After getting everything ready, we set sail heading straight to Mariehamn, Åland.
The wind blew just right so we had a beam reach and sailed along at a comfortable speed of 7km/h – 8km/h (3-4kn). We were so thrilled to be in the open sea again after a stressful few days!
Living on a sailboat is a real adventure! Here today, there tomorrow. For me, every day is brand spanking new!!! The sun, sky, water and even the rain remind me how awesome nature is and how quickly things can change. One day the sun could be shining and the water as still as a mirror, the next day the wind could be blowing and the rain pouring! Life is much more interesting when we don’t see or do the same thing every day! Since our sailing journey started I feel like we have been fulfilling our life more and more each day…
It was all fun and games until…I got “chased” by a big cruise ship! I actually saw it when it was far far away and thought we would be fine. About 10 minutes later Chris put his head out the companionway to ask if I had seen the ship. It was about 1km behind us and heading straight for us!!! I was shocked at how quickly it had gained on us! We quickly switched the engine on, turned into the wind and put the sails down. We had to turn 90 degrees to starboard to get out of the way. The wake from the ship was huge and made the boat roll so much, luckily it only lasted a minute or so.
After our close encounter with the ship we had an uneventful trip to Mariehamn. When we arrived a family of 4 swans came to “welcome” us.
We stayed in Mariehamn for a few days whilst we waited for Chris’s new passport to arrive. Unfortunately never arrived. In the meantime we organised the boat, did a bit of cleaning and went out for a couple of burgers!
Mariehamn guest harbor is right in the city center. It’s very convenient to walk to the shops and restaurants. The marina has showers, toilets and laundry services but what we loved the most about it was… the nice big hot sauna in the marina!!! We hadn’t had a sauna since we left Kristiinankaupunki so after the burgers we immediately went to the sauna. It was so relaxing to sit in the steamy hot sauna room again, I felt energized and ready for our next trip! It probably also washed away a little dirt hahaha!
The day ended with a hot pan of popcorn, hot chocolate and a movie, but before any of that I had to fix the freshwater pump as the air was stuck in the pipe preventing the flow, actually Chris taught me how to fix it.
