Day 12: Gustavsörarna – Sandvik .. and some rest!

Our previous days paddle lasted til midnight. We landed at Gustavsörarna. An island in the middle of a big bit of water. Weather forecast had a highwinds storms approaching sometime today.. so we broke camp around 0500 and continued to a better camp location at Sandvik.  The rest of the day was spent washing, fixing eating and sleeping..

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More drying of gear

Day 8: Vuosaari – Suomenlinna – Hernesaari – Pihlajasaari – Skorvan

A saturday. For the first time we had a tailwindforecast for our intended route.. NE @ possibly 14+ m/s! The direction was ok but the numbers were a bit hairy!
Another issue was that it was a saturday AND we had to cross Helsinki waters laterally east to west… Not fun! I really cannot recommend it to anyone.. who values their sanity in any way. Ofcourse there the the commercial traffic which behaves and is predictable although is ALOT of it!! 

The there is the normal smallboat traffic.. which is mostly harmless stuff in itself. But when you add to the mix random big yachties,  a couple classes of sailing competitions (100+ optimist dingies plus support boats)  and the usual mix of sailboats and sightseeing tour boats doing their thing ghen a couple sea kayaks really have no space to be in! Its a bit like trying to crawl across a six-lane freeway during rush hour and expecting not to get hit… not going to happen!

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New sauna called Löyly located in Hernesaari
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Some traffic trying to run us into the wave break.

We did survive Helsinki crossing .. not going to do that again anytime soon in this life..
The rest of the days paddling went well.. we had a tailwind which gave a nicepush southwest along the coast. I believe this was the first fullday of tailwind during this trip.

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Skorvan

We visited Skorvan isle’ where we were invited to stay the night by our hosts,  Helsinki based sea kayaking club Merimelojat ry.

Day 7: Norrholmen – Onaslandet – Kaunissaari – Kallahti

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We woke up to a near freezing chilly morning atop a cold rock at Norrholmen isle. We skipped breakfast, took down camp snd set off paddling in a cloudy overcast but still calm weather to round the southern tip of Emäsalo.
After paddling some 9 kms we stopped for a quick breakfast at the western point of Onaslandet. At this point the clouds removed themselves towards the south and the sun came out!
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At this stage the wind was from the S @ approx 3-4 m/s. This was the first time I dared to use the SeaDog Commander sail unreefed.  The help from the sail was minimal but noticeable!
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We made good time to Kaunissaari in hopes for a cafe.. there was a cafe but it wouldn’t open for another 2 hours.. slightly annoyed by this we settled for our thermos teas and a couple handfuls of trailmix before continuing to the days final destination: Kallahti , Natura Viva Paddling center.

Just as we were leaving Kaunissaari thunderstorm in the north near Vuosaari port looked like it might turn south as the winds were gusting up and blowing from the north!! A quick route replan and we headed south thru the safety of a group of isles before turning back west again towards Hattusaari and Natura Viva. Enroute had to play ‘wait and see’ with another dark thundercell before crossing over 4 shipping lanes to Hattusaari… almost there!
After a quick Snickers chocolate bar “lunch”, we made it to the NaturaViva oadfling center quite easily.
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Day 4: Lilla Hudö – Kabböle – Byön

It would seem that since the previous day we nade reasonable progress despite the northwind and actually the wind direction was favourable for our progress, the powers that be deemed it necessary for a change in wind direction.
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When woke up the wind had turned SW… another day of stiff 8 m/s
headwinds awaited us – again!

Despite this physical and mental challeeeeenge,  we set off. Trying to find a short cut I won the first ice cream bet of the trip. I hsppened to guess cirrectly whether we could cross through a very narrow reed infested strait. We could and I won! 😊

We were approaching Keipsalo from the east with intent of rounding the northern tip and continuing SW to Kabböle marina for water refills, coffee and that ice cream. All the way in an annoying headwind! Gusts probably oeaked to oerhsps 12 m/s wave height was around 60 cm. Energy sapping headway we made.

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At Kabböle we decided that continuing SW with this headwind wasn’t very smart on the long run so we planned on paddling another 9 km to the next recreational campsite  on Byon isle known as Bockholm.
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9 km’s of intensifying headwind later we made it to Bockholm. A natural cove harbour, A nice place for boaters, sailers for sure, but not so ideal for kayakers. Landing space for kayaks is limited to maybe 5-6, otherwise the shore is steep. Suitable tentspaces are far from shore.. but since thete was enougj room for two paddlers and we were a bot tired we decided to stay.

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Day 3: Kuutsalo – Långön – Lilla Hudö

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The wind, waves and cold of the previous day had taken their toll on us. We didn’t feel too energetic as we headed once again into a chilly headwind up the passage between Kuutsalo and Lehmäsaari isle’s. Yet we trudged onwards. Past Lehmäsaari we turned SW and followed paralel to the shipping lanes, past Mussalo harbour. At this stage headwind was no more and the rest of the day we paddled in a southwesterly course in the windless side of islands or we had a rear quartering tailwind while in the open areas.

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We had two rest breaks during the day, the longer on the southern rocky shore of Långön, a very photogenic location.

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I had been used the sail starting on kilometer 16 and had it up the rest of the day (some26 kms). It was quite fun and relaxing at that stage. However the wind was still pretty cold.

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Some 6 km out from Lilla Hudö the wind began to die and the setting for the approaching sunset was begining to look nice!

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We made it ashore sometime at 2130 hrs – Totally exhausted! It had been a VERY taxing day!