It rained overnight and indeed it was still grotty in the morning. The day then got worse when Elaine produced a crown from one of her molars. She'd had it for years and I guess the adhesive finally gave in. So, as it was a grotty day anyway and we had to get this sorted, we made enquiries to find a dentist and we were lucky enough to find an emergency dentist in Stockholm with a vacancy at one o’clock and better still, given that Julie had lost a filling the previous week but was in no pain, they were able to fit her in as well.

We got back to Stockholm via the local bus and then the metro, with thanks to the charming young team in the harbour office who gave us precise and perfect directions . Stockholm seems to have a unified transport system, tickets bought for the bus last an hour and if you’re on the bus for say, 30 minutes, then you wait for a metro for 10, you can travel on the metro as far as the remaining 20 minutes (30+10+20 = 1 hour) lasts. Not a bad system.

The dentist practice was excellent – Elaine was done and dusted before her appointment was even due to start and Julie was dealt with soon after. It wasn’t cheap, Elain’s glue job cost 1400 SEK and Julie’s filling set us back 1600, but still, it was good that we could get this done at such short notice so it was judged to be well worth it.

After a quick sandwich lunch in a nearby café, we visited the Systembolag ie the state liquor store to replenish our depleted wine & beer stock and then we headed back to the boat, whence the sun started to come out and we were able to take the cockpit cover down. I’d decided to make another one of my prawn curries, wherein you boil the heads & tails in a spicy liquor to concentrate the flavours and when strained, you use this stock as the basis of the curry. Last time I did this, the boat smelt for 3 days so this time, I had the bright idea of using our electric hotplate on deck, so that the powerful odours could disperse, with apologies to neighbouring boats! Anyway, the result was a very tasty curry, so all was well.