After a week in the bustling city of Visby, and a nice sail over towards the mainland, it was time to enjoy the peaceful and rather secluded archipelago on the southeast coast of Sweden. And time to do what we all had been waiting to do since we left the Sand Island — jump into some refreshing water and swim!
After our wonderful stay on the island of Bornholm, we were now set to sail towards a country and a place none of us had ever visited before.
Having spent a beautiful day on our sunny paradise beach, it was time to sail onwards. The weather forecasts were quite threatening, showing gale-force winds arriving the following day, so we set sail for shelter in the nearby fishing harbor of Kårehamn.
It was the first evening of our summer vacation.
After having spent a long day getting ourselves and our belongings onto the boat, after casting off from our own harbor and waving farewell to Charlotte’s mother standing on the dock, and then, after just a few hours of relaxed sailing, we were at our first anchorage.
If measured in miles behind us, not very far from our home. Looking ahead, though, a whole summer’s worth of stories and adventures eagerly waiting for us make them happen.
We just came back from two days of (Happy Easter!) sailing with J and O. This time we tried our best to optimize the sailing performance, and the results were quite encouraging!
Jellyfish! Lots and lots of small jellyfish next to our boat. I didn’t even know we had those in Finland but we were all very excited to see them. A good sign and a good send off for our next leg to the capital of Åland, Mariehamn.
Our sailing vacation finally started! It was a cold and cloudy Monday. We left quite late and had only one objective: to get just a bit away from Turku so that it wouldn’t feel like being home anymore. The next day, though, was to be both exciting and— for a few— quite terrible.
Last week we found out that 20+ knots of upwind with one reef in the main and a fully rolled out jib equaled too much sail for our newbie family sailing. Previous experience suggested that reducing sail area by partly furling away the jib wasn’t a good option. But what would have been? I asked the knowledgeable people over at myHanse.com as well as Elvstrøm Sails, the provider of the Hanse’s FCL furling jib.
Charlotte and I woke up at about four in the morning to the sunrise and the wind changing. We both looked out the window and gasped. Out on the sky, there was this beautiful rainbow painted onto an equally beautiful archipelago background, all colored with redish morning sunrise.
“Well, this is actually quite a nice place to spend Midsummer!” Charlotte said and smiled at me.
