I got a letter this Friday from the Swedish military service authorities. I am liberated from doing military service, and I don’t even have to go through the recruitment process! I feel very joyful and relieved, I have for a long time wished to become assured of this.

The last two weeks with Elida have been spent on the island of Öckerö, a few kilometres north of Gothenburg. We are moored at “Ö-varvet”, a local shipyard that is installing the electric components of the Diesel engine. Elida V has got the side rails installed, and I have been working with the radios and navigation equipment. As a certified passenger ship, there are tough requirements on the quality and number of communications equipment on board. To this date, I have installed one long range MF/HF (short wave) radio, one VHF radio, one NAVTEX (navigation information and text messages) receiver, one GPS receiver, three hand-held and water-resistant VHF radios and one SART transponder (a radar beacon for locating the ship in case of emergency. What is left are the two combined AIS/GPS units and the chart plotter.

This weekend I spent with Robert, Karin, Ellinor and Mattias in Gothenburg, away from the ship. We slept over at Ellinor’s and Mattias’ apartment, watched Happy Feet on Friday (yay!), went Christmas shopping on Saturday (I am finished buying Christmas presents!), and on Sunday we went to service at the Livets Ord (Word of Life) church. Thanks to Ellinor and Mattias for their hospitality and all the good food!

On Thursday I am leaving for Västerås, where I will spend Christmas with my family. After that, Livskraft!