We docked at island of Utö, in Finnish archipelago

Greetings to everyone,

Part l

Today is Monday the 27th the time is app 1 pm. The weather is still nice, but the sun is not as bright as the previous days. The wind is good, but right now we are going on motor power. We are to ‘land’ on the tiny island Utö, as far as I got the message right.

5 days have gone by since I Iast wrote about our experiences on the trip, and many things have happened.
We arrived at Gotland, Visby about 7 am. We spend the night sailing in the most extraordinary and beautiful scenery ever on the trip. The water looked smooth, soft and deep black, looking like black velvet, the horizon around us was a wall of fog and when we looked up we could see the stars. The best way to describe this for you that have not seen it, it was like being inside the Sixtine Chapel in Rome. Magnificent and kind of like a holy experience.

We were all looking forward to 9 o’clock am, when the shavers opened and we could get a shaver. Longed for and needed.

After lunch a small group went into Visby to look at the old town and the rest of us went on trip to the coast. 2 rented mini busses and a regular car had been rented for us so that we could get around the island.

We spend a couple of hours at the beach some doing art, some talking in low voices to each other, some collecting fossils and others just taking in the beautiful view from the shore.

We all met again at Helena and Staffans place, an artist couple living most of the time in Gotland but also travelling a lot which was very easy to see when we had a tour around their place. A very beautiful place which I think inspired us all is many ways, but one for sure is that we all will remember their spirit to life and how art can be a way of living.

We were all in a very good mood and had a lot of fun making dinner for all of us. After dinner we started to do drawings on the tablecloth which was brown wrapping paper. It turned out to be a beautiful picture.

Part ll

to be continued…


p.s. Mari sends greetings to family, friends and students - Mari lähettää terveisiä perheelle, ystäville ja oppilaille! :-)