruise fleet departed Lysekil at about 1000 under power for a parade south passing Gullholmen on our way to Harmano which is the big island just south of Gullholmen. Loyal was the leader of the parade. As she passed Gullholmen she fired two cannon salutes but stopped after someone on land complained about the noise.

We sailed a short distance from Gullholmen to the anchorage at Harmano where we were fortunate to pick up a mooring. The plan for Harmano was to have the fleet form a Star Raft – sterns in the center, bows to the outside of the circle. Four boats position themselves at the cardinal marks N-E-S-W and others go into place in between. It was decided fairly early to abandon this activity because it was getting too windy.

We took our dinghy ashore for a Swedish fish dinner at the Café Wintervallen. Dinner was preceded by a “hat party.” Everyone had been creating some form of hat. Quite a few had purchased fluorescent colored wigs when we stopped at Smogen. A few came prepared with very creative hats. We made ours using our imagination and available materials. Our theme was that we were all some kind of navigational aid. Doug arranged signal flags on his cap, Paul folded an antique chart of Mallorca and Minorca like a pointy sailor’s hat, Dale was a white and black varde (a Scandinavian stone monument maker) and I was a white lighthouse with a red top and red, green, yellow and white “lights” on top. Marianne Bernadotte (Swiss) had a lovely hat with miniature Swedish flags and her Swedish husband, Christian, had a Swedish blue ball cap embroidered in Swedish yellow letters—Make Sweden Great Again and on the back – Swedes Unite. They live in Shaker Height, OH. Stefan and his son Jon were the hits of the hat party as you might have guessed from the photo.

The fish dinner was superb. We each had a tray of shrimp, crayfish, and crab. There was also a bowl with sill in a very delicious creamy sauce with dill and other wonderful seasoning. Dessert was a brownie with whipped cream and fresh strawberries. We all sat outside at picnic tables, bundled up in jackets to keep warm in the wind.

We had tied our dinghies to a funny looking flat bottomed boat which we later found out was a sauna! As the party was winding down it filled up with people—fully clothed—partying with glasses of wine.