Oh Darn! Here all along I was imagining that if we ever visited my wife's unknown bunches of relatives in Sweden we could go boating in a water-and-forest paradise!
You could and you should !
The Baltic archipelago (East Coat of Sweden) is stunning with 1000s of islands and islets that you are free to anchor by and go ashore (as long as you respect the privacy of any owners, stay out of sight and sound and pick only wild stuff, no crops. Same "all-mans-right" applies all over Sweden). They are a lot greener than the washed-out picture you posted
Navigation is a must, there are shoals and rocks everywhere. Anchoring is a challenge because the glaciers scraped the dirt off so you only have bedrock, boulders and sometimes a bit of mud to hold on to.
In the last decade algae blooms have become a real problem. Some of them have toxins. The cause is either the remnants of the USSR polluting the Baltic or too many Swedish golf courses draining nitrates into the water, or the fish farming putting too much feed in the water. I suspect the cause is all three in combination.
The West Coast is also stunning, but in its barrenness and starkness. On the West coast you also have much salter water and tides.
It's been said that there are so many boats in the country that the whole population would fit on board at the same time if we were so inclined.
Paradise ? Yes, in the summer it is about as close as you can get, but it is not perfect by any means. I think it was Mark Twain (?) who when asked what he thought about Sweden replied "too many flies", I would have said too many mosquitoes.
Go there and try to rent an Albin 25 or some slow comfortable little powerboat like that and take off on a week-long cruise just exploring out of Stockholm. Go sailing if you have a lot more time and don't mind the very slow in-archipelago progress as you thread your way between all the islands.
What is your wife's ancestry ?
-Sven
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