Special thanks!

We have during this trip around Finland learnt a lot of stuff and we have all developed our paddle skills. But we also had a lot of help during the trip. All you that has met us and talked to us has helped us in some way while others has helped us more physically and given us food and shelter for the night. Thank you all helpfull people, without your help we would still be out paddling.

30/07-2010, day 44, Last day

It had been a quite windy night, and it was still quite windy in the morning, so there where comeing a little waves in on the cliffs, so we had to look a little to find the best way to get out, Oskar and Sigurd found a little crack in the cliff, that they glided down into the water, Eeva took a more calm way, with her glass-fiber kayak. the wind had changed over night and was now comeing from south-southwest, so it was halfway in the back, which made it nice and easy to paddle, it allways feel very easy to paddle with the wind, after a couple of days against it. we made good speed and got the the turning point, where we started to go straight north into Virolathi, the bay outside Virojoki Kyrkby, once we turned to the north, we got the wind straight in the back, and got a strange feeling that the trip waS over soon, but it was still nice paddling and funny to be able to look into Russia. we worked our way into the river, and Sigurds mom was supposed to stand where the river starts, and wave welcome, but because of difficulties in the communication, we missed her. we paddled on into the river, untill we came to a little motor-boat marina, where Eevas dad was waiting, and showed us where we could get ashore. we started to pack out, and once Sigurds mom was there, we opened a bottle of champange and smoked a cigar, to celebrate a good and succesfull trip. we packed out the rest of the stuff and packed the car, and drove to Helsinki, to start to rest and recover from the trip.

Distance: Nuokko - Virojoki Kyrkby (motorboat marina) ( 42 km)

Wind: 7-11 m/s from S to SW

Waves: 0.2 - 0.8 M

TOTAL DISTANCE: 1341 km

2010- 07- 29 Sightseeing Kotka

Woke up around 6.00, our last weather report told us 11-14 m/s wind from east so we had to see if it was worth going out this morning. After cooking breakfast we listened to the radio and the seaweather, it told us 12 m/s from east and we decided to be tourists in Kotka untill at least lunch. We went to the city of Kotka and checked out a sports store and a few cafés. The marketplace were filled with a lot of people selling different stuff. One of them turned out to be a saunastand and the owner told us about an upcoming saunafestival and we herd about saunakaraoke, interesting. The old harbour had even more stands and we didnt have the time or energy to go through them all. After a few hours of touristing we had got tired of it and wanted to paddle. We had a late lunch and headed out in a almost strange calm afternoon. We soon discovered that there were thunderclouds and lightnings far away east and that that we were heading towards each other. During aa crossing we decided to take a break on the next island, wise decision, and check the weather out. After 2 minutes on the island we had a monsunrain and over 15 m/s and we were straight under the bad weather. It went past us and we could continue. We found an island one hour later and we stayed the night there. During the night we had one more of these bad weather and Oskar counted to 2 seconds from lghtning to strike, ca 700 meters.

Distance: Kotka- Nuokko, 16 km

Wind: ca 12 m/s E 6.00- 16.00, 0-2 m/s E after 16.00

Waves: 10- 30 cm

2010- 07- 28 Big boats

We woke up at the usual time, 6.00 and this time Eeva cooked the porridge. We were sitting in our kayaks heading towards new adventures around 8.30. This day we had the goal set on Kotka, a resonable goal due to the increasing wind. The day went on pretty smooth thought we had some hard places with some more wind. In Kotka we greated on some big boats that were floating in the harbour. After passing the first of 3 big boatroutes we decided to paddle over another one when there was a boat on its way in, in very low speed. It was not close but big boats look bigger when they are heading towards you. After that little excitment in the evening we only had a few kilometers to Kotka guestharbour. We came there around 19.30 and we were going to the store so Eeva and Sigurd went straight to the store and Oskar stayed to guard the stuff and put up tent and fix the kayaks. The day ended with beers and pasta carbonara in a park outside Kotka guestharbour.

Distance: Island SW of Kampuslandet- 1 km S of Kotka guestharbour, 35 km

Wind: 5-9 m/s ENE

Waves: 20- 60 cm

2010-07-27 Bathing cliffs

We sat in our kayaks around 8.30 and started another day at the sea. The morning was calm and we headed towards a place called Kampuslandet. First hours of paddling went on smoothly. We only had one problem and that was a thick fog over Pellinge and its surroundings. We could only see for about 500 meters in the worst places. Fortunately the wind didnt fight against us so we did paddle on as usual only with an extra eye open. The fog eased around 13.00 and from then it was a sunday paddle. We found a cool place to put up our tent around 18.30 on a high cliff. This place also offered a perfect kayakharbour and a bathing cliff which you could dive from. A great day of paddling ended with some diving from some perfect bathing cliffs.

Distance: Söderholmen- Island SW of Kampuslandet, 42 km

Wind: 1-4 ENE

Waves: 0- 20 cm

26/07-2010, thunder morning

We went op in the morning, and heard alot of big bangs, at first we dident really understand what it was, the feeling of thunder wasent really in the air, and the clouds dident really look like it was thunder clouds, but we went up on a hill to check it out, and was the thunder was a bit away and blowing away from us, so we thought it was safe to go out. in the begging we had a little local wind in the back, but it went away quite fast and we got the wind against us, as we are used to, tho we dident get alot of wind and the water was very calm, so we decided to take the most direct route. we had planed to go to Pellinge to visit our teacher from school, but we dident get hold of him, so just before Pellinge, we decided to go in on a little island with a WC and cooking shelter, we later found out that our teacher is busy with his big plans, and is in Helsinki. when we came a shore on the island, we saw a dead seal, which was half eaten and dident look very sweet and the live once do, we allso found a skeleton from a big bird, and a whole lot of people, that where here with their boats, some of them looked a little strange at us, when we came trough the forest, but we dident mind and put up our tents on the other side of the island´. oskar cooked nice tortilia for dinner, just after dinner, it started to rain, so we hurried up and packed our stuff into the tents, but it wasent alot of rain that came, so it's still a summer with high percent of sun and very little rain.

