After two nights and one whole day of jolly swimming at our Kråkelund anchorage, we pulled the anchor to continue onward. Or actually, backward, since the wind had decided to turn.
The original plan was to continue south, towards Skåne and Kattegat. The other and equally important original plan, however, was to avoid sailing against the wind. So, as the wind was now coming from the south, it seemed we were bound to go the other way. Back north again.
It did feel a bit strange not to have a fixed geographical destination to head for. More profoundly, though, it felt that — especially during this sailing season — a going with the wind strategy would lead to a better outcome, for us all, than reaching some particular physical destination, after a slightly too rough sailing experience.
Inshore sailing
“Hey, this is great, there are no waves!” O exclaimed.
We were sailing along the outermost marked fairway going to the north from Kråkelund. Just inside a sparse belt of smallish islands, some of them no more than dark rocks lifting the top of their bald heads barely out of the water, but all of them, united, big enough to protect us from the offshore swell.
Of all the children, O was usually the first (and often also the only one) to get mild seasickness symptoms, so the joy on his face was sincere — we had a good amount of wind and we were sailing, but it was all very effortless and smooth!
“And look how many other sailboats there are!” M shouted.
This was another thing we really hadn’t experienced that much — sailing inshore close to a lot of other boats. A lot of our vacation sailing had been offshore, longer legs from this to that place, where the more frequent sentiments had been more along the lines of why haven’t we seen anyone anywhere? We’re all alone!
But now we weren’t all alone. Good and relaxed sailing, in good company.
Moving
A few hours later we were flying the code zero (our favorite sail!) and when the fairway turned to the right, we went from a smooth broad reach to a flying beam reach!
“Look, we’re really close to that boat and we’re passing it!” O cheered.
We did, in fact, pass quite a few sailboats, and that was exciting to us all. And even more exciting: no other boat passed us! Not even the slightly bigger ones!
They weren’t flying code zeros, though, so the most important factor in our favor was likely that we had a somewhat bigger relative sail area.
The other important factor: we had a clean bottom. Compared to our previous seasons, the boat’s movements through the water felt light and nimble, unforced and inspired. She was clearly enjoying it, and so were we.
Grooving
Having good music and a good sound system to play it, that is something we were all very fond of.
For the first half of my life, I actually worked hard to become a jazz piano player, so the love for music was something I had carried with me since a child.
For the children, having their familiar and favorite music with them on the boat was a great way to find comfort. If it was occasionally a bit tedious and boring, then someone was always quick to say “hey, can we play some music?” Or if it was raining and cold outside, nothing better than to whip out some sweets from the hidden candy stash, put on some music, and turn the inside into a humble children’s disco.
Then, sometimes, when it was just absolutely wonderful outside, the sun was shining, the sea was blue and beautiful, and the sailing was nice and effortless, I think we put some music on just to celebrate. Maybe it’s something we had picked up from movies? Great music to great moments.
“Can you please please please move with the music?” M asked me. “You look so professional!”
I knew that by professional she meant ridiculous and funny to watch, but hey, it was hard not to move when there was great music!
Daysailing
We decided to leave a lot of time for the children to swim, so a short twenty miles daysail later, we turned right, off of the highway, and dropped the anchor on the leeward side of a small island called Idö.
It was quite refreshing, I think, our daysail.
We had started not at 5 am in the morning, but just before midday, after a long night’s sleep, and more swimming in the morning. And we had arrived not really late (or in the next morning), but at about 3 pm, with much of the day left.
On the other hand, we didn’t get very far, geographically speaking. But that wasn’t really a problem, since we didn’t have that kind of a destination. We got to where the children could continue their swimming, and we got there happily and comfortably, with good music adding to the excitement. What more could we have asked for?
Well, a good football match would have been great!
Football (Soccer)
Luckily for us, the Euro 2021 (or 2020 as they liked to call it) semi-finals were on.
For the children, our summer sailing was mobile phone and tablet free (they left them all at home in Turku). As an exception to that rule, though, we all joined around the saloon table to watch some of the football games. The group stage games where Finland was playing, and all the remaining games (Finland had dropped out) from the semi-finals and forward.
That night it was Italy playing Spain to get to the finals.
GAME ON!
