Astraia in the Baltic - continued: 2–19 August: Western Finnish Archipelago

Caroline has just arrived for a week on board with us – a warm welcome from Charles at the NJK Marina in Helsinki.

The next day we left Helsinki and followed these three out of the harbour …

… past more lovely islands and several barren ones where the vegetation has been destroyed by guano from birds.

We tied up to a pontoon attached to the rocks on the island of Ormholmen which belongs to the HSK Sailing Club …

… and enjoyed the use of their brand new sauna …

… with picture windows looking out over the view – idyllic!

Not so idyllic was the barbecue – by the time we’d got it cooked the flying ants had come out in force – they loved Caroline who was wearing a light-coloured top and she had to retreat to the boat!!

The next day was lovely, warm and calm – not much wind for sailing but excellent for sunbathing on the deck …

We spent the night anchored between Lilla and Stora Fagerö, swam into the beach …

and enjoyed the sunset …

Tuesday 5^th August

After a bit of engine trouble, we set off on a glorious day and enjoyed a lovely potter between wooded islands …

… and through narrow channels, such as Barösund. Unfortunately it’s hard to do much sailing as the navigation is complicated and the channels so narrow …

We arrived at Tammisaari (also called Ekenäs, the Swedish version of the name). Finland is actually a bi-lingual country, although only about 6% of the population speak Swedish as their first language.

After lunch of a Finnish speciality, tinned elk meat (which tasted a bit like corned beef!), Caroline and I spent the afternoon on the beach – really hot and sunny but nice and cool in the sea.

In the early evening we explored the old town, one of the best-preserved wooden towns in Finland. It felt a bit like a film set as it was so quiet on the streets – already it is beginning to feel a bit end-of-season-ish here.

We had a meal on Caroline’s last night in the Restaurant Knipan, which was built on stilts over the water to get around an ancient law which restricted the number of restaurants in the town. It’s a nice old wooden building with spectacular views.

6^th – 11^th August

I made a brief trip back home for Isabel and Dan’s wedding …

… and a family get-together with lots of young cousins …

… and this gave Charles a chance to sort out the engine problems and do a bit of boat maintenance.

Tuesday 12^th August

Back in Tammisaari new crew arrived, Alice and Leon …

... who soon got to work in the galley!

Pimm’s o’clock!

The next day we set off to explore further west in the Finnish archipelago. Our first stop was Hanko, another delightful little town with lovely old 18^th century wooden villas …

This is the casino on the beach …

… and this is the rather futuristic looking water tower, which Leon and I decided to climb up – but then discovered there was actually a lift!

The view from the top was definitely worth it, despite the rather grey weather.

Our next stop was the island of Högsåra, a pretty little spot, and the weather had improved …

We had a wander round the island and were intrigued by these outbuildings which had old upturned boats for roofs!

Alice and I went for a lovely relaxing swim, then joined the others for the ‘legendary’ fish chowder at Grandmother’s Café – delicious.

Onward and westwards with Alice on the helm …

… to Södra Benskär, where it was actually rather windy as we showed Alice and Leon how to moor to rocks in ‘natural harbours’. The first place we chose turned out to be too shallow. I was on land by this time, so had to strike off through the ‘bundu' to another little promontory which was deeper and more suitable. We finally got tied up to two trees and anchored by the stern in the Baltic way …

It was a beautiful calm evening with lovely light and reflections …

The following day, after an early morning swim, we moved on through the low-lying islands. The weather changes so fast – one moment calm and sunny, then suddenly cloudy but still no wind; round a corner the wind will suddenly get up, a rainbow will appear, one flash of lightning, a distant roll of thunder, then calm and sunny again!

We stopped for lunch at the island of Birsskär. By this time it was raining, softly but steadily, but we went for a short, damp walk through the typical archipelago landscape – trees, moss, lichen, blueberries, rocks and sea …

Here is one of the massive anthills you often find on the islands …

There are a couple of rowing boats here for harbour guests to row across to the neighbouring island of Stenskär – free of charge and provided on an honesty basis …

We set off again after lunch through a myriad islands, mostly uninhabited – it was detailed navigation, but we did manage to sail part of it. There seem to be more islands here than even the Swedish archipelago and so many hidden rocks, just under or breaking the surface – quite sinister-looking sometimes. The Finns say that if you haven’t hit a rock while sailing in the Finnish archipelago you’re not really trying!

We had a lovely sail in the late afternoon sunshine …

… through more lovely, peaceful islands …

… to a little place called Verkan Harbour, near the small town of Korppoo, where we were surprised to hear loud rock music playing from the restaurant. Actually both the food and the music were good, although we had planned something more peaceful – I guess it is Saturday night after all!

Dramatic sunset with purply clouds scudding across the sky …

The next morning the sea was like a mill-pond, the water lovely and silky – perfect for our early-morning swim – the girls that is!

… followed by a walk to the village nearby, which had a church with interesting wall-paintings …

Lunch in the cockpit – this is the life!

We stopped for the night at Keistiö, which is obviously a popular holiday spot in the summer with a children’s playground, shop, diving platform, sauna, barbecue pits and so on – but by mid-August, the season is over and the place was deserted apart from us ...

Rainbow and grey clouds over Torasviken, our next port of call …

… followed by sunshine and blue skies – this is the same view 30 minutes later – the weather really does change fast!

The fabulous view from the top of the hill at Torasviken …

… and an attempt at a ‘selfie’ to capture the four of us together!

An hour later, the weather was like this …

Tuesday 19^th August

Alice and Leon’s last day – again, we had varied weather for our passage to Turku, but managed to sail most of the way. Sometimes it was flat calm and sunny …

… soon afterwards quite choppy. We passed this restaurant on a small rocky island …

Here we are approaching Turku (Swedish name Åbo), Finland’s oldest city and its former capital until Finland became part of the Russian Empire (in 1809) and the capital was moved to Helsinki in 1812, closer to Russia.