Distance: Kaliosaari - Södaholmen (33 km)

Wind: 1-5 m/s from ENE

Waves: 0.0 - 0.2 M

Total distance: 1204 km

Time: 08:45 - 17:30

2010-07-25 Windy

The morning started with the normal rutines, cooking poridge and checking the weather. The first thing we saw when we woke up was a thick fog over Suomenlinna and as far east we could see. The wind was like yesterday blowing strong and we decided to rest untill the weather eased, the internet told that it would. Eeva and Oskar went for more sightseeing and some danish breads and Sigurd caught some more hours sleep. Around 13.00 the wind had eased a little and we felt like moving so we packed our stuff and ate lunch. Before we left we thanked the kind Tarja and said goodbye. The wind was blowing pretty hard but the route was in protection from waves by islands. We gave our best and paddled on untill 19.00, where we found a shelter to make a fire and dry some clothes. We stayed the night there and met 2 other paddlers that also had found this island.

Distance: Suomenlinna- an island outside Kallahti
Wind: 7- 14 m/s
Waves: 20- 50 cm

2010-07-24 Sightseeing

Last night we got the message from Sigurds dad that tomorrow was going to be a windy day, the radio and the internet told us the same. We decided that we were waking up 7.00 and check the weather. It had been blowing all night and it continued the whole day, so we took a day off. After 10.00 we went up and cooked porridge indoors. We were camping on Tarjas, a friend of Eeva, backyard and she had been kind enough to let us use the kitchen and toilet. The wind was blowing 14 m/s against but we didnt notice when we were sightseeing in Suomenlinna/Sveaborg. Sveaborg is an old fortress that has belong to first Sweden then Russia and finally Finland. Exciting tunnels and cannons combined with more modern warobjects as a submarine made this day very nice. In between all this sightseeing we had the time to eat pizza and a whole lot of icecreams. In the evening we met up with our good friend from school, Stefan who lives and works in Helsinki during this summer. We ate some food and drank some beers and talked about the summer which ended this day. A good day though we didnt paddle one meter.

Wind: 14 m/s ENE

More pictures

Here is more photos from our trip around Finland, enjoy!

Enjoying the first evening outside Tornio!

Powernaping in drysuit

One small paddler

Rough weather outside Simo

Making coffee, you got to have room for luxuries

Beautiful lights one late evening in Kalajoki

Danish way of eating sausage

Sigurd and Oskar paddling towards the end of the world, watch out for the edge!

Miss "Energy" Mansner joined us the evening in Hanko








Oskar posing for 2 newspapers

Pictures

Here is some pictures from our trip, we have got alot of requests for more pictures, so now we can show some. but one of our cameras are broken, so the pictures from that one might come a little later, if we get it to work again.

Midsummer evening with a swedish pole in the ground.

Doing the laundry.

Oskar and Sigurd paddling away after leaving Eeva on Österö.

Nice evening in Hanko, 2 rainbows at the same time.

Day 36 2010-07-23

We left the lovely Lilla Bredskär in the morning and headed towards new adventures. Hanna decided to accompany us, which was nice. Not so nice thing was that the wind had turned and was blowing against us, again. Not too much though, so it was ok.
We ate lunch on a little cliffs near an island called Melkki. Hanna offered us some pasta salad and other nice things before she paddled away and left us on our own again. We soon continued towards Suomenlinna where we had arranged a place for our tents. It's a very nice place here, a lot of old fortresses and exciting dark tunnels and a view to the place where the big boats pass by on their way to Sweden.

Today's saldo was
Lilla Bredskär-Suomenlinna 26 KM
Vind SW 2-6 m/s
Waves 0,0-0,4 m

Day 35 2010-07-22 Sleepy morning

We had decided to take a day off, so we started the day with sleeping as long as we could. When the sleepiest sleepyheads had waken up, we ate breakfast and took a boat ride to Porkkala to eat icecream. After the boatride Oskar and Sigurd took a bath (or as they called it, reheased techniques) with the kayaks and Pirjo and Hanna took a short paddling while Eeva and Helvi were left on the beach to build sand castles. The day ended with some serious eating, sauna and the last but not least: pancakes!

Lilla Bredskär-Lilla Bredskär 0 km

2010- 07- 21 Meet the parents

Last night we had put out the meat along with the food we couldnt eat yesterday to the birds. In the morning it was all gone and we didnt have to dig it down. This morning we had targeted an island called Lilla bredskäret outside Helsinki. The distance was short and we had nice weather due to the previous nights forecast, so this was going to be a easy day. Started paddled 8.30 and did a crossing to Porkkala point to get to the guestmarina in Porkkala. Sigge was out of ciggs so we had to, to avoid a tragedy, visit a store on the way to Lilla bredskäret. The store and marina turned out to be real nice and we got a dessert to our lunch, icecreams. After kayaking the short distance after lunch we ended up on the island that Eevas parents boatclub owns. On the island Pirjo, Jouko (Eevas parents), Hanna and Helvi (Eevas sister and her daughter) were waiting. The day ended with good company, food and a healthy sauna.

