The Quark Passage and the Company

I think that this leg of this whole journey was the most important to the crew. It was six hours only but a passage is always a passage. This one was done mostly in fog. 

Finally the captain got the credits on his wintery instrument additions - the first mate was very pleased how the radar made us aware on approaching ships long before they appeared from the fog. 

We left Valassaaret after 5 am. It was still foggy. The small spot of light in the pic is the light house. It was designed by an engineering office that later created an other steel structure in Paris. I think it become quite famous.

We observed almost ten ships on the shipping lane; one of them can be seen on the right hand corner. But more interestingly we learned that a gray seal can have velocity of 6 knots as this beautiful individual escorted us for some time. His head is the black item in our back wave.

We did not know where all these insects came from but suddenly we noticed that they were everywhere and that there were hundreds of them. These passengers stayed in the ship all the way to Norbyskär. I really did not understand what happened to the captain when he took his portable vacuum cleaner, started to sing "Ghostbusters..." and vacuumed these poor little things away. Maybe the passage was mentally too demanding to the crew?

Lovely Norbyskär was equally foggy as we arrived at noon. There was a lot of sightseeing for the crew for my nap time so I will post more about the island and how the wind kept us busy even in the pier.

Tasty Target in Valassaaret

This may look at the first sight a regular post in this blog as it includes a handsome seacat and a beautiful sunset. However this is not. This is about a target I am eyeing at: oh, that lovely, plump, gorgeous seagull. My teeth just went klak-klak-klak... 

Of course, this all was only about watching and enjoying, not really to get try his tastiness... Pah.

This all however ended well. The first mate had caught a bird and she was working on it down below. As you can see I took my large scratching pole with and located it strategically by the crew food processing station. It turned out very practical solution as you can see in the last pic. (Most of the foods the crew eats I do not care but this kind of birdie, an organic chicken, wakes my appetite...)

Way to the Whale Islands

It was a long day of motoring in no-wind conditions and the air was hot and moist. It can be almost seen in the pics. 

However during the last hours the Kvarken welcomed us with a brisk wind and we got some sailing. The fog had hidden the islands as we arrived.

Hello Sweden!

We crossed the Kvarken and are in Sweden! We said goodbye to our lovely temp home marina Mustakari on Saturday and spent the night in Tankar. Valassaaret was our next stop, we spent a day there and made an early start to reach Swedish coast yesterday noon. I will tell you in more detail about the sailing and the islands in the upcoming posts. To manage your expectations I have to tell that even Valassaaret means the whale islands I did not make any whale observations. (But I do have friends who have opportunity to do orca whale observations in their close neighborhood!)