Well after about four days of trying to figure why my last post kept getting truncated and thinking it was because I had typed it in word, I figured it out. I had originally thought that it was because it was in HTML, I tried converting to plain text to no avail. I eventually figured that I have used, and I cannot type it here, used a double maths less than sign in the text and this was exactly were the text truncated, so obviously the web page, sees that as some kind of special character or command. Frustration! So, if you did not read it and are interested in my rant, check it out.

We spent 3 nights in Visby, what a lovely place, but unfortunately we did not have lovely weather to go with it! Well, it cleared on the evening of the 3rd night. A walled city reminiscent of Dubrovnik or Kourchla (in Croatia), narrow cobbled streets and throngs of Swedes milling around, impressive ruins of ancient buildings and churches and impressive intact churches. Renowned for its restaurants, although we only sampled one, G:A Masters, which was recommended by the landlord of the Black Sheep, a pub in a heavily dark-timbered, characterful establishment. The landlord was from Yorkshire originally and had gone walk-about in reverse spending two years in Aussie, where he met his Swedish wife.

So the symbol of Gotland is the ram. I think they were originally carved from stone but now there are literally hundreds of authentically cast ones all over town. If they were in Britian they would have a health and safety sign on them that says, beware trip hazard. Here they just say, by their presence alone, beware, may add character!

I could highly recommend Visby and Gotland itself, despite the weather. Not only does it have special character but we also had a great time exploring the nooks and crannies within the city walls, built I understand, to keep those marauding Danes at bay. There is a monument at the bottom of the hill on which town is perched, that is said to mark the point at which the rivers of blood stopped flowing down the hill after a poorly armed band of Gotland farmers got "klapped" ten love by the Danes in 1200 and something. Apparently 1800 Gotlanders were killed, that day. Obviously this was a significant incentive to build some pretty impressive walls. On the second day, we hired some scooters and scooted up north to experience the rural. A lot of trees and among other things, reinforcement of my other observation of Swedes: their affection for old American cars.

Yesterday we headed north. The incredibly pleasant and helpful harbourmaster had recommended 2 places and dissed the place I had on my radar. There is nothing quite like local knowledge. One was about 36NM to Lauterhorn on Fårö, the island that forms the most northerly piece of Gotland . We started motor-sailing but as we eased around the top edge of the island the wind got to 8-10 knots, so we felt we had to get the parasailor out. It was are most successful parasailor day yet. Very pleasant and very relaxed light-wind sailing, once we got it set. The wind never got above 12 knots. We only snuffed it about 2NM off the Lauterhorn entrance.

Lauterhorn is a tiny fishing harbour with a few classic Swedish wooden huts and a few jetties. There were about 10 boats there and it looked full to us but a friendly Swede directed us in front of him. A place that I initially considered untenable, as it was quite close to the rocky beach. With a bit of help we eased in. There was electricity and water, showers and bogs! (more on that later). Shop 5.5km and WiFi.....nope. The weather was great and Veronica and I walked north along the coast to check out the rock formations that this place is renowned for. I can report some impressive fossil rich limestone of Silurian age. I know this forum called the 'wet finger carbon dating test'. Silurian is about 450 million years before present. The erosional forms of the limestone were also impressive for those less geologically inclined, comprising some stacks and arches. We cut back through the gnarled forest, which I surmise are a result of a harsh winter environment with howling onshore winds and a rocky and nutrient poor substrate. The pines were stunted and bent but beautiful just because they were different and tenacious.

Back at the boat the cheerful, helpful and rotund Swede behind us, with an English accent, that would not be amiss at Eton or Oxford, was most helpful in pointing out not-to-miss-things in the Stockholm Archipelago.

Jimmy and Tayo had their turn at cooking and, taking lessons from the Swedish boaters, Jimmy got the Bonteheuvel Briefcase Braai (hereafter to be called the BBB, to save typing) out on the quay and braaied steak and pork chops while Tayo cooked up some tasty vegetables. We were in bed before dark, which is not difficult. The Sun sets to night at 21:40 but it only gets dark at about 11:45ish.

Now for some interesting and obscure observations since in Sweden. I already told of the quaint little long drop on the Utklippan rock with the heart-shaped window. Well this morning we had a similar experience... a neat little hut, immaculately clean inside with shinny black surfaces and even a neat wooden platform to rest your feet on, to avoid any slipping forward issues. The outside was quaintly painted and despite the pillbox size of the thing, a neatly shingled roof. The amazing thing is that I have visited several of these and there is never any smell. How is that possible? I pondered briefly of my first job as a student in the sanitary ware department at the local hardware store. My boss was the gnome-like 8 digit, Sakkie Greenblatt, actually an ultimately likeable character despite his mock tantrums with much slamming of the 3-digit hand on the table...that hand for maximum effect. His solution to any customer who came in with problems with their septic tank, was to advise that they go to the butcher and get a few sheeps heads and bomb them into the tank to get the bugs going again. So I pondered briefly, that as this is the island of Rams, perhaps Rams heads were the magic formula! But that was silly. These quaint toilets are also always favourably positioned. This one had a wonderful view from the throne, through a nicely patterned net curtain out onto the blue and contrasting white of the limestone landscapes across the entrance of the bay. All that and then to find you have to bring your own damn bog roll!

Continuing on the theme and the amazing bogs, Martin Edge calls them composting bogs. I am now starting to understand why he makes such a thing of using them as indirect evidence, kind of trace fossils for finding good anchorages. His advice is look on the map, all the composting bogs in the archipelago are marked on the map (now does this or does this not talk to my point about the Swedish bog house fetish?). The correlation is simple, if you see a composting bog on the map, there is a good anchorage nearby.

Our 9 am departure from the lovely Lauterhorn happened at 09:40 and we are now heading for Gotska Sandon. From the descriptions it is meant to be as close to a remote, desert island as you get in the Baltic. It is about 28NM and we are motoring on account of a 5 knot wind directly on the wind. We were just chatting to a German family next to us as we filled with water this morning. They have a 4 month old baby and a 3 year old ish son with them on a 31ft Hallberg Rassey ( great boat) and were waiting 3 days for the wind before crossing to the Archi. Amazingly, they choose to sail at night, so it is easier with the kids. I realised we are quite soft core sailors by comparison. As I type, Tayo and Jimmy are on watch, Veronica is watching downloaded BBC iPlayer programmes on her iPad and the sun came out.....soft core indeed.