Distance: Stora långön- Lilla bredskäret 33 km
Wind: 4- 7 m/s SW
Waves: 0- 30 cm

2010-07-20 Feeding the birds

We woke a little late, 7.00 and started cooking our daily poridge. After taking a look at the weather, and reallising that the it looked very promising we decided to take a 1 hour powernap. Our goal for the day was to come halfway to an island called Lilla bredskäret, about 60 kilometer. After starting to paddle we very fast took distance and we held about 7 kilometer/hour. The day went on smoothly untill the afternoon when it started to get more and more open and the wind had turned to our side. But we kept cool and found nice routes with a little protection from the waves and wind. We ended up on some cliffs on close to Stora Långö only to reallize that the meat we had planned to eat for the day had gone real bad. It was green and didnt smell too good. So we gave it to some appreciating seagulls who didnt have any problem eating green meat.

Distance: Träskön- Stora Långö 35 km
Wind: 6- 11 m/s SW
Waves: 20- 60 cm

2010- 07- 19 Surfing

Easy day with a strong blowing in our backs from lunch untill we found our place to put up our tent. We spent the surfing from Hanko to a Island called Träskön straight south of Karis. The day offered both big waves and strong wind and small waves and no wind. We decided to get a little more north to get some islands to protect us from the biggest waves who quickly got a little to big to surf them without problem. After doing that we almost were blown forward and we didnt do much more than just hold the kayak on course. Our only problem for the day was to find a place to spend the night but around 1830 we had found it and a another nice day on the sea were about to end.

Distance: Hanko marina- Träskön, 42 km TOT: 1065 km
Wind: 4- 9 m/s SW
Wavers: 40- 120 cm

1/07-2010, Hanko

The morning started with a late waking up. We´d put the clock on 10.00 after the last nigths paddling. We woke up and got away from our little island a few minutes past 12.00. The first hours went on pretty smooth and we had lunch when we could see the point of Hanko. The only problem we had were when we crossed a big navigation channel, heavy traffic. One sailing crew didnt have alot of attention what were in front of them, but we sped up and got away with 20 meters. After lunch we had around 15 kilometers left and it went easy and we even got a taste of some surfing. In Hanko harbour Eeva waited with her parents, and she were about to join our crew again. We spent the evening eating icecream and enjoying a few beers. And we even met the local energybomb Ida Mansner who came by and showed her car and we exchanged summerstories.

Sight from our tent place:

Distance: Stora ängesön- Hanko marina, 32 km TOT: 1023 km
Wind: 2- 5 m/s WSW
Waves: 0- 40 cm

16/07-2010, Paragas

It was a calm morning, and we knew we had a short day ahead of us, we paddled for a couple of hours and a little before we came to a very big navigation channel we saw, the Silja line Turku - Stockholm ferry passing by, when we had to cross the big navigation channel, and when we where in the middel of it, we looked at our clock, and saw that if we hadent gotten up an hour late that morning, we would have been in the middel of it, when the big silja line boat where passing trew. Once we got the the other side of the channel, we got a little wind in our back, and it was a nice feeling after all the vind in the face, we had before. we came to Paragas Kayak club, around 13:30 and started to eat lunch, when a guy from the club came, we talked with him about 1 - 1.5 hours, about kayaks and paddling. We packed out our kayaks and Frida came to pick us up, and we went to her place, where we took a bath and changed cloth, before we went to the marina to get a coffe. we allso got to wash our cloth, and we had babercue for dinner, and with every barbercue we had a little beer:D, it was a really nice evening.

Distance: Iso-maisaari - Paragas Kayak club (25 Km)

Wind: 4-8 m/s from West

Waves:0.0 - 0.5 M

Total Distance: 942 km

2010-07-15

Today we did our first whole day here in Turku archipelago and it really is something special. The day offered fantastic weather and very beautiful surroundings. Something that we´re not so used to after coming from the north is the traffic. We have probably seen more boats today than the rest of the trip all together. We started from Kustavi 900 and we had talked to Frida, a friend of ours, and we are going to Pargas in 2 days, 65 km. We wanted to do a little longer day today so we could spend more time in Pargas tomorrow. We ended up on a cliff 1 kilometer northwest of Maisaari, the most special tentplace so far this trip.

Distance: Kustavi- Maisaari, 42 km
Wind: 0- 4 m/s SE
Waves: 0- 30 cm mostly boats

2010-07-14 Turku archipelago

This day we headed towards the big archipelago outside Turku. It started out nice around 830, warm but not very sunny. We have been fried by the sun for about 2 weeks so we had been waiting for a cloudy day. We paddled on untill lunch and we had done about 20 kilometer and the weather was still nice. The place we were going for this day was the guest harbour in Kustavi. We came there about 1900 and we had to do some shopping before cooking and enjoying our new suroundings. After discovering that the guestharbour were a bit disapointing we took the decision to continue for about 1 km to the other side of channel an there we put up our tent. The day ended with some Radio rock and Oskar tried to sleep outside the tent, on the cliffs. Nut he fled back to the tent due to the mosquitos.

2010-07-13 lunch bath

it was a nice morning, but hard to get up and out, but we made it anyways, and got away. in the start it was nice and easy paddling, and it was hot in the sun, we made it easy untill lunch, wich we ate on a nice big rock, the sun was very strong and it was really hot, so after we ate, we decided to jump in the water really fast, to cool down a little, so we could continue, without being totally fried. After lunch, we got some hard winds against us, and it was really hard to get somewhere, and we had to go a little further to get passed a bay, because of the hard wind we dident really make it to the Turku archipelago, as we had planed, but we where in a good mood anyways, since we found a really nice campsite, with a great view of nothing but water.

