Midsommar jaunt

So as is the tradition in Sweden, the longest day of the year has to be celebrated outside, and what better place than the Stockholm archipelago.

This year we had a couple of Nina's friends join us for the first real excursion of the season.  We had originally intended to meet up with some other friends at a summer house, but they all buggered off to Åland so we set out into the archipelago with Elin and Micke to watch the sun set.

We didn't have a hard and fast destination, but the one rule was that the midsommar lunch had to be ready by 14:00 sharp.  After some reasonable sailing, we anchored in Napoleonviken and tucked into the traditional Swedish lunch of sill(pickled herring), hard boiled eggs with sour cream and chives, and some delicious smoked fish that Micke and Elin had brought along.

After lunch we realised that we'd forgotten to fill the water tank (somewhat less of an issue than last year when it was the fuel tank that was empty - but that's another story).  Smådalerö was close, so we snuck in and filled up with water.

... not missing the opportunity to enjoy afternoon 'fika' of apple pie, strawberries and the first bottle of bubbly of the day

As midsommar is centred around food, it was a quick dash to a nearby nature harbour to start getting the barbecue going.  Surprisingly for midsommar it was very quiet with only 2 other boats near by.  The weather held out and we feasted on jerk chicken, rice and peas, some pork chops and a potato salad, and several bottles of bubbly and wine.

Well sozzled, we watched the sun attempt to set, but gave up in the end as it didn't seem to be going anywhere fast.

We were all up early in the morning, with surprisingly mild hangovers, and made our way back after taking the opportunity of having a fireman on board to send Nina up the mast to fit flaglines to the spreaders.  The weather threatened to rain on us, but we managed to escape with just a few drops here and there.

We took a little detour into a nearby bay to have a look at some of the summer houses along the shore before dropping Elin and Micke off back at Gustavsberg.

Nina and I decided to stay out another night and anchored in the Nacka channel for the night.  All in all a very pleasant way to spend the longest day of the year.