Hope's and Howard's Sailing Adventures

If you have been following our track, you may be wondering how we managed to hop from Sicily to Finland so quickly.  Having secured Mazu in Ragusa, and after three bus trips, two plane rides and a short train journey we arrived at HMVK Marina, close to the center of Helsinki, where we joined William and Karen onboard their beautiful, shiny Dehler 38, Melodrama.  We felt especially honored to find they had raised a USA courtesy flag to welcome us, which more than made up for the chilly, drizzly weather.

Yesterday we sailed from Marihamn in the Åland islands, Finland to an anchorage in the Swedish archipelago, having spent a fabulous 9 days exploring some of the Finnish archipelago.  Karen hit the nail on the head when she recommended we bring clothing for all seasons as we have used it all from swimsuits and shorts to multiple layers of fleece and foul weather gear.

This is a beautiful, unspoiled part of the world with what seems like millions of low lying, rocky islands, covered in most cases by evergreen trees.  Fortunately most (but not all) of the Finnish waterways have been charted and there are copious numbers of navigation aids, probably making up a large proportion of the those worldwide!  We feel privileged to have been welcomed by numerous Finns who clearly love to sail these islands.  Life in the Finnish archipelago is uncomplicated with a long history of sailing and boating but sadly barely any fishing now.

Sailors appear competent and clearly uphold traditions such as dousing the ensign at 9 pm.  We even had a melodic reminder one night when someone played the Finnish version of tapps at 2100 hrs, lovely!  I suppose they couldn’t wait until sunset since it is so late.  But the most important Finnish tradition is the ever present sauna, even in the remotest islands.  After a practice sauna in Hanko marina, we managed to book a one hour slot in Sandvik harbour on the remote island of Kokar. We had the full experience, complete with splashing water on the hot coals, bashing ourselves with birch branches, then jumping in the cool, 18C, water to cool off sufficiently so we could repeat the whole process a couple more times.

We now know where composting toilets come from. Most of the islands have little running water, they are so rocky, that dry composting heads are the norm. Shredded tree bark is added after one does the business. The best composting toilets in the Aland islands, as advertised, are in Rodham. The lady harbour master, an artist, runs the place with zeal.

We have decided that Melodrama is much more suited to sailing in these waters than Mazu would be.  One twisty passage between the islands and rocks looked nigh impossible to sail, yet because Melodrama can point so high to the wind and tacks on a dime, and the water was flat, we found ourselves continuing to sail and passing other more traditional boats doing the same.  Melodrama does not seem to need much wind to be able to make good way, often making say 5 knots in a 7 knot wind. We are all becoming well practiced at the art of the Finnish way of picking up a stern mooring, with the bow tied to the dock.