Summer Magic

Taken at 9.30 p.m.

We're in a magical weather system at the moment and everyone who lives in Sweden is just loving every minute of it. I'm quite confident that people are cutting out of work in order to soak in the warm, beautiful, summer afternoon and evenings we are experiencing. It is so amazing to wake up to such beauty every day. And we've been able to take full advantage of the long, luxurious evening thanks to our lovely little Finnmaster.
When we've been able to, we've been dashing away from work, packing a picnic supper and heading out to the water. We've been exploring new waterways and enjoying dropping anchor to sleep a bit, read a bit, fish a bit, eat a bit. The freedom that we have to not worry about when it will get dark is so relaxing. We can easily be out on the water until well after 10.00 p.m. Twilight is falling about 11.30 and then for about 2 hours the sky hovers in an inky blue state before the sun pierces the horizon and begins to rise about 2.00 a.m. And the beauty of the way in which the high sun reflects off of both the water and the landscape is breathtaking. I love to sit and soak it in. I could sit on out on the water for hours and hours and never become bored. I really love to linger in our boat when the sun is emitting warmth and the wind is quiet and all is well in this far north Nordic land.

Pulling into our harbor. Those are hot air balloons in the distance.

Sunday night we have our all night guard duty at our harbor. In order to create better security, each member has to take a guard night at the boat yard. You show up at 11.30 p.m. Make sure all the gates are locked, take photographs of different points in the boat yard to ensure that you are actually walking around the yard and not just snoozing in the clubhouse, and go home at 6.00 a.m. It's actually great knowing that someone is sitting in the marina every single night of the summer keeping an eye on things. When the weather is good, I like doing it. Tanner runs around all night like an idiot. He's in and out of the water, chasing birds, creating havoc for all manner of water fowl that passes by. Doug likes to fish and I like to read, watch the night sky change into daylight and snooze. The forecast is good so I plan to document the changing night sky with photographs. Watching the sun come up at 2.00 a.m. is pretty fun. By 3.00 it'll be full blown daylight. Maybe we'll even take a swim. HA.
But...Today I did take my first swim in the Baltic. We puttered over to the place where we usually take Tanner swimming on a walk. We were actually within 3 kilometers of our house! We commented that the place we were swimming today was the place we were walking across on ice last winter.
It's not hard to figure out which I prefer! We had to travel through a very narrow canal in order to get over to this area. Once over there, we found it peaceful and beautiful. The water in this little area is a bit warmer as well and that's what made it easy to take my first plunge of the season. I was pleasantly surprised by how not freezing it was! I even stayed in awhile, paddled around with Tanner (he'll swim any time, any place, any temperature!) and just enjoyed the cool feeling of being in the water. I was even able to hang out in my swimsuit without freezing to death, that's how warm it was today! Truly, it's magical when we have "real" summer weather like this, especially for days in a row.
There are fewer simple pleasures in life than jumping off one's boat into chilly waters to cool off, hopping out and drying off while sipping a hot cup of coffee! It's just splendid.
Today we saw some very Swedish scenes. People crowded on waterside rocks soaking up the sun, old castles, beautiful wooden boats, gorgeous waterside houses, and the church that is just down the street from our house. All of this was visible from the friendly confines of our Finnmaster!
I know it seems strange that we get such a thrill out of mid-70 degree weather, but we spend so much of our year inside and in the dark that when the sun finally shines and emits warmth, we can enjoy it well into the night. It's just so nice to be warm without having piles of clothes on!

Anyway...the beauty of where we live never ceases to amaze me so I'm going to stop writing and just let you soak in the photographs. The forecast is good...I expect to be out on the water whenever I can be!Look at the looooooong shadow Tanner and I cast with the sun behind us at 9.00 p.m.
She's been a great find for us.

The Fabulous Finnmaster

One of the perks of living in Stockholm is water. Stockholm itself is made of up 14 different islands. Boating is quite the popular hobby here and is surprisingly affordable. Wanting to "test the boating waters" ourselves, 3 years ago we bought an old motor boat from a young guy anxious to get out of boating. Since he was not purchasing a new boat, we also lucked out and obtained his spot at the marina. Unheard of in Sweden so we fell upon a lucky star there. The marina is a perfect location for us, about a 20 minutes drive from our apartment and is located on the Baltic sea. But after a couple of summers of literally needing to nurse this boat through the season and suffering a terminal breakdown at the end of the summer last year, we decided to try and unload the boat for cheap and purchase a new and improved vessel that we felt would suit our boating habits in a much safer and fun manner. We listed our old boat on Blocket.se which is like a Swedish Craig's List and lo and behold, we got rid of it! A retired mechanic thought it looked like an interesting challenge and we came to an agreement. Then the quest for the new one began. In February, Doug located what seemed to be the perfect buy, again on Blocket. We had missed a couple of good opportunities because we moved too slowly so in this case we jumped on it. We called within 20 minutes of the boat being posted on-line and asked to be first to consider it. Within 12 minutes of seeing that boat we knew this was an amazing deal and we jumped on it. Doug labored long and hard with a good friend to get it moved and into the water. When we purchased the boat, the waterway in our harbor was still frozen and there was still snow on the ground. But alas, they finally got it in place and we've been out on it twice already. We were finally able to move it into our harbor last Monday and it feels great to have the fabulous Finnmaster sitting in our boat spot.
Seeing Stockholm from the water is really quite a treat. From our marina, we head out throught a narrow passage that leads us to the open water. From there, it's about a 20 minute ride across the open sea until we see Fjäderholmen, a cute little island that gets lots of visitors in the summer months. From there, it's a quick jaunt to the Djurgården canal which takes you right into the center of Stockholm! The architecture is stunning, the big boats that ferry people out to archipelago dominate the harbor and all in all, it's quite exciting to sit in the middle of a city, in a boat!
We took our first sojourn into the city on Friday night. It's still a bit chilly, but the evening sun gives off some warmth so along with the wonderful wind blocks that this boat has, and layers of clothing, we really enjoyed our evening cruise. Tanner loves to be on the boat but he also loves to be in the water so it's quite a chore keeping him in the boat when he's anxious to jump ship. He has to wear a life jacket and this year he needed a new one. He had outgrown the one from a year ago even though we've said for a long time that we think he's full grown. Now, we have no idea what that actually means! This is his 3rd life jacket. His puppy one is silly small. That first summer, we just handled him like a little handbag, picking him up by the handle of the life jacket and carrying him onto the boat! Now, he has to wear the second largest doggy life jacket available so hopefully he'll be able to keep this one for a bit. (Forever?)
Having a boat is definitely a luxury that we feel privileged to enjoy at this juncture in our life. It is the only vehicle we own and we did fall into a great deal. It's amazing how refreshed I feel when we've been out on the water. Soon, we will have no cover of darkness and we'll be able to linger on the water until 10.30, 11.00 p.m. It is very special to be out and about amidst the Stockholm archipelago, watching the light dazzle with its myriad shades and shadows. It's thrilling to experience such beauty and peace, knowing that the city lurks just around the next bend.