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| This stealth ship was doing sea trials, so not being very stealthy. |
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| Calling the ferry at a request stop (not really, we made sure there wasn't any ferry within sight) |
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| Waiting to catch the ferry. There were a lot more bikes behind us. |
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| Drottingskar citadel guarding the main entrance to Karlskrona. Its presence stopped the Russian fleet in the 1700s. |
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| Kalskrona old and still active naval centre with "the buttertub" in the foreground. returning sailors and prisoners were deloused here to prevent disease entering the city. |
Those on Facebook will know we've been making the most of a frustrating holdup ..... beautiful sunny weather but with force 6 SW wind. The harbour has filled up with German yachts, a few Brits and Dutch all trying to get SW. However we've managed to keep busy with more ferry trips, first a fast ferry to a couple of the outer islands in this archipelago. We found that one had been for 60 years a major granite quarrying centre and now has an interesting museum and trail around the quarry, old harbour and various houses. The outing ended on a high note when we detoured to get smoked fish and found a bee keeper and wife selling honey. They were very chatty, delighted to see us, dug out the last jar of flower honey and picked lots of salad, courgettes and carrots for our tea. Today we took the free ferry to Aspö and enjoyed a windy and cold cycle, visiting the old citadel and seeing the cold war and WW2 relics. The evenings have all been very social occasions and we have drunk more wine and beer than we normally consume in a year! We followed an English boat down the rock route into here. John and Suzanne were very concerned when we kept deviating from the recommended route (looking for a sheltered anchorage) hence the initial contact which preceded two entertaining and informative evenings (they have sailed the Baltic for 20 years). Yesterday Gisela and Bertil arrived from the south. (Australian boat met during our Shetland cruise). They had come to see us so helped finish off our very nice smoked fish over an evening meal. As Bertil is Swedish and a local lad he was a great help. We have fingers crossed for an escape tomorrow, with a two day window to get further SW. Keep your fingers crossed.
