Sadly, it rained during the night and it was doing so still, so rather than setting off, we slowed down and hoped that the rain would cease. It did ease off somewhat so we started the engine in the drizzle and set off at 10:30, destination Mariehamn, 13 miles away.

There was precious little wind so we used the engine and the only thing of note during the first part of the journey was that we passed a white tailed eagle sitting on a small rocky islet, too far away for a decent photo, unfortunately . The other notable feature of this little passage was that the route takes you through a canal, called the Lemströmskanal, which links the inland sea of the Lumparn with Mariehamn, thus avoiding a major detour around the peninsula called Lumparland and Lemland. This canal, which is only a few tens of metres long, has an interesting history. Originally, there was a link here that was navigable but it slowly dried up, either due to silting or the land raising. During the 'Great Wrath', which was the Russian occupation of Finland between 1710 and 1721, the Russian fleet were trapped in the bay and they effected their escape by digging their way through and the present canal follows this route, constructed in 1882. There is an opening bridge across the canal, opening on the hour and we missed it by a few minutes, so we dropped the anchor for lunch and at 13:00, went through in a little convoy and made our way the last couple of miles to Mariehamn’s east harbour, where we were lucky enough to find the last buoy to moor to, reversing in and tying stern to.

That afternoon the weather improved dramatically and after a little wander around the town for provisions and having failed to find a restaurant that tickled our fancy for our last meal together, we opted instead for a meal on board, ably cooked by our two guests whilst we lolled about in the sun. And so, our last evening together was spent like all the others, with lots of chat and laughter. We will miss the company of Elaine & Rosemary, the boat will seem very quiet without them – actually it will be!!