Bohuslän after hibernation
The waiting has been long. Winters are far too long up here in Scandinavia. Definitely. Playing around with the new Sextant helped us over the longest parts of winter. I got it from my smart wife as a mid-life-present; if you expect to live some 80 years that is. We had great fun standing on the beach taking sun heights that put us into our next village inland. Well, we all have to start somewhere, and adding and subtracting countless figures after having looked them up in thick books full of tables, firmly invites you to make careless mistakes placing us not quite where we should be. But its great fun, and in line with our classic approach in life for 2004.
Regina was launched in early March. By some considered as maybe too early, but in line with other new Hallberg-Rassy boats we saw when we stayed one night in Ellös, the home port of Hallberg-Rassy. The atmosphere I love so much, with eager chatting between proud new owners commissioning their new boats, carrying countless boxes onboard, trying to stow it all, while figuring out how to leave port, and at times asking numerous questions to the HR-people around, was missing this time spring day. There was not a single new HR-owner I could answer questions to (I try to look as a HR-person, you know...). Only once there was an owner asking if I was the husband of Vickie Vance of HR Parts. Since I possibly could not pretend that fact, he just went on looking for Roland somewhere inside the yard building. Too bad, I thought, while slowly walking back to Regina.

They all seemed to hide under deck this time. Where are all the happy people I love to talk to? Or were they all in the HR office? Maybe the spring weather made its best to keep them invisible, since snow was what we experienced during our first sail in 2004.
Some new HR boats being commissioned to invisible owners
We were very close to give up, pack up, and take the next - whatever - back home and leave the boat where it was. Why expose oneself to this freezing early start of the sailing season? But then again, it gave us great memories for our lives, we were warm and dry under deck and again - it was in line with our aim for 2004: trying a new lifestyle.

The reward came the following day, when, suddenly, from literally nowhere, a bright big sun magically made the snow disappear, while revealing the most beautiful archipelago. Now this is when one should sail in these waters! A northerly crisp breeze gave almost unlimited sight thanks to the arctic air coming with it. Very few other sailboats, and all fishing villages for ourselves.

I have seldom experienced Bohuslän this beautiful! My heart is always beating for this part of Sweden and one day, we might want to live here permanently, since this is, for me, the essence of beauty.
The island of Gullholmen, close to the Hallberg-Rassy Yard in Ellös on the West Coast of Sweden.
Our happy children not even commenting the freezing weather we actually had. Note the new HR-caps they got as Easter presents from our good friends Vickie and Roland.
And even on foggy days, which followed on our next opportunity to sail Regina, Bohuslän is still beautiful. One morning, after having gone up with the sunrise at 5 o'clock, there were still fog patches after the humid night. Visibility was still fine when we cast off, but in each sound we entered, in between the narrow islands, the fog had not yet started to lift and it was trapped in between the concrete stones of the archipelago. When passing through Malö Strömmar, at one spot, the channel is so narrow that you can almost touch the walls when going through, and the walls on each side were merely visible. I think visibility was around 5 m, something I had never experienced. Luckily, I had sailed in these waters many times before and the fact that there was no traffic at this time of the morning, while the radar was doing a great job. And each time we got out of the sound, sun greeted us again.

If you look carefully at the pictures, you will see the fog in between the islands, exactly where we had to go.

Wasn't this what life was all about? In the most challenging passages in life, where stone and water meet at its most narrow part, that is where the fog is, that is where you need it the least. But through careful navigation, slow speed, knowledge and a bit of luck, you end up on the other side, even more beautifully than imagined, with you having become one further little step more experienced.

There are always different tracks in life to reach the same destination. The detour around the island, or through that foggy channel. Which is the best, the safest, the most exciting and the most rewarding way? Time will show. For this time, we chose the shorter way, giving us fantastic memories and experiences.