Pics from our summer cruise

[scubaman]

AM: the tide is non existant, ie. not noticeable and no need to take into account while boating. The wind direction and air pressure have more effect, for instance at the moment, the water is around -25 cm compared to the 'normal' level. But in any case, the variation is usually measured in centimeters over a day.

Mapis: re. the saily boats, most were gone by the time we got up. The raggie's race to the next marina/anchorage begins early

Mike: July is usually nice and settled, certainly has been this year with temps frequently around +30 C, but there are no garanties of course. The southeastern Finland (into which Kuopio belongs to) usually enjoys more continental weather.

 

[AndieMac]

Oh, that's not a secret, by all means.
Myself and swmbo very happily accepted the kind invitation of scubaman to join him when he will bring his boat back home at the end of August.
And we also took the opportunity to arrange a home exchange in Helsinki, spending a week there before joining SM, for good measure.
Therefore yes, I think you have reasons to be a bit jealous....

Nice work MM (he says, struggling to control his jealousy ), this thread is destined to become a bit of an epic by the sounds of it, before Adia returns to her home port in the lakes. It going to be interesting returning through the Russian component and into the long man-made canal system.

 

[scubaman]

Did Mariehamn and it was ok ( https://goo.gl/maps/oUuaG ). Mariehamn is the capital of Åland which is an autonomous territory but a part of Finland. Swedish is the official language and Mariehamn has a long history in trade and a very strong nautical heritage with vast merchant ship fleets back in the days of sails.

Out of the two main marinas, we chose the eastern one which was closer to the town centre. Marina was good, if a bit lively, the town was pretty typical and ok as such but nothing overly special imho. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the place, quite contratry actually but it wasn't just what we had came for.The Maritime Festival was on which on the Saturday included folk music, an american car cruising and a pride parade. None of the events clashed with each other I suppose…

Enjoying the summer

We spent three days in Mariehamn and then decided to move on. The weather was again really warm (+30 C) and the winds were light so we decided to take the open sea route to Utö ( https://goo.gl/maps/84Hi7 ), the southernmost piece of Finland that has permanent habitation and which for it’s remote location was on our bucketlist. Due to it’s location at the mouth of a fairway leading inland, the island has been a base for pilots from the early 16th century and has since served also military purposes. Finally in 2005 the military left the island and it was opened to general public. Houses were sold to private individuals and a hotel was opened in the former barracks. Number of children at the local school soared (from 9 to 13 in 2007). There is a population of about 50 people living on the island at the moment.

Firmly on the right side of the 60th latitude

The prominent lighthouse welcomed us after the 50-odd mile journey.

There is a small pontoon in front of the hotel and more places on the pilots’ jetty but as we went in all the places were taken.

As the place is well sheltered from most winds, we decided to anchor on the bay and use the dinghy to get ashore. As luck would have it, following the hot day another thunder storm was on it’s way. We had already gone ashore when we saw the clouds approaching and winds picking up. Hurrying back to the boat we arrived just in time to put up the covers and close the hatches. Gusts of wind were pretty strong and anchor dragged at first but then fortunately held as had it dragged any more we would have had to start the engines as there was a yacht just behind us.

This yacht limped to shelter with a torn spinnaker

After the thunder cleared it was time to take some sunset picks.

We left in the morning to go to neighboring Jurmo...

 

[CalRob]

Stunning pictures, and an absolutely beautiful boat. :encouragement:

 

[AndieMac]

Good to see the 1950's American muscle car craze, with the plus-fifty year old "crew" is alive and well in far Northern Europe

Thanks for the update SM, considering your most southern latitude is about equal to the UK's northern most, achieving 30+ deg C is good going.

Nice shot of Adia on anchor in the setting sun, btw.....was that taken around midnight?

 

[scubaman]

Good to see the 1950's American muscle car craze, with the plus-fifty year old "crew" is alive and well in far Northern Europe

Thanks for the update SM, considering your most southern latitude is about equal to the UK's northern most, achieving 30+ deg C is good going.

Nice shot of Adia on anchor in the setting sun, btw.....was that taken around midnight?

Hi AM,

We must benefit from the continental climate... The first of the three was taken around 8.30. The last after 11, iirc. Sadly, you do notice nights already getting darker...

 

[henryf]

Still loving the photos and reports.

Not sure I'd fancy trying to moor up amongst all those ropes !!

It's very interesting to see the differences cruising different countries, your photos and excellent command of the English language combined with local knowledge make for a very clear picture.

You'd have to give us all training on how to pronounce those names though,


Henry

 

[scubaman]

Thank you H, you are being too kind.

Some of the names are indeed a bit hairy. Try saying "Östra Mörskärsfjärden" three times really quickly

 

[scubaman]

Catching up…

Our journey continued to Jurmo ( https://goo.gl/maps/sT8TL ) which is only about 6 miles north east from Utö. The weather was again fantastic.

I had heard that the island is different but couldn’t really see how that could be… until I saw it myself. Jurmo is where the very long ridge called “Salpausselkä” first surfaces from the sea. In fact, on the other side of the country, in my home waters on the Lake Saimaa, Salpausselkä provides some fantastic scenery. Anyway, here the cliffs are replaced by pebbles as far as the eye can see.

