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!