Turku, Finland

Hurrying Home!

The winds had decided to take us to Torshavn, the capital of the Faroe Islands. The eighteen small islands are located in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and due to their isolated position boast a special and rich birdlife.

But sadly, since the only purpose of our visit was simply to fill up our tanks and continue our hurried voyage, we saw none of the puffins, gannets, skuas, loons etc. the islands are famed for. 

From the Faroe Islands, we continued SE and sailed between the Shetland and Orkney Islands and then across the North Sea where we zigzagged amongst dozens of oil platforms that glowed in the dark like space stations.

Beauty

When nearing Denmark, in Skagerrak, we crossed paths with a beautiful Norwegian sailing ship ‘Christian Radich’. The ship was built in 1937 for training merchant marines but is nowadays mainly used for charter. 

and the Beast!

Regrettably, far too many modern vessels seem to be symbolic of the ideology of our time: Efficiency Above All Else! But since efficiency is not equivalent to ugliness, what it boils down to is simply aesthetically poor design!

On the way to the Baltic Sea, we sailed under the Öresund Bridge which is the longest combined motorway and railway bridge in Europe. The bridge is almost eight kilometres long and runs from the Swedish coast to the artificial island built in the middle of the sound wherefrom the crossing continues via a four-kilometre long tunnel to Denmark. The bridge’s clearance is 57 metres which allows even bigger vessels than our good boat Sarema with her air draft of mere 18 metres, to pass under it. 

We overnighted in Rönne, on the Danish island of Bornholm and the following morning, we put to sea again. After three days of non-stop sailing, assisted by favourable winds for a change, we arrived in our final destination, Turku, Finland. This marked the end of our adventures at sea, and the beginning of our new life as farmers and gardeners!