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