ICOYC-cruise Marianhamina-Helsinki by Ragan Peck, day 4

Leaving Jurmo

Couldn’t leave Jurmo without stopping in the harbor store one last time! The salmon is delicious, and the carrot cake and the buns! And the expensive beer. What a place. After we left I heard some history of the island I had missed, Jurmo was full of wreckers and around about 1700’s-ish the King of Sweden ordered the island to be burned. Perhaps this is a rumor or true. Perhaps they burned seal fat to make such false markers. The entire island, plants, house, all of it, burned. Beautiful as the island is now with even small raspberries growing on the shore, all of it is hard to imagine, false markers and fires to lure seafarers, let alone people living on a little icy rock year round. 

Alas off we head! To somewhere? It is enchanting, exciting to not know. And so we sail for a decent amount of time, put up two hammocks, everyone lays about like seals until… tack. So then we come upon our midday destination. The entrance to the town – the islands harbor is a series of turns, switch backs, blind corners, but such lovely little inlets and such a narrow passage. We arrive at Borstö!

Se upp för vormar! Varokaa Käärmeita! Beware of snakes (and ticks)! There a sign with a cartoon puss in boots, use boots when you walk in the forest, Welcome to Borstö! As we leave the dock, Lauri is slack lining on one of the lines to the Svanhild. I am pretty sure this is the life. 

We go see the the old lady of Borstö, she is amazing, the patina and blackened textures of the old wooden bowsprit is beautiful, somehow the textures of her clothing are even more ornate. On the nature walk it leads to a beautiful vista and some old Viking ruins. The ruins are a maze of sorts, from where you begin is where you end. It’s unclear the use, ritual, game or otherwise. Back at the ship the water is too luring and it was a nice quick swim, much warmer than the sea at home, about the same temp as the lake. The Baltic is like lightly giant salty lake. 

 

Departing Borstö another good sail ahead. The conditions favorable, sunny and gorgeous, though there could have been more wind? At any rate, hammock up, tack, hammock down, and around again. Rough life. The crew has magically transformed us into semi-functional crew, we are grateful. 

In transit we pass the Captains brother as he saddles his sail boat right up next to us they yell across jovial jests. Wonderful surprise to us. 

We near our destination, furl the sails, fenders out ready to come in and not 80 feet from the pier the guy on the pier calls off our approach, arms in a ”X”. Unexpected. Fortunately around the corner the freight dock is there, where we may moor to. Swim, Sauna, Swim! Thank you!

This is the island of Örö. Apparently if you call ahead you should not trust what they say… but it is of course a beautiful place like everywhere in the archipelago. It was a military installation until most recently, now it is some kind of preserve. There are great vistas, protected harbors, supposedly seals and at least one mink we saw running along the shore. The chef is for sure trying to fatten us up for the next part of this fairy tale, he served some perfectly cooked beef and roast vegetables. That was enough for one day.