The sailboat Bavaria 37

Hans the owner I am renting the boat from sent me some pictures of the boat. Here it gives you an idea of what is awaiting us.

Research on Aland the finish islands

This anwser I got from tourist information today on where to do a crew change in Aland:
________________________________________________________________________
Hello Sofia,

Thank you for contacting us, and nice to hear that you're going to sail in our archipelago this summer!

There are direct ferries from Sweden (Kapellskär and Stockholm with Viking Line www.vikingline.com, from Stockholm with TallinkSilja www.tallinksilja.com) to Mariehamn and from Grisslehamn to Eckerö by Eckerölinjen www.eckerolinjen.se
 There are direct bus connections from Stockholm to the harbours of Kapellskär and Grisslehamn in Sweden.

Therefore the easiest destinations for changing a crew are Mariehamn and Eckerö.
 There are two visitor's marinas in Mariehamn - Ålandska segelsällskapet on the western side (about 5 minutes walk from the ferry termina, www.segel.ax) and Mariehamns seglarförening www.msf.ax on the eastern side of town, about 20 minutes walk from the ferry harbour).

Käringsunds gästhamn is the name of the marina in Eckerö, about 15 minutes walk from the ferry harbour in Eckerö http://www.karingsundsgasthamn.ax/

Most of the services are located in Mariehamn, in our only town, and has interesting museums, especially the maritime museum and the museumship Pommern that you should not miss while in town, stay a couple of days! Rödhamn islands outside Mariehamn is a very special old harbour and offers beautiful nature  by the open sea with a very and simple visitors' marina.
 If you're planning to sail around Åland HavsVidden harbour lies spectacularly on the northernmost point of the mainland of Åland. There's a hotel with a variety of services and a restaurant. Kumlinge Bärö with the restaurant Glada Laxen is also worth a visit, and if you're going south the Föglö and Kökar archipelagos are charming. Also Brändö archipelago is very beautiful with small charming harbours. Here's a list of some harbours around Åland: http://www.visitaland.com/en/stay/guest_harbours

There is a new marina guide for Åland in Swedish (also published in German)  "Hamnguiden", more information:  http://www.hamnguiden.ax/
 The guide was published last year.

There are several events and activities available during the summer, more information can be found in our events calendar:
 http://www.visitaland.com/en/do/events

Welcome to Åland!

Med vänlig hälsning,

Riitta-Lea Värelä
 Visit Åland / Turistinformation
 Storagatan 8
 AX-22100 Mariehamn
 Åland, Finland
             +358 18 24 000     
             +358 457 344 77 53     
 riittalea.varela@visitaland.com
 info@visitaland.com
 
 www.visitaland.com
 Visit Åland är Ålands officiella turist- och medlemsorganisation med ca 340 medlemmar. Visit Ålands huvuduppgift är att marknadsföra destinationen Åland och tillsammans med den lokala besöksnäringen utveckla turismen på Åland.

Back to planning and preparing

It has been quiet for months now on this blog. The reason has been I moved out, left my husband and now I am divorced since beginning of this month. This very sad process has taken most of my energy and time, but now that is behind me and I can take up planning and preparing for my dream again.

In May, months ago, I found out, at a regatta here in Switzerland, that one of the fellas, Florian, spent 6 weeks sailing with his girlfriend in Sweden during the summer 2003. Hearing of my plan he offered to lend me all his sailing charts and books even if they are dated. Over summer we tried to meet up during a regatta again, but it just did not happen. So we ended up making a date for my visit in Zürich to get oriented and pick up all the stuff.

This date was set for Thursday this week and Kathrin my good friend, who knows Florian well, got wind of my planned visit and joined. So we ended up two “girls” at Florian’s dining table with his wife, 3 year old son and 4 months old daughter in the background, eating pizza and having wine chatting about their Sweden sailing experience.

Most tips I noted down in my little black notebook and after a great evening I carried home all this stuff on the picture. It was so heavy to carry, even if I only had to walk from one train to the other platform and then to the bus and from the bus stop home another 500 meters. I had to set my load down about every 100-150 meters to rest.

I am so happy to have all this stuff to look through and start planning and dreaming.