Distance: Kuuskajaskari - island sw from Edväinen (37 km)

Wind: 5 - 9 m/s from sw

Waves: 0.0 - 0.5 M

Total distance: 833 km

day 26. 12/07-2010 Rauma

we started out from Hyviluoto around 08:15 Am, with some hard winds from SW, but we had alot of islands to hide behind, so it wasent a big problem, we found really good ways to go the whole day, so it was only for short bits at a time, that we felt the hard wind. We found a little river trew Olkiluoto and Reksaari, and there where allmost no wind there, we got a little inland feeling. Around Rauma we saw more boats than we have seen the whole trip before, there was exstream trafik on the water, and it was very strange to see so many people, when we in the north dident see anyone. we got to a little island, or a big rock, outside Rauma, near something called Kuuskajaskari, it's a really nice big rock, looks a little like a natural harbor, but no WC or anything, and we have a nice view of Rauma harbor and the big navigation channel.

Distance: Hyviluoto - Kuuskajaskari, 41 KM

Wind: 5-9 M/S from SW(again)

Waves0.0 - 0.4 M

2010-07-11 Nice day!

We started the day around 830 and paddle on with a high but nice tempo. The Radio told us yesterday, that this day were going give us some wind in our backs, for exchange. We used this day to do some big crossings. Untill lunch we had paddled 28 km and the weather had been as predicted. After a long distance during the morning we took a 20 minutes powernap on the cliffs where we ate lunch. After lunch we had as goal for the to cross the 2 big bays in Pori. The first one of them turned out to be a big partybeach and they played music while we crossed it. After crossing the second one we decided to find a place to put up our tent. There were many islands so our job was easy and we found a great spot for our portable house.

Distance: Merikarvia- Hyviluoto, 53 km
Wind: 0- 4 m/s NW
Waves: 0- 40 cm

2010-07-10 Mericamping

We were sitting in our kayaks around 8.15 and started heading more south towards the archipelago. Hard paddling untill lunch and both me and Sigurd felt the yesterday in our shoulders and back. We stayed a few minutes extra on our lunchbreak to gather powers to paddle the last 8 kilometers to Merikarvia harbour. After lunch the paddling went easier and Oskar almost lost a paddle in a small tunnel 500 meters from the harbour. Thanks to Sigurds drysuit and diving skills we got it back and we could continue our journey. The harbour offered excellent icecream and we met our newfound friend Pentti again, the man we met yesterday and Vasa. This time he wasnt sitting in his kayak and we talked for about an hour. He turned out to be a real nice man, and shared his knowledge with us, and we to him. After splitting up with him we bougth icecream and coffee and went to the store, we had forgot to buy coffee 2 days ago. At last we decided to continue 1 more kilometer to the camping on the other side of the bay, first time we washed our clothes indoor and had our first freshwater shower. Strange feeling to be clean!

Distance: Kyrkeskär- Mericamping (Merikarvia) 31 km
Wind: 6- 11 m/s SW
Waves: 0- 50 cm

2010-07-09 Tough day

Started paddle from Jans cabin around 11 after packing up our new food in the kayaks. Jan was a great host and it felt nice after a night indoor. The wind was from the beginning of the day blowing evenly hard in our faces. After some hours we decided to move our destination for the day to around 30 kilometer paddling. We found us a great spot for our tent around Kyrkeskär south of Kristinestad. We both felt pretty exhausted after a tough day on the sea and were happy to have one or two hours extra on land. Sitting on the rocks our our copaddler who we met in Vasa came by and we spoke a few minutes, he were heading south to find somwhere to eat and rest.

Distance: Jans cabin(Close to Skrattnäs)- Kyrkeskär 28 km
Wind: 6- 10 m/s even wind from SSW
Waves: 10- 50 cm

day 22. 08/07-2010, Jan's Cabin

we started out from Öskatan fishing harbor, a little late, around 10:30, so we got to sleep a little longer. we went passed Kaskinen, wich is Finlands smallest city, it looked quit cosy, but had an ugly factory. Near Kaskinen, we went into a little marina, to eat lunch, that became quit long, since we took kinda a little power-nap, we met some people there, who came in with a little boat, and we talked a little with them, just before they left, they came back and asked us, if we needed a ride into town to buy food or something, but we allready made plans. we went on and allmost where we planed to go, we went under a little bridge and our friend from school(Jan) was sitting there in his boat, we had talked with him on the phone the day before, about comeing to visit in is cabin, and he said he would be there around 19:00, so it would be fine if we where the around that time, but we had quit good weather so, we kayaked a little faster than planed, and came a little early, but it wasent a problem, since he wasent working that day, he was just out fishing with a friend, we went the last Km to his cabin. once we where there, he took us by car, into Kristinestad, where we could buy food and get water, he did bring a 20 L tank with him in the car, but it wasent closed proberly, so the water was all over the trunk. after shoping, we went to Crazy Cat, allso in Kristinestad, and said hello to Björn(allso from our school) and got a nice meal there, we both got red deer, a very fancy meal it was. Björn came with us back to Jan's Cabin, where we drank a couple of beers, ate strawberrys and had a sauna, that was 120 degrees in the begining and 100 degrees with a cross-draft, a real finish sauna, but even the finns where whining. for the whole day we had about, 2-5 m/s from SW, waves about 0.0-0.3 M and got to a total of 25 Km.

