Friday 23 August 2013

We made it to Aland!

Last night there was a magical Moon and a 'Moon Street' leading from our ship to infinity! All the stars came out to play and Ursa Major was magnificent. However, the Scandinavian cruising season is over and I can understand why: late at night winter is clearly 'in the air' and it is surprisingly cold after sunset. I could feel my bones rattle in my body for the little while we were on deck.

Ulric's new book about 'Sverige's Oar' (Sweden's Islands) is marvelous and full of folklore. This morning I was reading about the island of Sundskar we happened to be passing. "Haer, som pa andra oear, frodades viddskepligheten"... Roll it on, here is where things get interesting!!! So... a man called Norman started a love affair with a local mermaid. This gave him some short term benefits but eventually he disappeared without a trace. His relatives found out that he was living 'in sin' with a mermaid because his 'ghost' came to visit one afternoon on Christmas Eve. That how things can go.... Another man, called Olagus (Olof August) became the most famous musician in the area. He lived, most of the time, in a (wooden) life boat that sat upside down ashore. He was never lonely, however, because he always had his fiddle with him. He was a seal hunter as well as a fiddler...

We had a 'Family Council' in the morning and decided to head for Mariehamn in Aland. Ulric was keen to see the place. The boys read in a cruising guide that there is 'good internet access' (excellent reason for going there!) and I thought it had to be better than four days of floating around the Stockholm Archipelago. No, in all seriousness I am hoping to see some more ancient historic sites before the Almqvists fly home and I return to work.

So.... here we are.... The crossing was pretty rough. I was seasick (could be something to do with the mouldy bread Ulric served for lunch, yuck!!!) Don't even THINK about reversing the journey on Sunday... Made a mental note to never ask Ulric to make me a sandwich again.... Urgh...

The honey bee that Brendan welcomed on deck yesterday, ended up staying with us. She looked so exhausted that we fed her some honey (from Jagzy's big pot!) After that she perked up but stayed on board until we reached the Mariehamn approach. Then she flew off to a new life. We wish her well and we now realize she wanted to 'emigrate' all along.

The boys stayed on the boat while Ulric and I had a walk around town. To me it looks like 'Skovde on Sea'... It certainly does not resembly Visby, as Ulric had hoped. There is plenty of space, clean water, clean air...

Ulric went to the harbour office to pay for our stay and the first thing they told him was the 'opening hours of the bastu (sauna)'. Welcome to Finland, even if this part of Finland has some independence, its own flag and speaks only Swedish. I did NOT hear Finnish spoken as we walked around.

Speaking of languages: I recently read an interesting book by Helena Drysdale who toured the 'indigenous languages of Europe' in a camper with her husband and two small daughters in the 90s. They visited Aland as well and that was the last time (before today) that Aland and it special circumstances were brought to my attention.

The town is completely 'dead' at 7pm on a Friday evening. We walked past a bookshop where we saw one interesting book about 'edible mushrooms', in Swedish. We may just need to buy that for Queenie's library as it could be off huge help on our hunting & gathering missions....

As for the local jaguar population: the 'Silver Twins' (Jagzy's babies) got up at night and ended up licking some whiskey glasses clean in the galley. Next thing we knew they had discovered Queenie's semi secret supply of 'spirits'. Jagzy is NOT pleased... The Silver Twins will be under close supervision tonight....

Imelda Almqvist