Yesterday, Emily and I went off to explore the archipelago, with our own personal tour guide, Ola Oskarsson. Now Ola is no ordinary tour guide – Ola is the original founder of MMT. When Ola founded MMT in the 70s, it was just him, his dive suit, and an underwater camera.
What makes him a spectacular tour guide is that Ola grew up in this area, and has spent a considerable amount of time among the islands that make up the archipelago.
We had an early start, setting off aboard the Plastic Beam (right). You’ll find that many of MMT’s boats have “beam” in the name – Icebeam, Seabeam, Minibeam, Plastic Beam, Rubberbeam, you get the idea. Originally, there was an MMT vessel named Mr. Beam, after all the sonar beams used for the surveys, and the name has just stuck. Plastic Beam is named after the PVC it is made out of.
From the mouth of the Gota River (Göta Älv), we headed south towards the southern islands. We passed by Dönso, a hub for many of the major local shipping campanies, an island colonized by the Socialist Democrats in the 30s, and an island colonized the the Communists once they heard the Socialists had an island.
Heading north, we made it to Marstrand by lunchtime, where we visited the Carslten Fortress and took a walk around the island. The walk was filled with stunning views of the ocean and fjords, as we traversed over rocky outcrops and through green forests.
Emily and I both took turns captaining the Plastic Beam (with supervision from Ola!) and I think we are both naturals. Now where can we find a few boats to drive…?
On our return trip to the Gothenberg harbor, instead of returning along the coast, we headed inland along the Nord Älv (North River) to where it connects upstream with the Göta Älv. We followed the Göta downstream towards the harbor, passing downtown Gothenberg and many of the large vessels in port.
After a long day on the water, and an unfortunate sunglasses tan, we headed to Ola’s home where we feasted on a dinner of crayfish and crab fresh from Marstrand. Dinner started with a lesson from Ola on how to eat both types of shellfish, and ended with complete satisfaction.
All in all a wildly successful day. Thanks, Ola, for showing us how beautiful the Gothenberg area is!