We spent three nights at Ingmarso, mainly because of uncertain weather - according to the forecasts. From the harbour mistress Lena I got useful advice about TBE websites. In addition we spent time with Paul and Marilyn of Starship Sirius, very pleasant people with a very comfortable boat.
We left on 25th June for Arholma 59N50.532, 18E07.326 as this looked like a good jumping off point for the Aaland islands with the wind direction expected the following day. The track from Ingmarso goes through superb waters, past lovely small islands,between reefs and shallows. It is quite open with actually a low percentage of land but never far away from it. We had sunshine and a gentle southerly breeze behind us so enjoyed ourselves hugely.
However the wind failed us on the long passage between Blido and Yxlan and we found the rather suburban feel to the area unpleasing so motored on till we had more wind in the open main channels NE of Blido. Here the water was horribly cut up by fast ferries and even faster motorboats; by this time the sun had gone so it was cold as well. We were glad to pass Kapellskar and its ferry terminal to go north again in quieter waters and ever smaller passages till we arrived at Arholma itself. Arholma's beauty has been severely marred by the installation of a new floating 'poo tank with a toilet on top of it and a recycling can as well. It is positioned very close to the quay and also obstructs a fair amount of the water. We had supper on board.
Friday26th June
Up at 0457 and under way at 0555 for Mariehamn with the plan to find out more about the Bomarsund battle as we could. The wind allowed us to sail but with motor assist as we had a nasty cross swell and unpleasant motion, we saw few other boats on the crossing until much later on in the day. We found the newish bank of wind turbines clustered round Nyhamn light at the southern tip of the main island very useful as waymarks; much bigger and more visible than the lighthouse itself.. Turning north soon after the light house we had a tedious motor trip for about 10 miles straight into wind to get to the Eastern Marina. Here we had box moorings, tall wooden posts at regular intervals about 10 metres from the pontoon. These require a particular approach for a successful mooring which we managed. It has been a long time since we last used the method.
I went round to the museum to try to find my contact Graham Robins, who is the expert on Bomarsund but found the museum a mere shell with an immense redevelopment effort going on. I was directed eventually to an inconspicuous door where I found that Graham had departed to Sweden for the weekend. He was obtaining a sail boat there and had no real idea when we would arrive as we were unable to be precise about our schedule.
We then had a surprisingly good lunch at the marina restaurant and relaxed for the rest of the day.
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