I’ll be watching you…

Saturday 05/06/2010

Next day, we even left at 9.15 after lifting our totally muddy chain and anchor – which still need cleaning as I write. This time we kept to the red marks and did not get stuck as during our entrance manoeuvre and left without problems this time.

The wind was forecast to blow from the NW, which would have been perfect for us to cross the Sea of Åland towards Mariehamn (Maarianhamina in Finnish), but again it was blowing NE 5, which made for a bumpy crossing.

Just as we were leaving the Stockholm Archipelago, we were passing a lighthouse and an important green buoy, both of which should not be missed because of rocks, just as three (!) large ferries were approaching the tight bend. Although they had quite a lot of margin in the channel they passed us at about 100m or less, which looked quite scary from our perspective!

Approaching Mariehamn was strangely different from our experience crossing Europe by car: It is mandatory that you enter Finland and the Åland Islands through a prescribed route and you have to proceed directly to the nearest port of entry. We were doing just that and I decided to photograph a quaint house perched on a rock when I saw through my tele-lens lens that there was a soldier on the balcony watching us, and another armed soldier on the rocks. It is quite apparent that the tight border control seemed not to be aimed at EU citizens…!