From Skiing to Swimming

Matilda, challenging herself on a blue trail. (Blue in Sweden is 2nd level. Their ratings go: green, blue, red, black.)

 Ski Week!

 About a year ago when we were living on land in Texas dreaming about what our first year of cruising would look like, we envisioned actively cruising up the Norwegian coast throughout the winter. (Hans may have watched one too many episodes of Alluring Arctic on youtube.) Save the first three years of Freja's life and a couple trips to Sweden and Vermont in winter, our kids have basically grown up in the semi-tropical climates of Florida and Texas. We were excited to show them real winter: snow, skiing, ice skating, shoveling, snowball fights, frozen fingers and toes, and hot chocolate.

Then, global pandemic.

But coastal Sweden doesn't get much, if any, snow. Since we couldn't show the kids snow from the boat, we booked a week-long ski vacation at Åre, a mountain resort in central Sweden on the border of Norway. So, a couple days after returning from our New Year's cruise, we piled into a small rental car (thankfully with studded snow tires), and drove a whopping 12 hours north. Temperatures went from about 5 degrees above 0 to 20 degrees below zero and rain turned to snow, LOTS of snow.

Reindeer spotting.

The main mountain as seen from Björnen, the kid-focused side of Åre.

SO cold. Signs, power poles, trees, everything, covered with snow and ice.

Cold, icy bear.

We had a fabulous time. I grew up skiing in Vermont: through school programs, Sunday afternoon discounts for Vermonters, and working as a liftie at Okemo, but I have never skiied at this level, with a week-long, full-day lift pass and a ski-in, ski-out condo. We enrolled the kids in daily ski school from 11:15-12:45. As befitting their personalities, Freja's style was steady and in control. She quickly mastered the snow plow and worked her way down the slopes from side to side. Matilda assumed full tuck position straight down the hills.

The view from our condo.

Matilda.

Matilda riding the t-bar by herself.

Freja.

First day of skiing, learning with Pappa.

Heading home around 3PM.

It snowed heavily the first two days of the week and by Wednesday morning we woke up to almost one meter of fresh powder. By Thursday all the trails were perfectly groomed and the sun was shining. Hans and I skied together while the kids were in ski school and either skied as a family in the afternoon or took turns getting some runs in by ourselves. Like sailing, skiing again was just like riding a bike. I was cautious at first, but by the end of the week, especially with the fresh snow, I was feeling very comfortable and really enjoying myself. The advent of helmets was especially conducive to pushing me past the easy trails.

After relaxing at home and warming up in the sauna in the late afternoons, we went back outside for some nighttime sledding, fort building, and snowball fights. Hans earned dad of the year award on the last night by staying out for hours with the kids playing king of the mountain, sledding, and having a massive snowball fight. 

I can safely say that Matilda still prefers warm weather to cold, but both kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves and it was so fun to do a new thing together as a family.

 Bureaucracy gets in the way of life

Halfway through the week, however, I got an email from Migrationsverket in Stockholm telling me that 

"as per the Migration Agency’s decision on the 28^th of August 2020, a visitor’s permit cannot be granted for you past the date of 20 January 2021. You must therefore leave the country. . . .
If your case is refused it will be joint with a deportation ban which in turn can lead to complications trying to enter Sweden or other Schengen countries in the future."

You've got to be kidding me!!

Alrighty then. With an imminent departure nagging in the background, we finished out the ski week by taking the kids to the top of the mountain. We had hoped to get them a ride on the gondola and above the tree line, but unfortunately the top was closed due to high wind. At least they got to ride a few chairlifts and experience the resort beyond the kiddie hills.

As for my immigration woes...Americans are allowed to stay in Europe for 3 months, but then they must leave for 3 months. 3 months in, 3 months out. We knew this, and in July applied for a visitor's permit from the Swedish government to extend my stay in Sweden. They granted the permit with an expiration date of January 21, 2021. When I met with the caseworker in August, and also communicated with her via email in November, she was confident that my permit would likely get renewed, and also gave me a potential solution for staying an additional 3 months. We felt sure that I would be able to stay in Sweden until July. And if those circumstances changed, our back-up plan was to sail to Denmark for a few months.

Bureaucracy doesn't always cooperate. A new caseworker denied my extension request. Denmark closed its borders due to the pandemic. More important that remaining in Sweden from January to April, I have to be certain that I can sail Positive Waves from Sweden to the Canaries during the last half of 2021. So Hans and I scrambled to find plane tickets for myself and the kids (not easy), we had to devise a plan for where we would go in the States (again, not easy with the pandemic. I can't just hop off the plane and go stay with friends and family.), and we had to tell the kids what was happening. Besides the logistics, we are very disappointed about pulling the kids out of Swedish school. It was challenging and lonely for them at times, but in just a short time their Swedish had improved dramatically. We were really looking forward to them spending a few more months immersed in the language and culture. We'll be back in April, but it's not the same as attending school full-time and being surrounded by peers.

We drove 12 hours back to Smögen on Saturday, spent Sunday packing, and left at 3AM on Monday. Hans already has a flight out on January 25 to go to work, so he dropped us off at the airport and is working on winterizing the boat.

 

 Back in the USA for 3 months

The kids and I are in Florida where friends are pulling out all the stops to welcome us and help us with the temporary relocation. We'll be staying in our friends' Airstream to quarantine for 10 days. Hans will join us in Florida during the 2nd week of February after his shifts (and vaccination!) in Wisconsin and from there we need to devise a plan until mid-April. I've been working to get the kids and myself health insurance, I need to get my phone working in the US, and, most importantly, we need to avoid catching or spreading Covid. 

How quickly life changed: from skiing on fresh powder to swimming at a hotel pool under sunny skies and palm trees in the matter of days.

Slight change of scenery.