Belisama was discharged from the Alubat rehabilitation service on Monday. She was thrilled to go back to water. However, there was still a long way to go before she could set sail. Especially since she got a raging fever, with temperatures above 40°C.
After arriving in Sables d'Olonne in May 2021 on our way to the Mediterranean we had to make a stop-over for Belisama to undergo a surgery involving both hip replacements following a hit on a rock a few years ago in northern Sweden that resulted in some deformation in the aluminium hull that we did not noticed. Indeed, we had hit a rock in Sweden, but did not realise how much it deformed the hull as the behaviour of Belisama was not affected. Below is the picture of Belisama being lifted off water last summer. The angle between the two rudders was not resulting from having bent one of the shaft but rather from having hit the shape of the aluminium hull around the portside rudder.
Sunday 14 November, sunny cold morning, 4°C, ideal weather to get to the forest and check what mushrooms could still be found there... As for the place, we chose the island of Selaön, in the lake Mälaren, around 100 km from Stockholm. For picking the spot, we relied on a Swedish friend telling us to go on the southern shore of the Lake Mälaren for picking mushrooms. The reason is that Lake Mälaren is what remains from the glacier lake located on the south of the ice cape on the North pole during prehistoric times, 12,000 years ago. The good soil that had accumulated over the years rose over the sea/lake level in relation with the rising of Sweden after the melting of the ice cap. On that basis, we checked on Google Earth which area could be good. Criteria were: 1) presence for a forested area, 2) on a flat ground, 3) far from villages and habitations. These proved to be very good criteria as you can see in the picture below, gathered in 2 hours.
All Saints Day in Sweden is always the first Saturday of November, therefore not related to the 1st of November, the religious date. By then, the days are very short, the temperature around 5°, the mushroom season finished, and the snow not arrived yet! However, on All Saints Day in Sweden, you can be sure that every church and chapel will be opened for the day. And only in the Stockholm area, you can find dozen of churches dating from the Middle-Ages, and decorated with fantastic frescoes. Therefore, we rushed to visit three of them...