day 21. 07/07-2010, long day

We started out from a little island, called Skiten, witch means shit in swedish. it was a nice place with a little cottage we slept in. we forgot the meat again, but Oskar remembered it, after only 2 Km, so it wassent so far to kayak back and get it, we came up with a new system to remember it, now we are gonna attach the paddel to it. we had really nice weather, maby even a little to much sun, if thats possible, and we started out early. we kayaked for a really long time and made a good distance, and that felt really good. we came to a little fishing harbor, near öskatan, and when we where going into the harbor, some people followed us on their bikes, and where really frindly and interrested once we came to land, we talked a little with them, but it was quit late and we where kind of tired, so we dident really have the energy to talk alot, but still it's allways fun to meet people who are interrested in what we are doing, these people even knew our school. it was a very long day on the water, we started out around 08:30 and came to land around 20:15. and for the whole day we had about, 2-4 m/s from NW, waves about 0.0-0.3 M and got to a total of 62 Km(not bad)

day 20. 06/07-2010, Skiten

We started out early in the morning, around 8 AM, now we finally where gonna get a little nice weather, but we later found out we where still gonna get quit some wind against us, but not so much that we dident take a little distance. We kayaked south most of the day, and went trew a lot of small islands, and in between to larger islands, but once we got a bit in, we found out that we couldent get trew, luckily we dident have to go all the way back, we found a little river, close to where we where, that was leading out to the ocean again, it was very interesting kayaking, to find the way and to kayak in all the siv, that was there, but we did make it trew. when it started to get late, we decided to start thinking about where to find a campsite, and we went into a little island, to look at a kayaking map over the Vaasa area, we got from Eeva, and we found a little island, with a house for travelers to sleep in, it's very nice, allmost like sleeping in a real house, and we dont have to put up the tent, and take it down in the morning. for the whole day we had about, 4-8 m/s from SW, waves was about 0.0-0.3 M and we got to a total of 47 KM(a new record for us to do in 1 day)

Day 19. 05/07-2010 Vaasa

it was a very windy day, with hard winds, right in the face, so we dident get to far, before we decided to go ashore on a little island, and see if the wind would decrease a little, but it became quit a long break, and we ate lunch there. We then decided to kayak a few hundred meters to a coast with a road to the main land. From there we called our friend Alexander, from our school, and he was nice enough to come get us in his car and drive us to Vaasa's down town, where we ate kebab and icecream together, in the evening he then drove us back to our kayaks. while we where waiting for Alexander at the shore, we met another kayaker, that was kayaking the coast of finland(from tornio), we came into us and we talked a little with him, but he wassent very good at english and was in a hurry to get to Vaasa, but he told us that he started a week ago in Tornio and that he had to stay on land for 1 day because of the wind, he was a hard core guy maby? maby just crazy. In the area we had our camp, there was alot of big bolder rocks, just waiting to be found, and we where walking around looking at them, and thinking about the once that are gonna have climbing specialisation next year. for the whole day we had about, 8-13 m/s from SW, waves about 0.1-0.4 M and got to a total of 7 KM

4/7- 2010

We started from the beach, on which we stayed the night on, around 9. It was still pretty windy but not as steady wind as yesterday. We paddled the whole day whitout any bigger problems. The way we chose went down to the main land and then on northwest to the fishing harbour on Köklot. On arrival both of us reallized that we are pretty happy about the distance under the circumstances.

Distance: Västerö(Storgrund)- Köklot fishing harbour, 32 km
Wind: 7- 12 m/s, S- SW
Waves: 0- 40 cm

3/7- 2010, Kött kött!

W started in the harbour and went to the local store in the morning. After shopping our food we packed Eevas stuff in the car and packed our now overpacked kayaks. Eeva's taking a break from the trip because it turned out to be physically a bit too challenging. Not to worry though, she'll be back! Probably in the Turku area, or Hanko. The morning took more time than expected and we got away around 1230. But we didn't get too far, the wind was blowing to our faces at a steady 11 m/s. Me and Sigurd decided to find somewhere to wait the wind out. But it blew like that all day and we decided to stay the night. In the afternoon we found out that we had forgot some food to the last place we stayed at, so we had to go get it. After this we placed a ducktape with the words "Kött Kött" (means "meat meat" in swedish) written on our kayaks since it was the bag with meat we forgot.

Distance: Österö fishing harbour- Västerö, 5 km
Wind: 9- 11 m/s SW
Waves: 10- 40 cm

2/7- 2010 Backyard camping

We woke up and realized that we had got company at our campsite. We didnt find any place to put up our tent so we put it up close to a what we thought was an abandones house. In the morning we were proven wrong. We had got company by two gentlemen who told us that there was no problem with us staying there. They were very helpful and gave us tips of where we could find stores. After leaving Sandören we headed towards Österö fishingharbour, SW. We had our first experience of the wind blowing in our backs for this journey, fantastic. Around 1830 we paddled into the harbour with a unproblematic day behind us. Except from some bigger surwaves everything went smooth. In the morning we are going to the store called Skärgårdens Handelskompani and paddle towards Vasa/Vaasa.

Distance: Sandören- Österö fishing harbour, 36 km
Wind: 1-6 m/s, N- W
Waves: 0- 60 cm

1/7- 2010 Panncake breakfast

We started from Ulrikas cabin after eating a great breakfast with american panncakes. We paddled from the cabin with maybe to much food in our stomaches. Around 1400 we found a nice island called "storpaskarn" and ate lunch there. We recomend this island for other paddlers, there were an outdoor toilet and place to throw your garbage. After lunch it startet raining and blow a little more. After a few hours of paddling we decided to look for a place to spend the night and we ended up in someones backyard.

Distance: Fellmans trollögrundet- Sandören, 31 KM

Wind: NW- N, 3-6, Waves: 0- 40 cm

Day 14 2010-06-30: Sisu, sauna & sausage

Today would be the day. We would finally meet some friends! Ulrika had promised a place to stay from her family's summer cottage. We started from our island close to Pirskeri in the morning one hour earlier than usually (around 8.15 am) to be sure to get there. Until lunch the weather was a bit windy and it was taking more time than anticipated to get forward. But since we got into the Larsmo lake, it started going faster and we reached our destination, Fellmans trollögrundet, after 42 KM long paddling at 18.45.