Another peculiarity is that there is hardly any vegetation taller than a metre. According to the locals, early Jurmonians were active pirates and at some point in the 17th century, the Swedish king ordered everything on the island to be burned. Nowadays the only trees one can find are planted but most of the island looks like from the other side of the globe. An impression only made stronger by the Alpacas the locals keep for their wool.

The sunset was really nice so I climbed on the only big rock found on the island to take a few pics.

The marina can be seen on the mid left

Downtown Jurmo

Back in the marina

The Cafe which sold freshly baked bread and smoked salmon which was actually smoked in a big oven just right from the pic.

The scenery really was very beautiful.

We then proceeded to the Viking village at Rosala which was again ok but what we really liked was the Bengtskär lighthouse we visited the day after…

 

[henryf]

That is gorgeous.



Jurmo looks like it's got a fairly decent rave scene

What a great start in life for your kids to cruise around. I'm sure in later life they will look back with very fond memories.

Henry

 

[AndieMac]

Sensational, as usual SM, can't help noticing the buildings that appear to be that red/brown coloured vertical timber-boards. Is that a similar concept to why most Italian window shutters are green?

The last marina pic show a yacht in close called "Amelia", looks to be a rather nice concept.

 

[rwoofer]

The last marina pic show a yacht in close called "Amelia", looks to be a rather nice concept.

That's a Moody 45DS. Huge boat for the length...

 

[scubaman]

The reason for dark red houses is dictated by the soil that was used to dye the paint. As it was more or less the only option all those times ago, all the houses were red. Few still have the courage to try something different

Yep, the moody looked very nice and spacious. For what I could tell, it had an internal helm station as well. Have no idea how well it sails but it seemed to make so much sense to a moboist.

 

[AndieMac]

That's a Moody 45DS. Huge boat for the length...

Nice walk-around decks, proper cockpit shelter, a serious pilot-house and twin cockpit helms for the racing yacht look, pretty hard not to get a little bit excited

 

[AndieMac]

The reason for dark red houses is dictated by the soil that was used to dye the paint. As it was more or less the only option all those times ago, all the houses were red. Few still have the courage to try something different ...........

I imagined tradition may have played a part, still love the rustic look though.

 

[scubaman]

Ahh, Bengtskär. Ever since we started planning our cruise, we had a dream of seeing the Bengtskär lighthouse which is lying on a very remote skerry and is almost inaccessible by ones own boat. Surrounded by deep water, on a bad day the waves can be 15 meters high almost touching the building itself, which btw was built in 1906 out of the granite from the island. The difficult access coupled with a long and varied history from the past decades have given the island an almost mystical reputation.

Nowadays privately owned, it operates as a hotel and there are ferries bringing people over from the mainland. The ferries are allowed to use the only sheltered jetty there is while pleasure boats aren’t usually encouraged to approach the island due to the swell and as mentioned earlier, deepish water surrounding the cliffs. For us the thing was to visit the site aboard our own boat, do a drive by for pics and we would have been happy with that.

However, the conditions on the day were just about perfect. With no wind to speak of and virtually zero swell, we decided to anchor close to the cliffs and take the dinghy ashore. I dropped the anchor to about 20 meters of water and let out almost all the chain I had. To be honest the weight of the chain was probably enough to keep the boat still. There was another boat which let out stern anchor and moored bow to the cliffs, but I thought it safer to leave a bit of room between the boat and the rocks.

Bengtskär emerging from the haze

Anchored close to the shore

Perhaps unsurprisingly there is a sauna on the back. Built at the same time with the main building it’s probably one of the oldest saunas around. Half a metre thick granite walls have helped in keeping it intact whereas many of it’s more traditional wooden counterparts have been lost to fire…

We climbed the stairs to the top (56 meters from the sea). Vertigo, anyone?

The original lenses came from Paris and took up fifth of the budget. Sadly they were destroyed in the war, these are the ones from the 50’s.

It was really very hot inside the glass house but the view was beautiful.

There was a narrow inlet between the rocks into which we rowed the dinghy

On the way down

The cliffs are moulded by the harsh environment

A guided tour under way

A couple of hours later we left the lighthouse into our wake and headed for Hanko for the night. This was a bit of a turning point on our cruise as from now own we would be more or less backtracking the route we took when heading out to the archipelago sea in the first place.

 

[baylabayla3288]

Hi Scuba, stunning pictures from Bengtskär! You managed to get to something wery unique, I have cruised the southern waters of Finland for more than 20 years and made several fly bys however the conditions did never allow going ashore.
It was nice meeting you in Hanko and cu in the eastern inland waters next year perhaps.

 

[Greg2]

Experiences like that are what make boating a fantastic pastime. Great pics of what is clearly a spectacular place

 

[scubaman]

Hi Scuba, stunning pictures from Bengtskär! You managed to get to something wery unique, I have cruised the southern waters of Finland for more than 20 years and made several fly bys however the conditions did never allow going ashore.
It was nice meeting you in Hanko and cu in the eastern inland waters next year perhaps.

Hi there,

Jep, indeed we were very lucky. It was a pleasure to meet you too, do let me know if you decide to come and if you need tips on places to visit.

Funny, just last night I saw Bayla Bayla in Älgsjö.

 

[henryf]

Well done for making it ashore.

"Bayla Bayla in Älgsjö" is the sort of thing I say after 8 pints with saliva dribbling out of my mouth and eyes rolling in my head

Henry