... to ‘extricate’ ourselves from Uusikaupunki and continue our journey towards Turku. The weather was foul, wet, foggy and very windy. As the guest harbour was very comfortable, with a nice café, washing machine and sauna, we had everything we needed to see this bad weather through and enjoy being snug on Easy Rider with good books, music and cards.
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| Russian defence relics on Finnish soil |
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| the Russian Gendarme’s house |
We have a week ahead of us before the famous mid-summer night celebrations. There is already a ‘fever’ in the air and everyone you meet is talking about it (Johannuspälvä). Most Finns will spend next week-end in their summer cottages by the sea. Apparently Turku will be deserted.
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| relaxation Finnish style after a sauna |
Our first stop in the northern part of the Turku (Åbo) Archipelago was Katanpää (60º37’N 21º11’E).
We were surprised to find in this idyllic small natural harbour the remains of some very interesting history. There are the remains of a fort built by the Russian army in 1915-17 as one of the many such defence posts dotted around the Finnish coast. Then, when Finland gained its independence from Russia in 1917 it became Finnish. In 1930-39 Katanpää was turned into a convict colony. The inmates worked in the quarry on the island cutting paving stones, which were exported all over Europe.
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Today was the best sailing day of our holiday so far. Beautiful sunshine, gentle NW-ly breeze. We sailed towards Parattula (60º 29’,7N 21º26’,5E) just 10M further south, through a very narrow but deep channel between the islands of Lypertö and Kaurissalo in the north-west and Langstet and Kustavi in the south-east.
The channel, which leads to the marina is so narrow and bordered with reeds, that you think that you cannot possibly go through there. It was quite shallow as well: just 2,2 m deep and we managed to get through without any cardiac symptoms....
Parattula is a private guest harbour owned by Laura Peterzéns (www.peterzens.fi) with a nice restaurant, a far too tempting shop and all necessary facilities, including WI-FI. It looks very exotic, almost like a beach bar in the Caribbean! The roofs of the huts are covered with straw.
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| Peterzéns' guest harbour |