Day 43 Rain then peace
We left Jaakoshamn and headed West towards Mariehamn. We followed the marked routes past many private islands but in a few moments the heavens opened and it was simply the most awful rain.
Worse was the fact that the route was the most challenging that I have ever undertaken with so many hazards. You can't really get a good impression as most of the best photo opportunities were lost because no one of the on-board photographers wanted to get wet. Needless to say Richard captured a short video which just about shows how close we were to both sides were as we were taken through a cutting in the rocks. The cutting was no wider than the boat is long. If that wasn't bad enough as we turned the corner a huge barge was coming the other way and we only had 1m of water under our keel, so our options were limited.
Later we passed Hanko and had to pass over a shallow bank and it was listed as 3.1m and we draw 2.35 so we should have had plenty of but we got down to 0.5 under the keel which is not a lot of margin on a big boat. One of the other boats on the rally went the same way but they draw 1.8m and they only has 0.3 under there's so they were in just 2.1m, if we had followed their track we would have run aground.
Interestingly although we were far behind all the other boats on the previous day we all seemed to have joined the same route so before long it was a bit like a procession. We decided to abandon our plans and just go to the same anchorage everyone else was going to.
Linda and I had another sauna, after a fine meal cooked by Linda and then I could not stay awake having deposited the contents of my whisky glass on my jeans.
Worse was the fact that the route was the most challenging that I have ever undertaken with so many hazards. You can't really get a good impression as most of the best photo opportunities were lost because no one of the on-board photographers wanted to get wet. Needless to say Richard captured a short video which just about shows how close we were to both sides were as we were taken through a cutting in the rocks. The cutting was no wider than the boat is long. If that wasn't bad enough as we turned the corner a huge barge was coming the other way and we only had 1m of water under our keel, so our options were limited.
Later we passed Hanko and had to pass over a shallow bank and it was listed as 3.1m and we draw 2.35 so we should have had plenty of but we got down to 0.5 under the keel which is not a lot of margin on a big boat. One of the other boats on the rally went the same way but they draw 1.8m and they only has 0.3 under there's so they were in just 2.1m, if we had followed their track we would have run aground.
Interestingly although we were far behind all the other boats on the previous day we all seemed to have joined the same route so before long it was a bit like a procession. We decided to abandon our plans and just go to the same anchorage everyone else was going to.
Linda and I had another sauna, after a fine meal cooked by Linda and then I could not stay awake having deposited the contents of my whisky glass on my jeans.
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Downpour -
On the ferry -
Chrlotte by Richard -
Linda by Richard -
Photo of Joleif by Richard