Badger Report 2008 – 06

Our last report was from Keyserhamn in Finland. I am now writing in Wasahamn in Stockholm, Sweden.

19/7

Awoke early and retrieved a firmly holding anchor easily enough. Our previous problems were perhaps due to a ploughed up bit of seabed. We sailed north towards Pargas Port and noted again that buoyage was cardinal and not lateral as indicated on the chart. Here we reverted to engine, motoring north past an open stretch where three constantly moving ferries made safe passage difficult to arrive at Airisto. This is an odd harbour, mainly consisting of a hotel/chalet operation with various restaurants, shops etc. The harbour itself is very deep with the bottom obstructed by old Russian debris so that anchoring is inadvisable. Although 3 miles from the deepwater route into Turku there are occasional rollings caused by passing ships.

20/7

Sailed off early again north towards Turku. We noted and took pics of some of the extraordinary Finnish buoys. Both port and starboard buoys can be can or cone in shape with no top marks. Up-sun it is impossible to determine their gender (P or S). We enjoyed the elegant approach to Turku past faded Russian built holiday villas an arrived at the Turku marina in time for lunch. We had again the same embarrassment as before because the first box or pole moorings we tried were too narrow even for Badger but our second try was successful.

We enjoyed a couple of interesting Art Exhibitions. The first was of the work of a Finnish Sculptor who loves highly polished black gabbro rock. Unfortunately the sculptures were derivative with Moore, Arp and Brancusi influences clearly visible. However he had a superb art collection of his own, particularly of West African sculpture which was superb. The second was a show of Peruvian Silver work both old and new with the aim, I think, of advertising the skills of modern Peruvian Craftsmen. We stayed two days in Turku, bought another stern anchor (pseudo Bruce).

22/7

Made the shortish trip to Merimasku deep in the inner Turku Skaergard and protected by a pair of 16 metre bridges so tall sailing boats have difficulty getting there.

23/7

Long trip Merimasku to Jurmo (N).

The area close to Merimasku resembles perhaps the Thames Valley with a wide “river” between reed beds with a few farms and cows amidst the woods. It s amazingly peaceful. After a few miles there are wider leads and the wind gets in and north south traffic has to be crossed. Still later there are fair sized straightline passages in open water before Jurmo appears. Jurmo is one of the far northeastern Aaland Islands with a very “garden” feel but this tie we anchored in a little bay and enjoyed the afternoon sun completely alone.

24/7

There is a very intricate and rarely used route from Jurmo to Enklinge. It is well marked both by beacons and by buoys. Where possible the buoys have little beacons on shore so they can be aligned easily when they get moved by ice. We took this route on a sunny morning and managed to sail most of it. For the first 2 hours we saw nobody and no houses, just one old fishing boat tucked into a corner. We had an utterly gorgeous run between skerries and islands. Later we came to open water and easier sailing to the little island of Enklinge. Here we moored up and I tackled a leak in the cooling system while Kristin walked into the island shop. The leak had been getting worse but was difficult to find. I at last found it was faulty seals on the heat exchanger and renewed them having to do a surprising mount of disassembly elsewhere and got vry hot in the process. This done I had a coolish swim in the harbour.

25/7

Enklinge to Kastellholm

We hadan early departure and a lovely sail alone SW over the wide area between Enklinge and Kumlinge towards the Aaland mainland. We were passed clse by by the local ferry twice but it was a glrious sunny sail. After this the wind died and the fast motor boats began to chop up the water but we regained solitude in Lumparn (the enclosed lake the Russians were going to turn into another Scapa Flow. We ended up at Kastellholm early enough for a swim and fish soup at the café attached to the local Folk Museum.

26/7

Into Mariehamn early accompanying a lovely long thin Skaergards boat who we had helped to cure a transmission problem and wanted to make sure he would make it to Mariehamn too. Mariehamn was noisy with the last Rockoff Concert a kilometre away in the evening and clearly audible. We bought food and watched the weather and decided to make the crossing to Sweden the next morning.

27/7

Mariehamn – Arholma

With favourable winds we had a god sail halfway across the Sea of Aaland. Kristin had to reef the main as the sed was getting excessive then unreef as the wind died. We ended on motor anxiously looking for the E cardinal that marked our arrival point. It was quite impossible to find until we had identified the lead we needed an proved to be a tall thin stick with top mark, painted black and invisible against the dark shoreline. Arholma east harbour has a good fixed staging but more importantly is a superb anchorage with good holding and very good shelter.

