Moon eclipse and noctilucent cloud summer festival, 25 & 27 July

We arrived in Mariehamn, Åland, on 27 July, just in time to witness the moon eclipse from the marina. Moonrise was at 22:15, but we could not see any moon rising at the time. We would realise after that the moon was so faint that it was not visible along the horizon through the atmosphere. It is only around 23:30 that the moon start appearing when it reach higher elevation over the horizon. By then, it was a remarkable show!

The blood moon in Mariehamn, Åland, 27 July, 23:30 and 23:55

Twenty-five minutes later, the sun started highlighting again the moon. The shape of the highlighted area differed from the normal moon crescent that we are used too, as it is the shadow of the earth on the surface of the moon and not the areas of the moon in the shadow when receiving the light from the sun sideways.

The Kumligne surprise, 26 July 2018

Kumlinge was just the only opportunity for a marina between Brändö and Mariehamn. This was the rationale for going there. And we discovered one of the nicest churches that we have visited so far. In fact, we realised that we should get some real touristic books telling us about what to see in the country, rather than just the coastal pilot telling us where we can safely anchor or moor, but nothing about what we can do or see there... And in English, rather than Swedish or Finnish would be a plus :-)!

Kumlinge marina, 26 July 2018

And the church we found there by chance is quite a church...

Fish farming in Brändö, 24-25 July 2018

While crossing from Turku Archipelago to the Åland Archipelago, we encountered several fish farms nets. Passing by its Belisama, we could witness fishes jumping out of the water, but not escaping though as there are protection nets. 

We wanted to know more about such farms (thanks to Cybèle 17 post on fish farming in Norway in French) and our friends that we were visiting in Brändö organised for us a visit to the farm...

Iniö, 23 July 2018

Iniö is one of the last stopover on the island part of the Turku archipelago trail. Sailing here requires a lot of attention given the very many ferries crossing continuously between the islands given the touristic traffic at this time of the year.

Houtskär - 22 July 2018

Houtskär is one of the most popular spot in the Archipelago sea. It is one of the "coup de coeur" de Cybèle 17 and it is why we ended-up there. And we really liked it!

Rainy day in Nagu - 20 July 2018

Where are we? The map below represents the archipelago sea and its 60,000 islands.We are now in Nauvo/Nagu (all places have different name in Finnish and in Swedish!), a week after having entered the Archipelago sea in Hanko.

The Archipelago sea

 Sailing in the Archipelago sea has proven to be extremely challenging, because of the shallow waters, number of rocks of all sizes, and area poorly documented in the nautical charts. We had to revert in areas where we ended-up with less than two meters of water while we were outside of the six metre line. In the planning process, one should zoom in ++ in oder to be sure not to miss a bridge somewhere, which could result in a very long detour in this labyrinth.

Now, we plan to visit friends in Brändö before heading towards Mariehamn in the most direct way.

Seili/Själö, the lepers' island, 18 July 2018

Leprosy, Hansen disease (named after the Norwegian who discovered the mycobacteria) was endemic in scandinavian countries in the middle ages. Seili island was established in 1619 as a place where to "banish" lepers. At this time, the Finland that we know was part of the Swedish kingdom. Many such lepers colony were established all over Sweden. More than 600 lepers have been buried in Seili, and the last one died in 1785. Among the reasons to select Sail as the lepers island was that it is part of a sandy ridge suitable for burial!

The former hospital, now hosting a research centre from the Turku university