Ulrika had planned to spoil us with sauna and good food. New potatoes, grill beef and sausage with some friends was exactly what we had been missing. Also got a good night sleep in the cottage! Thank you Ulrika once again! You're the best.

Today the wind was s-se 0-6 m/s, waves 0,1-0,3 M and the weather was sunny. Total KM 42.

Here's some pictures from the fine place:

Day 13 2010-06-29: Crazy killer birds

The day started with dark clouds which then turned into sunshine. We took lunch in a beautiful little harbour at the island of Ohtakari. For the night we found a very nice island with beautiful rocks and bay. The evening got even better when we got to see two big birds to chase seagulls. The whole island felt like it was a dream come true. It was ofcourse only until the birds started to chase us. We were just innocently going down to our kayaks to unload them, when they started to attack. And they were some seariously frightening birds! With some trees on our hands as a weapon we finally gathered enough courage to come out to the boats and move on. The island nearby was not as fantastic as this one, but at least there were no crazy killer birds on it.

For this day we got se wind 0-3 m/s, waves 0,0-0,3 M. Really nice. And totally 35,2 KM.

Day 12 2010-06-28: Hamburgers!

The wind had finally calmed down so we said goodbye to the nice people and the nice harbour. The waves were still rather big, going up to 0,8 M but it was ok to paddle. We took lunch in Kalajoki sand beach where we managed to buy gas to kitchen. By the store was a Hesburger so it became hamburgers for lunch. Nam!

For the evening, after some searching, we found a campsite from an island called Pauha in Kekolahti.

This day's wind was w-nw 7 m/s and the weather was sunny. We paddled 31,8 KM.

Day 11 2010-06-27: Day off

We woke up early this morning to find out that the wind that had started to blow the day before, had not settled down. It had been 14 m/s during the night and was still blowing 12 m/s. So we crawled back to the tents to sleep some more. An hour later the friendly man from the cottage near by came to check on us and kindly told us that the canots are not doing so well on the beach. The small harbour was well sheltered from the sea, but the wind had blown so hard that the water had come up and taken Oskar's kayak with it. All was well though, for it hadn't gone far. It was just making friends with other boats in the bay.

The wind was too strong to paddle out so we stayed in and started to figure out our strategies about buying food and getting water. Now with a day off we would have time to take care of those businesses but the question was how to get to Kalajoki. Eeva went in to the friendly cottage to ask about possibilities to ride a bus or hitch hike and came back with a free ride to the centrum. These people really amazed us with their friendliness! Besides a ride to the stores, we got water from their home in Kalajoki. We are saying a big thank you to Eeva and Martti Männistö for all the kindness we got!

With the extra time we got, we decided also to do the laundry. Sigurd offered his day hatch and we got some clean clothes. It was about time!

day 10 26/06-2010 sauna

it was a hot morning, with a little clouds, but nothing to worry about, we got out and it was nice kayaking, with only a little wind against us, but once we where eating lunch, we saw some dark clouds comeing our way, so we took the jackets on and prepared for rain and wind, but the coulds went passed fast, and we got nice sun and hot again, so we had to take a little break to take off some cloth again, we still had a little wind but nothing to care about. then at late afternoon it started to blow alot more, and it was just increasing, so we took a little break to look at the map and decide if we wanted to continue after the plan, and we did decicde to continue, but since the wind just became stronger, we went into a harbor we had just passed, this was proberly the best choise we have made so far, because Eeva went to a house to ask some people who lived there if it was ok to set up our tents, and it was no problem, then in the evening they came and invited us to use their sauna, wich was really hot and really nice, after 10 days, you start to get a little dirty, it was like becoming a new person. for the whole day we had about, 05 m/s in the morning from s-sw, 5-9 m/s in the evening from s-sw, 0.0-0.5 M waves and got to a total of 33 KM

day 9. 25/06-2010 Midsommer evening

a wonderfull day, really nice and calm weather, it was nice cutting trew butter, to kayak in the sea. It went wast and before we knew it we where just outside Raahe(Brahestad), and saw alot of people and alot of boats, this was quit new to us, since we allmost dident see any people beofore. we found a little island with no people on it, to eat lunch in the sun, and a nice view of Raahe. We then kayaked passed the industrial harbor in Raahe and it was not a nice view, it looked like somewhere the bad guy have their secret lair, like from an old movie or something, but with all the lslands it was very nice kayaking outside Raahe, and all the way down to Hanhikivi, where we stayed for the night, we could have continued further but decided since it was midsommer evening, that we would stop a little early to enjoy it and celebrate it a little. Oskar made a Midsommer pole(swedish tradition, it's a penis in the ground) and Eeva showed us how to drink vodka out of a HK's blue sausage, and with mustard, it's like tequila shots, but you have the mustard on the hand, the vodka in the sausage, and the sausage is the lemon in the end(you should really try this). for the whole day we had about 0-3 m/s from N-NV, 0.0-0.2 M waves and got to a total of 42 KM.

Day 8. 24/06-2010 mosquito beach

A very calm morning, so we crossed the next big bay easily, and continued for a bit, before we ate lunch in some siv/vass/kaislikko, to get a little shelter from the wind. we came around to a river delta, that we chose to kayak into, it was like kayaking in a jungle with crocodiles, but not so many mosquitos as you would think. once we came out the river delta we started to look for a place to sleep, but that wasent quit so easy, since the start dident really look that nice, and we had enough energy to continue, so we did, and once we crossed the next river, it was one big pile of sand, with shallow water, and we would have to carry the kayaks for halv a km, but once we got quit a bit longer we found somewhere we could get in a little easier, it was a really nice beach, so we decided to stay there, but after a short while we found out that it was full of mosquitos, there the more mosquitos than any of us had ever seen before, so it was a quick dinner and then into the tent to get a little break from them. for the whole day we had about 0-5 m/s from S-SV, 0.0-0.3 M waves and got to a total of 39 km. the longest day so far.