We were at the staging with a stern anchor. So far so good; however the motor boat moored next but one upwind of us decided to leave and picked up our next door neighbours stern anchor and tape. He drifted past us coming to rest against another motor boat but fendered by its dinghy. The owner seemed singularly unconcerned and made no effort to sort the situation. A young man on a sail boat jumped into the water and had a long struggle to retrieve the anchor and unwind the tape. In the meanwhile the upstream unoccupied motor boat had drifted hard down on us and was endangering our anchor’s hold. We got out another stern anchor, chain and warp and managed to persuade a elderly couple to drop it from their dinghy in a suitable place. During this operation I was stung lightly by a wasp which may be totally irrelevant to what follows. Eventually the guilty motor boat was freed and went off; theupstream motor boat owner reappeared and replanted his stern anchor and returned mine. The whole affair would have been avoided if the guilty motor boat had followed standard practice of gong aft from the staging by hauling in is stern anchor rather than using his engine.

I should say that Arholma is charming with narrow dirt roads and paths and largely unspoilt and undeveloped. There is another harbour on the west side but not sheltered and a shop at the ferry terminal with a reasonable restaurant nearby. We stayed for two nights and enjoyed the place very much.

29/7

Arholma Norrtalje

Simple short passage to Norrtalje – a place we both like(d) very much. We moored at the guest harbour facing east. We noted the lack of shelter from the east and the somewhat decrepit condition of the pontoon. That afternoon I felt seedy and the next day very weak.

31/7

Kristin took me by taxi to the local hospital. I then had to walk to the health centre to find a doctor. She said my CRP (corpuscle reaction something) rating was too high for me to go home so it was back to the hospital to be admitted with a mystery bacterial illness. I stayed in hospital for about seven days leaving Kristin alone on the boat but safely tied up in harbour. After numerous negative tests and with a second set of antibiotics starting to cut the CRP rating I was allowed out with the illnes still unidentified..

In the meantime Kristin had more serious problems of her own.

4/7 Monday

Bad forecast of easterly winds up to 17 metres/sec. or 34 knots. Kristin was worried but added extra warps and, facing the wind, not badly placed. Neighbouring boats gave reassurance. In afternoon, as wind rose, a forty foot long sail boat pinned side on to outside of pontoon burst all its eight fenders. It was eventually removed by Swedish rescue service SSRS.

At about 2.a.m. in pitch black and howling wind and rain – now 20 metres/sec. Kristin was woken and told the pontoon was breaking into parts. In all eleven boats were to be removed by SSRS starting from the outside. A crew was put on board to help Kristin and the boat moved in a very impressive operation to the main commercial quay and secured there by a shore crew of firemen using some rather strange knots.

Later the rescue coordinator said that had been very reluctant to commit his volunteers to move onto the pontoon because of the risks involved. They were, Kristin says “bucking like broncos”.

The next day Kristin contacted and thanked the SSRS coordinator but asked for more help. She could not get out of the boat onto the high quay. The SSRS then moved her to a box mooring closer o the town here he could get shore and also charge her mobile phone.

The root cause of the problem was little or no maintenance of the pontoon by the owners, the Norrtalje local authority coupled with inertia on the part of the harbour master. Like many other marinas in Sweden Norrtalje is suffering from planing blight.

In the meantime I was in the hospital unaware of the situation except to not that it was a rainy night and a bit windy. I was incidentally very glad, from every point of view, that we had become official supporters of the SSRS.

7/8

I was released from hospital

9/8

I was well enough to pilot Badger 20 miles round to Furusund but found it tiring.

Furusund has acquired new owners, some excellent now pontoons and a higher cost SEK 260 per night including electricity and the highest we have yet found.

10/8

A long motor passage to Wasahamn where we now remain mostly convalescing, which is boring for Kristin who has had a pretty rotten time of it. We have had very kind offers of help but my recovery means that we should be able to follow our plas for returning to the UK without much variation.

I should add that the Swedish Health service works well; it does demand from the user both EHIC card and passport, pays itself all costs apart from an initial SEK 140 to see the doctor and a final SEK 170 for antibiotics to take outside the hospital. I had a vast range of blood tests, a chest Xray and even a CT scan of my abdomen. The ward contained 2 people only with private shower and toilet and I ate in a day room at a table. Free coffee available 24 hrs./day.

Wasahamn has something else to enjoy; a previously respectable motor-boat that seems to have had anaffair with a camping and caravan shop. It has a tent over the outside steering position, a caravan awning protruding from the rear and patio doors – but the latter may be original.