Despite a less than perfect start, the day proved to be surprisingly good. The reason why the start was poor was that it was cloudy and very still, so sailing was out of the question. More importantly and the real contributor to badness of start, was that one of my wires on the first spreader, not the main shrouds, rather a little wire that goes at an angle from the outside of the spreader to the mast, or at least it should, but here it was dangling down, having become detached. I would assume that it has a proper nautical name but I call it a b^%&y wire! This had to be put back in place, which meant that I had to get into a bosun's chair / harness arrangement and attach two halyards, one for backup, then shin up the mast whilst Julie wound up the halyards on the winch. Actually, it’s more of a team effort, I try to take as much of my (considerable) weight by hanging onto bits on the mast whilst Julie does the winching. Once up and onto the spreaders, it was a relatively simple task to pop the offending bit back into the mast and I was lowered down, a bit bloody and bruised, but triumphant. As a reward we had a bacon, egg & beans breakfast and we set off at 10:00, next destination Bomarsund, about 25 miles away and which we had to motor to, as the wind never appeared.



On first and second and indeed third look at the charts, both electronic and paper, the small harbour of Bomarsund was in a bay with the road bridge at one end, or at least that was what we surmised as it actually looked on the electronic charts as if it was inland . However, when we got there it wasn’t, rather it was at the head of a blind bay, adjacent to the one we thought. I then zoomed in on the electronic charts again and again, it seemed that the harbour was inland. When we tied up to the pontoon, nose to, we enquired where the facilities were and our neighbour pointed to a nearby camping site, saying that the showers were about 500 metres away. That explained the charts, they were in the right place, 500 metres inland! Also, to be fair, a chartlet on the paper chart clearly showed the location, I just hadn’t spotted it. Still, it was a pleasant (very) spot so were elected to stay, especially as it was only €13 a night, including electricity.

After lunch we went for a walk, curious to ascertain what the ruined building was that dominated the hill behind us, with a couple of cannon sticking out. It was with some amazement and yet again, a sense of joy, of happening upon something that we had absolutely no inkling of and this is what makes cruising so much fun . If I’ve piqued your curiosity, read on…

During the years preceding 1809, the Åland islands and indeed the southern part of Finland, belonged to Sweden. This changed when the Czar and his armies defeated Sweden and they remained in occupation until 1918. Once they were settled in they started on their grand plan to change the islands from being a sleepy backwater populated by farmers and fisher folk to a cosmopolitan outpost of the Russian Empire. To achieve this, the Czar ordered the construction of a large fortress, surrounded by a complex of fortified towers and other buildings. The work commenced and even 45 years later, it was only 25% completed when misfortune, in the form of Allied forces of the Crimean War (France, Britain & Turkey) attacked the fortress and took it over, to then systematically destroy it. All that is left now of the Czar’s vision are a few cannon and some impressive walls.

All of these historical details were completely unknown to us and it was thanks to the excellent standing information boards, in several languages, that we came to understand the significance of the site. I have included a photo of an artist’s impression of the Czar’s vision – as you can see, it would have been pretty impressive and indeed, would have transformed the community in time.

After all this exploring we felt we deserved an ice cream which we bought in the camp site’s little shop –come kiosk and thence, back to the boat in the lovely warm afternoon and later to enjoy an excellent vegetarian chilli prepared by Julie.