Degersand best sand beach of Åland

Ferry just in front of our harbour

Butterfly sailing again

Lukas at the helm

Degersand guest harbour

Degersand beach

Enjoying the sun and beach, 22 degrees water

Here at Degersand camping while enjoying ice cream and cappuccino I have Wifi again,  so a quick update especially with pictures. We sailed marvelously fast today mostly with wind from behind and arrived at Degersand at lunch, but the pier marked in my harbour book did not look safe. So we through in the anchor to buy some time to reconsider and then noticed that a new pier with bouys was a bit further up that we had passed. Up with anchor again and see if that could be the guest harbour: It was!
After a Picknick lunch on the boat we headed of to the beach,  suddenly tons of cars and a full beach. Strange while we were alone at the pier. But we are not the only ones enjoying this beautiful place.
On our way back to the boat we will eat blueberries and we found a lot of raspberries too. Yummy!

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New crew and cool natural harbour

Jungfruskär

Katja, Lukas and I

Thunder over Mariehamn

Change again, one crew leaving other one coming Saturday except Martin that stayed one additional night and took the ferry to Stockholm at 4.30 o'clock this morning.
It is always sad to say goodbye after an eventful good week,  but for me it is also exciting to start fresh with new friends. This week my friends Katja and Lukas very experienced sailors joined me. We know each other since I started to sail Fireball on the Biel lake summer 2004. We have had regattas and many ski - fondue events together since then. I feel fortunate to have them this week when I want to sail back across Ålands hav to Sweden.
After their arrival Saturday afternoon we checked our food supplies and being informed that the supermarket closes at 17h they went shopping with Martin just before 16h, while I picked up another sea chart from the northern area of Sweden across from Åland. I arrived at the supermarket shortly after 16 to join them, but doors were locked. It turns out high season ended 27th July and therefore stores close earlier and are not open on Sundays anymore.
They managed to get 2/3rd of our shopping list in just 15 minutes -great accomplishment!
For the rest we will just have to improvise!
One thing that worried me a bit after Fridays harbour maneuver was how to get out between the narrow bollards,  backing was no option. We had discussed pushing the front off to the side and leave forward but that could become tricky with main wind direction.
After seeing Martin off at 4 in the morning we had breakfast hours later. Plan was to have lunch at Rödhamn 8 sm south east. Watching the dark clouds gathering over Mariehamn we were skeptical first to go, but were assured that our sailing direction was away from the weather front seen also on the rain radar. Just when we wanted to leave we had no wind,  lucky us for our bollards maneuver!
Sky looked scary when we left, but except for hearing thunder and seeing some flash, we only got 10 drops of rain. Arriving in Rödhamn around 13 to have a great lunch and sunny sky.
Now we have arrived at Jungfruskär for the night a wonderful natural harbour south of West Mariehamn know for their pine trees of a specific branch endangered, but existing on this island. Very cool!
We are still so full from lunch that a very late dinner will be on.
Such a great first sailing day with Katja and Lukas!

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Even more wind the last day

Dinner at Knorring

Fish starter

Preparing the fish

Soft ice cream

Relaxing

Antonio at the helm

Ulrike at the helm

Breakfast

Zöpfe

Blueberries and more

Ulrike and I started the Swiss national day with swimming and blueberry picking and sightseeing ruins. After that successful start we enjoyed breakfast with Ulrike's freshly baked "Zöpfe " for the occasion. Lovely!
The guys went fishing again and shortly before noon we set sails in strong gusty winds with it on our nose. So our day consisted of tacking where required especially getting out of the way for a car cable ferry. Antonio, Ulrike and I exchanged helm over our 5h sailing in winds that made the lines whistle! The last bit leading back to the canal with the turning bridge we motored fast and managed to be the last boat for that opening!
Finally at the harbour I had reserved the opposite spot to usually #11. When I turned into it we got stuck first between the bollards that were a lot narrower than on the opposite side. We had 5 Australian boats across on the pier that helped pull us through having had the same problem with their chartered 45er!
Now we went and enjoyed a cappuccino and bulle first. After that the guys prepared their fish to have as a starter and then we went and had a great dinner at Knorring again.
Absolutely great last sailing day with my awsome crew!
Now cleaning and washing is on, but the washing machines do not all have power, shucks!

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