Day 7. 23/06-2010 sleeping with cows

we started out from Vehkaperä, nice and easy kayaking with nice and calm weather. we had alot of luck, maby the gods where with us, we passed the bay near Oulu, with some quit big waves, but they where helping o
us cross it, and what little wind we had, was comeing from behind.
once we had passed the bay we ate lunch at a nice little sand beach, that was just lying there and waiting for someone to buy it. after lunch we passed the point, and once where came around it, we godt a little wind against us, but it wasent to much, we could still continue for quit a bit. and got around to a cow pasture, with nice grass to sleep on. and very friendly cows, but a little scared. for the whole day we had about 3-6 m/s nad waves around 0.0-0.9 M and a total of 28.5 KM.

Day 6:2010-06-22

Today started very calmly. We paddled from Satakari into Haukipudas to buy some food. Everything went really smoothly, we found a good beach near the centre and two food stores and Alko with only 5 min walking distance. The Haukipudas church nearby was kind enough to give us drinking water. We took also this opportunity to use a real porceline bathroom. Thank you! It was luxurious after all the digging.

It took it's time to get everything organized and packed but we managed to paddle 28 km anyway and found us from a nice beach in Vehkaperä, near Oulu at 7.30 pm.

p.s. the battery on the computer is getting to it's end, that's why no pictures have come up in awhile. They're coming up later, don't you worry.

Day 5: 2010-06-21

We woke up in the middle of the bushes in the morning, saw that it was still blowing from southwest but not that much than the say before, and decided to wait a bit longer and sleep some more. We got going at 10.30 am with relatively calm wind and waves. It didn't take long though before the waves got bigger again but since the wind was ok, it didn't bother us that much. We ate lunch at one of the nicest island we've ever seen, with a tiny sandbeach. We liked it so much that we decided to buy it when we grow up and get rich and will build a cottage or a lean-to on it. Everyone will be welcome to visit us then.

Our goal today was Röyttä island in front of Ii. We came to the island south from it, called Satakari, at 7.45 pm after we had paddled 30 km. There we found a very nice beach, fireplace and not too many mosquitos.

Our little beach in the little island we'll buy some day:

Day 4 2010-06-20: Strong winds

In the morning of this day we saw that the weather is cloudy and very windy, but we thought it is still allright and decided to paddle. We left our beach at 9.30 am and continued towards south. The wind was blowing to our faces from southeast but was relatively ok until about 1 pm when it started to really blow. We tried to continue still, but it became so difficult to get forward and about anywhere that we decided to take cover from an small bushy island and decided to wait the wind to calm down. That never happened though, so we had to stay for the night. The island was filled with small trees and bushes but we managed to find a spot for the tent first from the shore and -after we had to move because the wind was pushing up the water- then from the other side of the island. The weather forecast in the evening told us that it was blowing 14 m/s.

Our spot in the bushes:

Day 3: 2010-06-19

This day was a exciting day. We had shifting weather but allways the wind blowinin our faces. We started paddling from Koivuluoto about 9.00 and had a pretty strong wind against us. Until lunchtime we had some tough paddling with small waves but strong wind from southeast. After lunch we paddled on with a little more speed but about the same in weatherconditions. Around 17.30 it became a little adventurous when we were doing a 3 kilometer paddle over open sea. It started blowing real hard and the waves started building up to around 1 meter high. We were forced to take shelter on an small island a little more than halfway of this bay. After 15 minutes the weather cooled down and we could continue and find our small beach were we our now, Halttula. Good and night and sleep tight, wishes everyone on this beach!

Day 2: 2010-06-18

Our first reports from the radio about this day came the evening before. The weatherreport predicted 10- 14 m/s in wind and we were some kilometers from main land. We woke up 6.00 and sat in our kayaks about 9.00 after some recognassance. The weather was a lot nicer than predicted and after lunch we had absolutely zero wind and plenty of sunshine. We paddled from our island Pikisaari to another island alias ("mosquitoisland" ) Koivoluoto. The distance was about 33 kilometer and we had our tent put up at around 19.00. We had a really great day with lots of time paddling.

Getting to Tornio and warming up

It's Thrusday 17th June and we are sitting on a beautiful island called Vähä-Huituri. We started our journey today around 11 am from another island, called Pikisaari in Tornio. The Röyttä harbour had become private so we had to change the starting point to further up the Tornio river. And since Pikisaari was such a nice place to sleep, it became it. Special thanks to Ulrika who agreed to be our personal driver! Hope to see you when we paddle by Esse!

Here's Eeva and Oskar ready to roll in Pikisaari:

The day was fine, mostly sunshine, some clouds and southwest wind. At 4.40 pm and after 21 kilometers and about 4 hours paddling we saw a nice beach and decided to take a short break. That break became a camp site after we saw how nice it was there:

And after awhile we noticed that we're not exactly where we had thought to be. We had very good intentions to paddle along the coast, but found ourselves from a bit further out to the sea. Not so well worked with the compass and all, but we guess we were a bit high from the sea breeze. So far this has probably been the best miss ever.

