On the other hand, for "hobby racers", this is a great way to count boats to be overtaken. And with our fast HR40, we really had a chance to pass boats getting first hand experience from Regina's fantastic sailing performance. We arrived in Bohuslän just at the final stage of the busiest holiday stress. Day by day we were now able to witness a declining fleet surrounding the islands. During busy July, it is hard to believe that these are actually the same places we visited some months earlier, when we sailed here during Easter.

Another big difference, in addition to the increased traffic, was, of course, the weather. Rather than the experienced snow in April, summer had finally come! What a relief!

The strange thing is that this type of anchoring, practiced in the rest of the world, is very seldom used in Sweden. Most sailors want to be able to climb down the pulpit, possibly with a bow ladder, and then walk ashore with a barbecue, a beer and a pick nick-basket, while the children freely run ashore and onboard, fetching fishing equipment, swim suits or other forgotten items.

Thanks to the shallow drafted dinghy, we could reach islands and places other boats could not reach, so we often got an own island in the sun, despite an otherwise crowded Bohuslän. With the engine, we could also travel quite a distance, since the 8 hp just got us four up in plane (now don't you grow too much, children, so we can still plane next year...!).

We left Regina moored in a nice bay for several days and took the dinghy to islands, meeting family and friends or going shopping in a near by town. I really wonder why is this type of freely anchoring is practiced so seldom in Sweden. Anchoring is fun!

Night sailing allows for impressive distances made good within short time, opening up for a new destinations and gained experience. By far too few people do regular night sailing, I think. Of course, it helps to pick these Scandinavian high latitude nights with care. A relatively warm night, either with full moon, which implies a fantastic impression at sea, or with a new moon, allowing for all these millions of stars to appear. Did you know that stars actually shine? When a larger star arose above the horizon one night, it became light in the cockpit and I thought morning had broken, but it was the twinkling star that lit up my world.

The gentle movement of the boat was rocking my soul, while I was lying in the cockpit looking up into this mass of tiny twinkling spots in the sky. I picked up the binoculars. Unbelievable! Between all those visible stars, yet more stars! Is there no end? How small we are, us humans compared to nature. How beautiful it is to actually feel this. Sitting in the cockpit all by myself with just my thoughts and all these starts to talk to, allowed for an experience made possible at sea during night passage. Are these starts possibly other people who have passed away long ago, as some mythology want us to believe? Relatives looking down onto us small creatures still on this world? Are these stars possibly looking after my destiny? My future? Or am I the only responsible for the luck I have had in life? Is my current position in life solely a result of my own acting? It can't be me alone, can it?

And look there! An extraordinary quickly moving star! No, that it must be a satellite! Maybe an Iridium satellite rushing in low orbit from south to north picking up phone signals and passing them on to their fellow Iridium companions, like a relay race, until one happens to be overflying and looking down onto Tempe in sunny Arizona. I assumed it was sunny there. At least it was day-time over there now. What are they chatting about, these people talking in the Iridium phones right now? What message were these star-like satellite transmitting right now?

Mathematics can present the beauty of digits, especially my personal favorites, zero and infinity. Looking at the stars above, I remembered playing around with these during my student time, resulting in interesting conclusions. However, my time as an undergraduate so long time ago almost felt juvenile during this night, while not long time ago, I considered myself as "recently graduated". When does life move you into your next stage, placing you into "mid-life"? I can't tell, but it felt definitely long time ago when I was writing these mathematical imaginative figures on a piece of paper, admiring the beauty of the final simple result. Now, in a more mature state of life, on the other hand, I am compensated by the fact that I can actually "feel" the numbers, by watching infinity through binoculars lying in the cockpit on a boat at passage at night. Well, maybe this last thought was more a poor consolation for the fact that I have totally forgotten how to solve complicated mathematical problems long ago.

I left the thought behind about infinity and mathematical problems and moved on thinking about the meaning of life. My meaning of my life. Why are we are here and what are we doing, or, more importantly, what should we be doing in life? This was even harder to answer than the mathematics, so I had to let go that thought as well for the time being. Until I get wiser one day.

Finally, I was just dreaming about plans for the future, a future that definitely included more of these nights, preferably equally warm as this August night of 2004.

Far too soon it was time for me to pass on the responsibility to Karolina who safely took control of Regina, while I was trying to find some sleep. I always find it difficult to rewind when being off duty during a first night on passage. Everything is far too exciting with unusual sounds and movements. Possibly, this is the unfortunate reason for many fellow sailors to avoid night-sailing and by this missing loads of new exciting destinations just a few hundred miles further away. I am thinking of all these sailors in Bohuslän; why don't they sail through just one single night, and by this they could easily reach Norway and find tranquility among the Fjords, instead of all crowds back home. In the second night at sea, I sleep much better, while the third night, which is said to be the threshold for really getting accustomed to sea, has never been tested onboard Regina. Not yet.

Via Kirkehamn on the island of Hidra, which had been our furthermost destination the previous year, we continued along the Norwegian coastline direction north-west.

