... try and find us

Pronounced aw-lund A new country and we are now above 60°N.  The nights are very short and it does not get properly dark.  Something we should expect as we are a mere 600km from the Arctic Circle and very close to the longest day.  No auroras for us! Åland is a Swedish speaking, autonomous region of Finland.  The season up here is very short, measured in weeks rather than months.  Even the main marinas in the capital of Mariehamn do not open until 1 June and are closed by the end of August. Gord tries out the sea berth. It is actually the longest berth on Chinook! Even with all that toe room, he decided to stay in the aft cabin with Jenny. We had a fabulous sail across from Sweden - a short hop of 32nm and our first landfall was the tiny resort island of Rodham.  Since it was early in the season, the cafe was yet to open but we were able order fresh bread.  This was delivered to the boat and was eaten before we set sail! A crosswind made ...

It took just phone call for the best laid plans - our plan for the summer - to be thrown out the window, or the porthole in this case.  Tossed away in favour of a different adventure, for one more daring, more thrilling and much, much more scary.  An adventure that doesn't even include Chinook !  Oh my, what are we doing?? Our Swedish friend Niklas is planning a trip to Svalbard.  Svalbard is described in the Norway Cruising Guide, not as The North , nor The Far North but The Farthest North !  Due to the lingering effects of the Gulf Stream, the west coast is generally ice free and one is able to sail to 80°N - a mere 600nm from the North Pole.  It will be an amazing adventure but he has some time constraints that means he cannot do a return trip aboard his yacht  Myrca this year.  His solution - he will sail Myrca to Svalbard, then have us meet him there, he will fly home and leave us to sail  Myrca from Longyearbyen   in Sva...

Chinook from Niklas' deck Our first stop after leaving Stockholm was Niklas' dock in Åkersberga and a great reunion with him and a few friends we had met in Cherbourg. It was a fun couple of days catching up.  He gave us some recommendations for anchorages as we headed north, which we followed.  Always happy to follow the advice of locals! Gord and Jenny swapped notes with Niklas on backcountry skiing Dinner at Niklas'! Full view of Chinook while Niklas BBQ-ed our dinner.  What a treat! As well as a chance to catch up with Niklas, our time in Åkersberga was a great chance to provision, do some boat maintenance, fill up the water tanks, hose the salt off the decks and prepare for the next part of the journey. Our route north (or more precisely, north-east). Thanks Niklas for the local tips! Woo hoo! Sailing in shorts - or more correctly, motoring.  There was very little wind. The weather was glorious and we had our first day sailing ...