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The next morning bright and early, we motored through the city canals. Our destination was the Vasa Marina in the heart of the city. The first bridge was low enough that we needed to open. We tried calling repeatedly on the VHF and received no response. Then we tried using the horn, but again got no response. Finally, we looked on the charts and found a phone number for Södertälje Traffic Control. They in turn, gave us the phone number of the bridge operator. We then called the bridge operator on the cell phone, got a somewhat sleepy voice on the other end, after which someone then looked out the window, and said he would open the bridge for us. Which he then promptly did. Not a lot of traffic moving through the canals at this time of the morning.

On to the next bridge – OH OH, this one was under construction and wasn’t listed on the charts. And, because it was under construction, there were several feet of scaffolds hanging underneath the span. The sign along the waterway indicated that the clearance was 18.3 meters. Our height above waterline is just under 17 meters. There were some anxious moments as we passed underneath with just a few feet to spare.

A couple of more bridges to pass and one more lock and we entered the main harbor of Stockholm. To say that the city of Stockholm is impressive does not do it justice. The colors of the buildings, the architecture, a beautiful blue sky. We were stunned, the magnificence was so unexpected.

We motored over to the Vasa Marina which is right next door to Vasa Museum[1]. Based upon our previous night’s experience, we decided to move as far into the marina as possible, in order to minimize the wake effect from the harbor.

We spent the afternoon on a walking tour of Stockholm. Particularly enjoyable was the Gamlastan (old town section). The energy level in the city was very high. People were enjoying themselves everywhere. Our theory is that because it is so cold in the winter, the people need to squeeze as much activity as they can during the warm months of the year.

That evening as we were having dinner, the couple in the next boat over from us starting singing while he played the accordion. His repertoire included everything for Bavarian folk songs to Woody Guthrie to John Lennon. We clapped to show our appreciation and they responded by inviting us over to their boat.

Gunter and Aguila were in the process of selling their boat (German) and decided to take one last vacation on it through the Baltic. Also on board were a Dutch couple, Klaus and Carla. They had an HR31 parked on the next dock. We had a great time drinking beer and singing songs.

We spent this day sightseeing and doing chores. One of our top priorities was to do laundry and the marina had a small Laundromat. We put out clothes into the washing machine, set our timer for 30 minutes and when we returned, it had not finished yet. OK, we set our timer for another 30 minutes and returned, still washing. Hmmm. So we left and came back after another 30 minutes and it was still going strong with no sign of stopping. Our understanding of written Swedish is nil or less, and you just can’t stop and open the door of a Swedish machine. It is fully locked down with electronic locks and it won’t give back your clothes until it is good and ready to do so. After two hours, we finally went in search of the harbormaster. He came in and looked at the machine, we looked at the machine, he looked some more at the machine, we looked some more at the machine, we all looked at the machine for another 30 minutes. And finally it finished. We had the cleanest clothes in Europe at that moment. To say that we were a little afraid to try the dryer at the point is understating the fear. But being the intrepid souls that we are, we forged on and had a reasonable normal drying event.

Surprise, Sigi and Anna (the German couple we met in Oskarshamn) were also in the Marina. We took pictures of everyone on their boats – then printed them out on the printer and gave them to each couple. They really loved the photos. I guess that’s going to be our trademark deal. We’re going to look for cool frames to pass out with the pictures. We walked all over town – really enjoyed the old part of town(the Gamlastan) as we cruised it for the second time.

Jan was to leave for China today. You remember because of the language problem in Oskershamn, we had Mai-Ling in our office make the reservations. Jan got to the airport and the agent informed her that there were no flights to Shanghai from Stockholm, and that she needed to go to Amsterdam first and that the only flight from Stockholm to Amsterdam left 2 hours ago. Ooops. Apparently, Mai-Ling got her cities confused and made tickets from Amsterdam to Shanghai and not Stockholm to Shanghai. So much for clear communication. Anyway, the ticket agents felt sorry for Jan, reissued the ticket from Stockholm for the day after next and didn’t charge anything extra. Jan returned to the boat much to Steve’s surpise.

We spent the rest of the day touring the Vasa Museum. On the list of “Can’t miss this for anything” attractions, surely this is towards the top of the list. The builders of this ship tried to do something which had never been done and that was to build two rows of cannons on two decks. The King had expressly ordered that it be done. Well this construction was being attempted a little prior to when the mathematics necessary to calculate righting moments and stability factors had been figured out. The boat sank 20 minutes after it was launched in front of thousands of spectators. Since the Baltic Sea is somewhat of a closed part of the Ocean, it is less salty than the Atlantic or Pacific. Because, it is less salty, the seaworms which eat wood do not live there. Hence, this old wooden warship was in incredible condition when it was found.

It seemed that Jan was really going to leave the next day, so we started saying our goodbyes to the other cruisers on the dock. Carla presented us with a hand made pillow case with had an appliqué lighthouse on the front. It really brightened up the main saloon.

One of the extra presents Gene brought with him was a cold. Jan decided to participate right away. Not being any sort of selfish kind of person, Jan decided to take it with her to China. The flight to China from Amsterdam goes Eastwards over St. Petersburg, Russia, Siberia then turns south over Beijing and finally lands in Shanghai on the Chinese east coast. The flight arrived early, but instead of letting everyone off the plane, they first wanted to take everyone’s temperature, one person at a time. SARS was still a big concern in China at the time.

A woman walked into the plane, fully dressed in a white biohazard suit wearing UVEX ski goggles! She had some sort of electronic gun that she stuck in everyone’s ear. Jan passed even with her cold, found our factory representatives, and on to Shanghai for a days work. At the hotel that night, there were more Temperature Collectors (TC’s for short) waiting in ambush in the hotel lobby. They wanted to check you each night as you enter to go to your room. There were little signs posted around which indicated how many hours ago this railing was disinfected and that doorknob was disinfected. It was a serious situation, because the little buggers that were swimming around in Jan were trying to make her sicker and sicker, and the TC’s were on a mission to find anyone with an elevated reading. If the two were to coincide – it could mean three weeks of quarantine in a Chinese hospital. And among other things, that could make it difficult for us to keep to our schedule and make Amsterdam on time.

Because of the above, Jan decided to return to Stockholm after 3 days in Shanghai. She sent an email to Steve saying she would return the next day.

[1] Vasa, historic Swedish warship, the only fully restored 17th-century vessel in the world. It is on display in the Vasamuseet (Vasa Museum) in Stockholm and ranks as Sweden’s most famous historical treasure. Built on royal orders in the 1620s, the Vasa was the pride of the Swedish navy. On August 10, 1628, it set sail from Stockholm on its maiden voyage, watched by many Swedish people. Only a short distance out, the vessel—caught by a gust of wind—keeled over and sank, resulting in the deaths of about 55 people. For more than 300 years the Vasa lay almost forgotten, preserved in the mud of Stockholm’s harbor. Then in 1956 the ship was relocated, and five years later it was brought to the surface. Years of meticulous restoration, including efforts to reconstruct the superstructure using original timbers found near the wreck, returned the warship to virtually its original condition. The Vasa is 62 m (203 ft) in length and 11.5 m (38 ft) at its maximum width, with magnificent gilt decorations. [Description from the Microsoft Encarta Library].