Author: jny

Still at Orren Krouwi . I lost interest in the today’s F1 race after Kimi’s back wing blew off. Today has been tourist day in Nystad. We have seen the Bonk museum, The loadsman (or pilot) museum, the old church and a shop in the wharf.

The captain of the boat bought a new seamap of the area. We had kind of double trouble getting into Nystad. First the plotter didn’t have maps of the area and then it turned out that compared to our map, the navigable channel had changed somewhat regarding markings and position. At least now we have the latest available map.

The weather seems to be getting better. We have had the first glimpse of the sun in 48 hours and the forecast for tomorrow is good. If the winds prove suitable, we’ll try to go and see Enskär (Isokari) tomorrow.

Here are a couple of random Enskär links: 1, 2, 3.

The weather is usually dull and it is quite windy. We manage to pass the tower without incidents. The first time we passed it (the 2001 odyssey) the left roof hatch blew into the sea. The rescue operation lasted for about 15 minutes.

The toll officers probably had their day’s laugh as we were circling the floating hatch trying to get the boat into position for grabbing and lifting it up. The boat has a long keel and the turning radius is probably around 50 meters so precise positioning, especially in strong wind, is not easy.

It turns out that DNA provides WLAN access in the guest harbour on Smultrongrundet. Sadly you cannot get access for one day or so but have to be a subscriber. The service is not cheap. The fee for flat rate is 90 euros per month. There are cheaper alternatives, but they are not flat rate.

Public WLAN doesn’t seem to be a big thing here in Finland. At least not affordable WLAN. Perhaps the good GPRS access slows down the WLAN expansion. Many WLAN operators offer GSM and GPRS access too. Maybe they don’t want to eat market share of their lucrative GPRS traffic (mine is over 2 euros per megabyte).

One of the big and fast one-hulled Tallink ferries passed aft of us on its way out. Damn it accelerated fast!

We are starting to see some waves now. Phoneblogging standing up is no longer possible.

The treehugging session is over. The Odyssey has finally started.

A very old and ill birch is being taken down on Nicke’s yard and he wants to witness the event. We are waiting. A Bronto Skylift is parked on the yard. Currently a willow is being barbered.

The first night in the boat was uneasy. Falling asleep in the very narrow bed was hard. I woke up in the middle of the night to the hard smattering of rain on the cabin roof. Pretty soon the seagulls started making their usual noise.

Now breakfast is over and it is time to start packing.

The question right now is: will the start be today or tomorrow? Nicke, the boat owner, still has quite a lot of things to do and after that we need to shop and most probably eat. There is no point in starting late in the afternoon as we don’t wan’t to drive the boat by night.