Blueberries, more saunas and mosquitoes
13/14/15/16 of June
We have arrived in Helsinki! Like Hamburg and Stockholm last year, it is always very exciting and moving when you enter a world city by boat. But I will come to it later.
First: our way out of the archipelago sea.
We left Jurmo on Sunday the 13th of June with an improving weather forecast, which was not yet settled. It turned out to be a very windy day with about 28 –32 kn of wind and as we were running in front of the wind, we could set the headsail alone and run the 34 miles comfortably at a very good speed (for Easy Rider) of 6knots. We ran down the Skiftet, the dividing stretch of water between the Åland Islands and the Finnish mainland, which runs from North to South.
Our destination was a tiny private island used by the NJK, which is one of the oldest sailing clubs in Finland (established in 1861 when Finland was still part of Russia as a grand duchy). The Royal Cruising Club and the NJK are affiliated and as members we could apply for temporary membership, which includes a key. That key is most important because it unlocks the saunas (bastu)! So Kråskär was an island, which, apart from some sheep grazing during the summer, only had a sauna hut on it. You have to chop wood, light the fire, wait for an hour and then you are in the middle of nowhere, having your sauna. To cool down, you use some rainwater from the water-butt and stand in the wind or have a swim (brrr!)… our idea of bliss!
When we left the next day, it became very foggy around lunchtime. The only way forward not having a chart-plotter on board (except for Madeleine…) was to navigate by radar. We were very glad to have done a refresher course last year! After you settled into it, it became good fun. But the downside was, that we crossed the Åbo Skärgård without having seen any of it. As if it didn’t exist (to your eyes at least).
Vänö (59º 49’,5 22º 26’,8), in the Hitis archipelago, was our destination. It turned out to be almost completely deserted, and we were the only boat moored. We didn’t see a soul, and even tried a couple of times to pay our harbour dues, but apart from a dog barking, we didn’t meet anyone. We followed signs to a sea-farers’chapel and ended up being attacked by mosquitoes in the woods.
The last stop before we arrived in Helsinki was another magical NJK island called Munckshamn on Blåbärsholmen. As its name suggests the island was covered with pine trees and blueberry bushes, lots of mosquitoes and of course a sauna hut. So we used our magic key and woodcutting skills again.
I cannot describe the delight of sailing amongst the islands here in Finland. Because the water between them is quite sheltered, there is very little or no swell. At times it almost seems as if you were sailing through a woodland park. So yesterday, although they had predicted a near gale, we still set off and could sail very fast to Helsinki. You needed a lot of constant concentration and that was quite exhausting, because all the way and even in the harbour there are rocks.Here we are, moored at the old NJK headquartes, built by a two famous architects in 1885 on a tiny private island just a stone throw from the city centre with huge ferries as neighbours.