Twenty-four hours in Sandhamn - 56°05'33" N 15°51'29" E

 Sandhamn is not where you think it is, at least according to Google.

This small port on the south coast of Sweden has a name shared with many other locations, so I've found - so Googlish defaults to the daytrip spot near Stockholm. But we are not there.

The Sandhamn of this blog is on the south coast of Sweden, between Kalmar (where I joined Chinook) and Ystad.

I am here with Kate & Sean Collins. I mentioned (jokingly) that I should do a guest-blog and was told immediately it was a new condition of continued passage on Chinook - so here I am!

Sandhamn is a small port with an off-season ferry and a few fishing boats, and notable down-at-the-heel character. It's littered with the detritus of rusted bits from boats, boats under repair, or those under once-enthusiastic but half-finished renovation. But it's a nice place to shelter from the weather and there's not too many people now that the summer season ended about five minutes ago and all the "restaurangs" are closed.

Arriving in the evening we tied up and engaged in the never-disappointing spectacle of watching new boats enter the harbour and look for a spot. A gorgeous wood-trimmed yacht tied up beside us - Sean joked that 30% of the weight was in varnish.

The next morning dawned bright and clear, so we walked across to the neighbouring town of Torholm to see the sights, and left a few minutes later to walk south into the nature reserve.

The townships though are much more appealing, with cutely-presented homes and foliage in the full glory of a northern summer. Sean tells me the hierarchy of house colours - deep red is "ordinary" whereas yellow denotes someone of means and then white signifies you've really made it. Most of the houses are red.

Food cellar

We then increased to marching-pace and ventured south into the nature reserve area to do bit of a loop in the most south-east corner of mainland Sweden.

And then, the wind being fair, we decided on an overnight sail. I thought it a little ambitious for my second sail only 😕, but Kate (Skipper) outvoted me (cargo) and so after fortifying ourselves with a solid meal of Swedish meatballs and mashed potato off we went!

Kate in her happy place!

Kate plotted the course, and Sean checked it on the screen in the gathering dusk.

"The sea was angry that day, my friends" said George, but this night it was just indifferent in attitude. Lots of chop and short seas made it challenging to find a comfortable place. I stayed up as long as I could but Sean and Kate steered us past ships, ferries and shallow waters to near Ystad, whereupon we had to start Volvo sail for the final 30 miles into port.

Lots of fun and happy to be in new lands with old friends!