Finland

Finland

After spending winter on Ljusterö in the Stockholm archipelago, Ruda crossed the Gulf of Bothnia via the enchanting Åland islands. Here she visited the excellent maritime museum in Mariehamn to see Gustaf Erikson’s barque ‘Pommern’, before motoring through the islands to drop anchor in Lumparn, a 1000 million year old meteor impact crater, where she spent midsummer decorated with birch twigs while her crew celebrated with beer bread and Baltic herring.

Travelling eastwards from the Åland Islands, she visited the maritime city of Turku before arriving in her 5th European capital city; Helsinki, where she found herself a rather desirable mooring in Finland’s oldest yacht club, the Nyländska Jaktklubben.

After a very agreeable stay at the NJK, Ruda again headed east, and hoisted her Russian courtesy ensign in order to pass through the Saimaa canal into Finland’s beautiful lakeland interior where, in The Land of a Thousand Lakes, she spent the warm months navigating the maze of channels alongside log rafts and tug boats, and was queen of her own island just about every evening.

Gradually the summer gave way to the gorgeous colours of autumn, and the fragrant forest gifted the crew a bounty of berries and mushrooms. As that generous season wore on, and as the days shortened and became cooler, Ruda passed back through Russian controlled Karelia and motored west along the rocky coast to spend the cold Finnish winter at the Wooden Boat Centre in Kotka, in the company of many extraordinary and beautiful wooden boats.