Following on from Part 2 of our article, Part 3 is entitled the Discovery Phase. With preparations made and confirmation from our various contacts in museums in Mariehamn, Åland Islands and Turku, Finland, that we would get off-season access to critical aspects of their facilities, we were prepared for the fact gathering we had pre-planned for each centre.

This Part 2 of our article on our sailing ship pilgrimage to Scandinavia takes up the story as we commenced our Swedish/Finnish itinerary in southern Sweden. Sweden is a very maritime nation and everywhere we travelled - in Gothenburg, in Stockholm and in the Swedish speaking Baltic islands – there is the evidence of this background.