An overall feeling of the day is that all went well with the paddling and it was great to finally get out here and to the sea!. The boats worked well and so did the paddlers even though we experienced some very chaotic waves at one point. The only problems we discovered were that Oskar found out that his feet are too big to the Nordkapp, and that Eeva's sprayskirt is designed for a lot bigger people. Nothing to worry about though, we'll figure out these size-problems.

Today's question: What is missing from the first picture?

You can place your answers into the comment box.

We are wishing everyone good night!

Tired of planning, time to go.

So we're all finally here in Kronoby, our official base camp before driving up to Tornio tomorrow (16.6). Everything's packed up and food has been purchased. Here's something we found from the local store (the meat is in the freezer):

One of the most important things to do has ofcourse been decorating the kayaks to look like their masters. Can you guess which is whose?

Not that difficult, was it.

Well, enough talking for now and time to go to bed. Next stop Tornio!

Safety plan in Swedish

På grund av blogspots tekniska begränsningar publicerar vi bara en liten del av vår säkerhetsplan.

SÄKERHETSPLAN BLÅVITA BANDET (FINSKA KUSTEN)
NÖDNUMMER FINLAND: 112

VEM?

EEVA HEIKKILÄ

OSKAR ERIKSSON

SIGURD ANKERGÅRD


VAR, NÄR?
Startpunkt: Tornio, Röyttä hamn, 17e juni
Mål: Virojoki, beräknat början av augusti

HUR?
Ruttbeskrivning:
Vi startar preliminärt 17e juni i Tornio Röytta hamn/satama. Vi kommer paddla längs kusten hela vägen till ryska gränsen, Virojoki. Vår plan är att så mycket som möjligt hålla oss inom skärgården och bland öar, det vill säga nära land. Vi har planerat att paddla ca 30 kilometer per dag och om vi inte stöter på något större problem bör turen ta ca 50 dagar. Vi kommer uppdatera vår blogg om resan varje dag vi kan. Ni kan nå oss per telefon varje kväll mellan kl: 20.00-21.00, vi har minst en telefon påslagen då.

Säkerhetsutrustning:
GPS, 1:a hjälp utr.*3, extra paddel, flottör*3, pump*3, varma kläder, Telefon*4, FM- Radio (väderinfo), vattenkapacitet/person= 12 liter, fackla rött ljus/rök, cyalymljus

Säkerhetsutbildning:
Alla 3 är godkända på kursen Wilderness Advanced First Aid (WAFA). Kursen hålls av Wilderness Medical Associates (WMA). Alla 3 har GrundSäk Nordisk Instruktörslicens (NIL).

10 days to go!

Although we've been quite quiet here in our blog, it doesn't mean that we would've forgotten all about this project. On the contrary, there's been quite a lot going on during the past few weeks. For example, we've bought some new gear like lifejackets, a paddling anorak and shoes, some safety gear and a kayak. Also some maps have been purchased to help us navigate through the islands and capes of the coast. Hopefully we'll have some money left to buy food during the trip.

Some other activities have been packing up and updating the gear, asking good advice from more experienced paddlers, test packing the kayak and attempts to enjoy the summer in a city (some have succeeded better than others). Of course, summer will begin for real for us the 17th June with the paddling. Only 10 days to go!

Who?

Photo by Frida Vuorinen

Oskar Eriksson, 21, has been a fan of the great outdoors since “mulleskolan” and “solskolan” in his early years, though the interests has grown stronger in the last 5 years. He has grown up close to the woods in Värmland, Sweden and enjoys backcountry skiing and the mountains of Sweden and Norway. Oskar worked in Kebnekaise mountain lodge last summer and felt like he wanted to do more of that kind of stuff, and maybe work with it in the future. He started the course Nordiskt friluftsliv (Nordic Outdoor Studies) last autumn along with the other two paddlers. He’s the least experienced paddler of the three but has most nights spent in tent. His motivation for this expedition is that he wants to see new places and spend a whole summer outdoors and of course to get to paddle along with two friends. Oskar says that it is an adventure to both plan and to execute a tour like this, so after this winter he´s eager to start this trip around Finland.








Photo by Ulrika Fellman

Eeva Heikkilä, 28, started her outdoor career with a paddling tour with her dad at the age of 2. The experience was mostly frightening because of the exciting voices of the Finnish summer night but luckily there were many better experiences afterwards and since those days she’s been enjoying the outdoor life with family, friends from the scouts and nowadays with studies in becoming a certified wilderness guide, specializing in kayaking. Her greatest motivation to do this trip is that it just sounds like so much fun. Enjoying the nature and friends almost a whole summer is what one would like do every summer. And of course it will be a great experience from both personal and professional point of view.

Photo by Alexander Brännkärr

Sigurd Ankergård, 21, comes from Copenhagen in Denmark. His interest in outdoor life started in the 10th grade, where he had it as a specialization. Since then he’s been paddling a lot and in 2008 he even started to study to become a kayak instructor in the European paddle pass system. Now he’s studying at Outdoor Academy in Finland with Eeva and Oskar, to become a wilderness guide and a kayak instructor in the Nordic instructor system. To Sigurd this trip is about doing something fun and making a challenging and exciting journey.

What?

Like mentioned before, our goal is to kayak the coast of Finland during the summer of 2010. Finland’s coast line is approx. 1300 to 1500 kilometers long and covers most of the western and the southern borders of Finland. The sea that surrounds these borders is called the Baltic Sea. The Baltic Sea is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe and the Danish islands.

Our plan is to paddle this distance from Tornio (the northern end of the coast) to Virojoki (near the Russian border in southeast Finland) in about 50 days starting in the middle of June. That’s not a very hardcore-pissing-your-pants-goal, but we are going to take it easy, enjoy the summer and leave the faster achievements to others who are more in a hurry.