Suddenly, an opening became visible in the cliffs to starboard. We did not see it until we were very close. The kids started to call this "the hole in the wall". It was difficult to make out from a distance, and we even observed that the charts were incorrect, with the light house placed on the island instead of on the main land further south-east, where it really was. Both the paper charts and the electronic equivalent was incorrect. The light house did not look very new and the charts were up to date, so maybe it was to fool the seafarers? Pirates ashore? Jessica and Jonathan stood at the bow full of excitement. It became adventurous and exciting for them to enter the "hole in the wall". We could well imagine when Vikings long time ago found rescue here from enemies sailing straight into a wall, and then suddenly disappearing. Karolina was bit anxious at the beginning, since the swell of the North Sea stood onto the pass, heaving us up and down with the echo sounder creeping up to just 5 m at the mouth of the fjord.

We didn't mind that it was not famous, nor that it was tiny compared to its bigger brothers along the west-coast. But it was "cosy". The Regina-crew had "discovered" it by ourselves. It was our "secret" hole-in-the-wall. This is great adventure at its best. Our adventure.

When it had gone too far, it was time for Dad and Jonathan to do some things together, like testing the sextant, my 40th birthday present, I got earlier this year. We had practiced ashore during winter before, and had now plenty of time to practice "shooting" from deck, as well as doing the calculations. I was surprised: we got our position +/- one nautical mile correct, which really is sufficient in the bigger picture.

Teaching angles and adding and subtracting was a good practise not only for Jonathan. There are so many steps and miscalculations are easily done, so one has to be careful!

I was thinking of all those brave cruisers who sailed around the world in varying weather condition with just a sextant and some books. Does the pre-GPS-era sound stone-age? Well, it is less than 20 years ago....

Utsira was also to become our point of return, since we had to be back at the end of August for schools to begin (our own work, we tried to ignore at this time...). Nevertheless, Utsira was a perfect destination of our summer cruise of 2004. Remote, charming, special.

With its two harbours, one on the south side and one on the north side of the almost circular island, Utsira is reachable in any wind. I understand having two harbour can become necessary in heavy winter storms, with the ferry to the mainland being able to either enter the south or the north harbour depending on the weather situation. We had no wind at all, this time, so we could choose. After some internal discussions onboard, we finally decided to go for the south harbour, being bigger and possibly somewhat more sheltered. The local shop is also situated here. The choice of harbour is, in any case, not particularly vital, since an approximately 1 km walk takes you from the south harbour to the north and is, at the same time, a beautiful trail over the island.

We walked over to the north harbour, looking for fellow sailors.

While hiking, one always finds something to talk about. A sign explaining Utsira's interesting power supply, was this time to become the source for discussion. Utsira was said to be totally independent from the mainland Norway with no gen-sets running on diesel fuel or something alike. Wind generators were making electrical power, which was not only used for immediate consumption, but also to produce Hydrogen out of sea water. Stored, it could later be used in fuel cells, when the wind did not happen to blow (seldom, I suppose) or blowing too hard for the wind generators (more often, I bet). The Hydrogen was under this process transformed back to water while producing electricity. How efficient this all was, or if they possibly were cheating with a secret power line to shore, just in case, was not said on the sign, while revealing that it all was on an experimental stadium.

Again, our cruise gave a perfect possibility to pass on knowledge to the children. Facts they could see with their eyes and benefits they could observe here and now. Chemistry was thus on the schedule. Reaction with atoms becoming molecules, how Oxygen and Hydrogen can become water, while it is chemically not possible to make gold out of straw, as told in fairy tales. Jessica found it funny that Oxygen atoms want to live in pairs if left alone, but when they see Hydrogen, the "divorce" from their fellow Oxygen partner to join with two Hydrogen atoms in sight. Useful scholar material is never difficult to find while cruising!

I got even more surprised, when my researches led to the fact that during these two years the entire council was occupied by 11 women and just one man. Was Utsira placed under matriarchal leadership? I know, I wouldn't have reacted in the same way if the distribution of sex had been the opposite, so please excuse my male prejudice. I admit, I thought this was strong, and way beyond even today's leadership of industry and politics, wasn't it?

I can well imagine her surprise to have suddenly become the first chairwoman in the westermost municipality of Norway, but judging from her resolute lines in her face, I am sure she did a splendid job, especially considering the fact that most men were out fishing during most of the days, anyway, and women were left ashore to lead the household, thus being familiar with leadership. So why not expand this responsibility to also lead the entire island? Maybe this gave some inspiration to other women as well, either on the mainland of Norway or even elsewhere in Europe.

Luckily we took the two adjecent pictures before we went diving, since the sudden change in temperature of the under water housing resulted in it being misted over from the inside. The camera did not take any harm, luckily, but the underwater pictures of the sea grass are not really worth showing here, despite the fact being our very first underwater photos. Let's hope for better shots in warmer waters some time in the future. But we had great fun diving, until we climbed up into the dinghy, shivering in spite of our wet suits.

