Happy holidays!

Mine has been active, hunting in snow!

Happy birthday to you Finland!

Winter coming

We have gotten some snow here at my cabin.  I have also started winter feeding for the forest birds, and I have to tell you that has kept me busy today...

Snow leopard day

Today is world's snow leopard day! The life of those rare professional mountain cats is not easy, the co-operation with humans is not always harmless,  link to news.

However, today is a good day to celebrate those big cats as we got the first snow for the winter.

Ps I've been too busy in my activities to post about my activities :-) All is well and I can tell you that I have entered into new ones too. More about that later...

Back on land

We got couple of great sailing days on our last two legs from Kemi to Oulu via Röyttä. I can tell you that sitting in the marinas waiting for a weatherwindow is far more interesting than staying in the city.

Sunsets, oh those Sunsets

Back to the fastland

We have returned from the national park islands to the fast land and soon we need to start sailing back to the home marina. The weather has not been super-nice everyday but we did have some lovely sunny days for island exploring. There are a lot of pics for posting once on land. I have adopted using a phone app so on the road, or at the sea, the posts are shorter as you might have noticed ;-)

View in the Bothnian bay national Park

...and the Set

Some Sun

The strong N wind has kept us on an island and it has been mostly cloudy with exception of yesterday. In the pic the Sunset rays reach my cockpit and make my coat look like golden.

Little of blue Sky makes a sailor happy

Booriinggg

Staying in the harbours due to bad weather conditions is known to cause symptoms of satamasairaus as known in Finnish. One could translate it freely as marina boredom...

Red Hot Sunset

In the storm

I have started the Second vacation cruising of the summer. However, today I suspended the sailing due to strong West winds and rain.

Night shift

I am super tired today as could not start sleeping until 4 a.m. And I should have stayed awake even later. The reason was that the last night was my vessel's turn to take care of the night guard duty in the home marina. I was thrilled to help the crew in the task, to stay outdoors till midnight and look after everything.

Nautical break

My crew's non-nautical responsibilities have kept me on land. I hope that the sailing can resume soon.

Sandskär

New berth

I have kept my food supplies in this locker but during this sailing I noticed that this is also a great place to chill and rest at the sea. So I informed the crew to open this locker and make sure there is a nice fresh cotton frotte towel available before starting the engine!

Serenity in Huvön

Hello Luleå!

From Kluntarna our cruising program continued to Luleå for filling up our supplies for the rest of our vacation week. Ps our loyal Webasto stopped producing heat after the passage over Bothnian bay. Service kit waits in Oulu. Fortunately the temperatures were kind to us so no harm done.

Midsummer pole at Kluntarna

Kluntarna

As we completed our passage and arrived at Kluntarna island the fog still hid everything but the objects closest to us.

2 am view to North at Huvön

View during the passage to Sweden

The captain got complaints about the unchanging view throughout our twelve hours passage from Marjaniemi to Kluntarna. Super thick fog was present all the time. In this particular pic you can see the Kluntarna ;-)

Hyvää juhannusta!

Have a relaxing Midsummer Day. Mine seems to become rainy one and it means the crew will have time to spend quality time with me.

Midnight Sun

Happy Midsummer!

Vantage point

The vessel has returned

Checking the home marina... Now it is time to start all the polishing and such that has gotten less attention during our years in other places.

May the force be with you

Selkäsarvi Sauna

From Sorttisviken we headed towards Röyttä, we were planning good 60 nm of sailing. However the Wind stopped completely at the waypoint from which one enters to Selkäsarvi approach. We thought that this was a clear signal for us to turn back to north and spend an island afternoon. The sauna was warm and the bird life plentiful. Both myself and the crew enjoyed and were pampered by lovely 20C synny weather.

Sorttisviken Sunset

Can it get better? I doubt...

Get on!

I've been too busy to post lately but I can confirm that all is well and the season has started. Yesterday we left the winter marina!

In the press

Here is the link to my second article in my sailing club publication Ryöppy:
https://issuu.com/omsihteeri/docs/ryoppy_1_2016_web.

It is in Finnish, I hope will have time to translate it in my blog.

Snow flowers

Crisp -20 C nights have kept the swimming entry frozen and created the lovely feathery decorations.

Catch of the day - Part 2

A willow tit visiting my feeding station.

Oh, I have a dilemma. 

If I stay indoors and observe the birds through windows the birds come more frequently to the feeding station. If I go outside to the patio they keep pending on the trees close by but my experience is more authentic. How to solve this?

Sunrise

I consider a vacation day started successfully when it starts at sunrise. 

Touched

Today's "catch"

This handsome great spotted woodpecker and the companion 

operate on my property and visit the feeding station too.

Sunset skiing

Busy on vacation

I have started my winter vacation, or should I say my crew has started their winter vacation. For me it is getting hectic. The local forest birds have returned and the squirrels are active. Also, the day is getting longer so I do not feel like sleeping. Yesterday I did not have chance to sleep at all during the day as the birds kept coming to the feeding station and I had to stay alert all the time. I will keep you posted.

Enjoy your Winter vacation!

I want to wish lovely Winter vacation to all the lucky ones who enjoy theirs this week with my
happy Winter vacation video!

Meeting the dipper

I went to check out the swimming hole in the ice the captain had done. There was much more excitement I expected. The dippers were out having lunch close by.