A change of plan

Moorglade's Voyage
Ted Wilson
Thu 23 Jun 2016 14:08

Our position is 60:06.592N 20.40.831E

Distance covered 18 Nm

We awoke on Thursday to the sound of rain, but true to the forecast it passed over quickly and by 10am we were negotiating the tricky channel back out to sea. It’s surprising how different it can look when you are going in the opposite direction and this way round the transits were all behind us, but we arrived back at the entrance without too much incident.

  Goodbye to Karlby

 

and back through the rocks

and past the church from to seaward

The wind was still blowing from the South and Kokar is the most Southerly part of the Aland Islands so our track lay to the North and we were able to sail with the wind behind, which made a pleasant change. However while the wind was from the South it was cold while we were sailing, although it would have felt even colder with a head wind.

  Sailing

 

But we still have to avoid other sea users

The final part of the passage required quite a bit of ferry dodging, particularly when they came in both directions, but we soon arrived at our destination of Sottunga. Needless to say there were no other boats there other than a ferry, so no one to help with warps or to witness the hapless crew’s  many attempts to hook the stern buoy (thank heavens!)

  Ferries coming and going

  Tied up in splendid isolation

This boat was just making a lunch stop

Other boats did come in as the afternoon wore on, including a Swedish boat, which went into the part of the harbour marked as 1.6m deep. We went and spoke to him to see how deep he thought it actually was and it transpired that he had been there many times before. He thought the depth varied and was deepest where he was, and he drew 1.7 like us. His spot was more sheltered than where we were, but we decided against the risk of running aground, particularly as there was no enthusiasm for yet more attempts at hooking buoys.

However he did tell us that this was a really good place to experience the midsummer celebrations, and it would be better than our planned venue, Lappo. In the light of this inside information we decided to stay for the Friday and try and join in. The poster on the harbour wall said everyone was welcome to join in the decoration of the pole at midday on Friday and then it would be hoisted upright at 9pm.

Primed with all this knowledge we walked the short distance to the church that we could see from the water and followed this with a meal ashore in the restaurant on the harbour front, where they had draft beer and local delicacies such as Aland pancake (more like a curd cheesecake than a pancake).

Beautiful flowers (and they had hundreds of bees buzzing round them) on the walk to the church

The church had its spire on the other side of the road

and inside the universal hanging model boat

The churchyard was very orderly and the stones very shiny. We wondered if the whole thing had been renovated. Some stones were engraved to many members of the same family covering nearly a hundred years

This was obviously some sort of memorial but we couldn’t decipher the engraving

Heading for the restaurant

  while people pour off the ferry ahead of the holiday