A short business flight for me from Kristiansand to Oslo for an afternoon meeting meant I left the remaining family on Regina for a couple of hours. I was soon back home onboard Regina again, but the quick change of personal attitude was difficult.

And if my tongue was trying to do its best to avoid talking about business, my other senses were overwhelmed about all noise and smell comming from fast moving people everywhere. How can you adapt so quickly to the slow pace of cruising? It was as if my nose had been rinsed, my ears cleaned and my mind slowed down while living onboard. Every sound became so crystal clear, with the ears now suddenly so overloaded. My new, improved sense of smell was the most fantastic experience. From far offshore, I could smell trees, grass, a farm or a fishing boat passing by to windward. "Navigation by smelling" really needs to be experience to be believed!

And now suddenly all these people moving and travelling at such a great speed everywhere! Why did all hurry so? Not only the cars and train were considered fast, but the pace was so unsettled, I thought. I couldn't resist comparing with ants, which look so occupied, so purposeful and so single minded. Where did they all go, and where did they come from? And why? Norway is definitely not the most overcrowded place on earth and still, hourly flights between Kristiansand to Oslo with fully booked large Boing 737's, hardly finding the time to take off, until they have to land again after just 25 minutes.

Did all these busy people really understand what they were doing, and what for? And then I detected myself, since this was exactly how I normally behaved! I could suddenly see myself, how I am dashing and rushing through life. How important is my day-to-day business - really? Am I not more irreplaceable as a father and husband rather than for the work I am doing? If it is true that nobody is indispensable, why on earth is everybody so occupied with what he or she is doing, not even finding the time to halt for a short observation? Maybe one is scared to look into the fact that what one is so in to, does not lead to anywhere particular?

Especially the hierarchy in our society is a threat to lateral thinking, since it means that people with power over you have certain opinions on how you should act in certain situations. And here, I don't mean your boss at work only. It could be anything from political decisions taken by someone not understanding your situation, to colleagues and neighbors, who don't allow you to think differently.

A false sense of security is also often preventing you to take new exciting actions in life, since you are afraid of the new and unknown. Especially by Swedes.

Far too few people take their own responsibility in life, starting their own business or try something new in life. Instead, many seem to have the opinion that everything should be dealt with by "the state", the "public" or the "society", starting from child-care over job-fixing to health-care. It is always the fault of the "society" if something goes wrong and the willingness to take personal risk is often far too low. That's why we have too few entrepreneurs, at least here in Sweden, I believe. Almost 100 years of social democratic leadership might be the reason. I'm no politician at all and have very limited respect in "leaders", since they all are small normal human's, anyway, and the human race is not always as noble as some try to make us believe. We all are selfish small creatures. In the time perspective of life on earth, we are not far from stone-age at all. "Blown-Up Bacteria", as the Swedish philosopher Gunnar Adler Karlsson calls our noble race. The fact that some wear a suit and a tie, socks and uncomfortable shoes does not put them into any higher level than a chimpanzee. People tend to forget this fact sometimes. I try to teach our children that there is other life, maybe even better, on other places on our wonderful blue planet, since I don't want them to believe that the Swedish way of thinking is the only true one. They should see that happiness has a variety of expressions, not only measurable in money or gadgets. Maybe I am the wrong person to teach this last statement, since our boat is full of gadgets, however its very useful counterparts... (!).

With all these thoughts turning around in my head on my way to Oslo, it was really not easy to concentrate on the target of the business meeting that day. My tongue may be excused for not following the will of my brain. What normally would have been a routine discussion over a pleasant meal in a comfortable restaurant, turned out as intensive as my first business meetings I could remember during my first years as marine marketing consultant a dozen of years ago. With hard concentration and focus on the subject, I used my old reliable way to pass on facts and figures throwing light upon both positive as well as negative sides of an aspects, always with the customer's benefit in focus fulfilling his requirements.

I think it worked out all right in the end anway, but it was far more exhausting than normal. The evening ended after the meeting with a very pleasant drink at the bar with my client who had flown in from Finland to this meeting. Rounding up the meeting before my return flight let my soul slowly go back to sea gulls, islands and salty water while my sense of balance was still "land-sick", thus not being used to a firm ground, rocking the bar as if I was in heavy seas in a storm. Not even the beer I drank could counteract!

Finally stable ground under my feet again!

None of us wanted our summer vacation to come to an end. We had become so used to the boat and the life style, as well as Regina's gentle movements, that we could have gone one still for a long time.

Maybe we might do that one day. For this summer, the business meeting in Oslo brought back my office-life style in record speed, and soon after we had moved ashore, we were all back to ordinary routines, with stressing up the children for breakfast, rushing them to go to school, bringing them home and taking them to various activities, all while our company got its deserved attention, starting yet another autumn period of marine marketing planning for our clients.

The ants are back, rushing and dashing, looking so occupied, so purposeful and so single minded.

For how long, I ask, for how long?