Pics from our summer cruise

We slowly made our way back from Hanko stopping at Jussarö and Barösund along the way which while nice in their own right, weren’t anything extra special to add to the story so I’m fast forwarding to our base at Helsinki from where I’m now typing this.

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The six week holiday is coming to an end and we are heading back home tomorrow. All in all, the trip has been very successful. I feel we got a proper sample of what the archipelago sea has to offer and the perfect weather we got to enjoy all July really was the icing on the cake. Boat has performed faultlessly, I got 32 knots on the gps two days ago, which wasn’t bad going considering all the junk we have onboard as well as 2/3 fuel & water. Feels a bit sad to start packing tomorrow but that’s life. There are new trips already in sight and some 2700 photos to sort out so there are more things to look forward to.

A fly in the ointment? There is one and not at all insignificant. Decades of carefree dumping of untreated waste water and industrial and agricultural waste has resulted in heavy overload of nitrogen and phosphorus in the Baltic Sea. The sea is also vulnerable as the only source of ‘fresh’ sea water is through the shallow Danish-Swedish sound. As a result, the Baltic Sea is not well. Most visible symptom is the blue-green alga, which due to the warm weather, was particularly bad this year. Vast areas of the said alga was to be seen in many places especially in the outer archipelago. So much so that it actually prevented us from swimming in some places.

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The good thing is that waste water treatment plants built recently on the eastern shores together with actions from all the Baltic Sea countries has improved the situation markedly. There is still lot to be done and us boaters should do our part to keep the phosphorus loading to a minimum but overall there is hope.

Over the six week period, we counted 23 different places we overnighted in. Everyone onboard seem to have enjoyed themselves and gotten many new, hopefully happy memories. Thank you all for following and your kind comments, it’s been fun sharing our experience with you.

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Thanks once again for a most enjoyable voyage - great to see a different part of the world. :)

I'm assuming that although unsightly, the algae will ultimately absorb much of the nitrates and other pollutants and take it to the sea bed? On that basis, although unsightly, I guess it's serving a useful purpose. Quite scary what humankind has dumped in the sea as well as extracted over the last few thousand years when you think about it. We're perhaps very lucky living in the times we do and threads like this that capture the beauty are an inspiration to take better care of it IMHO. :encouragement:
 
Thank you for a great story and stunning photos. You have visited many of the iconic places and experienced the relaxed way of boating in the sheltered waters of the finnish sw archipelago with no tide, light till midnight, hardly any storms (yes there is this algee problem from time to time...). This eldorado however is enjoyable only a few months per year. Come back in January and many places are reachable trough ice roads by car :-)) *I can assure you that you have only scratched the surface. There are many, many more places including remote islands you can have for your self to explore for days or weeks (you need a good stern anchor windlass though). The cruising area extends to sweden as well. Anyway hope to see you back and thanks for sharing your voyage.*
 
It's been a pleasure to be (virtually) aboard with you SM, the forum is fortunate to have a contributor such as yourself.

In another month you should be heading back east with a new crew, so will look forward to catching up again.

Cheers
 
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