We come across the name “Sandhamn” so very often: Swedish crime novels are set here, Gotland-Runt started and ended off Sandhamn, Peter Norlin won one regatta after another with his Scampi at the end of the 1960s, and no picture book of the world’s great sailing clubs is complete without the clubhouse of the “Kungliga Svenska Segel Sällskapet” (SSS)... We had expected a kind of a larger Marstrand, and indeed one finds the same oversized Moët & Chandon coolers, bass-rich sound systems of motor yachts, and a similarly international crowd of guests. However, we are surprised by the small size of the island village. Even though we have super nice neighbours on the jetty (Pelle is the ship’s dog: his portrait at the bottom of the page), we are quite happy to be able to sail back into the solitude of the archipelago after one night here.
Top: Pilot tower and church; bottom right: The Värdshus (inn) from 1672 – social centre of the island.
