Where it all started

This is final stop on our summer adventure of year 2013. After five weeks of adventures we were back to our starting point in Mustakari marina in Kokkola. 

I had to release all the excitement and energy I had collected during the two days on trains and one night in a ship. I explored the beach vegetation and checked out the beautiful wooden boats that all had returned home for approaching fall. Mustakari has its lovely view to the open sea. This view, the view with a very strong symbolism of freedom and being a gate to the world of adventures without limits, we had looked at every day we spent in the marina preparing the vessel. Now the look over the vista made us a bit sad and in a way a little bit proud - we had to leave the sea adventures for a full winter of life on land but still the vessel is now in Kalmar that means we had achieved our target we had dreamed about. And also there was sense of a new start waiting us in upcoming Spring in the new seas.  

After this I had the most restful Kokkola-Oulu ride I ever had; after the long outing in Mustakari I just fell asleep in my car travel compartment and woke up in my lair on land well rested. 

PS It is worth of mentioning that the crew's state was opposite to mine. They were exhausted on all the planning, predicting and execution the sailing required. Exhausted but still super happy. The cognitive load of the journey was high for them; new routes, new harbors, new towns and cities, all the time finer and finer experiences and views. Oh, that can be loading for a crew that spends their winters on land in land routines. But I still need to say that after this demanding sailing of 700 nautical miles they have been remarkably more happy and more creative. This makes me think that suitable amounts of positively demanding activity is good for a human. Stretch yourselves, have your crews to stretch themselves! Fortunately I, as a chief of a vessel has to have, own more advanced mental and physical capacities and can handle changing levels of streams of new experices and places calmly ;-)  

Uncaged and energized.

Mustakari boats have returned from their Summer sailings.

This is where is all started, the view to the freedom and the world of seas.

Turku - Kokkola

The last leg from Kalmar to Kokkola. I think my new soft travel compartment is quite comfortable. By the time we were back to Finland I had collected enough confidence to leave it and relax on the first mate's lap and enjoy the changing views. 

Shipping

Oh, how relaxing was the trip from Stockholm to Turku... However I had some responsibilities to take care: The wind of N 15 m/s caused the first mate to wake up and be afraid. I had to stay awake with her  until the ship reached Åland archipelago and the waves calmed.

Stockholm, oh, Stockholm

The crew likes Stockholm a lot, it seems to cause strong positive emotions in them. I do not yet understand why. I need to analyze this - it is always good to know this kind of motivational factors when being a chief of a vessel and managing a crew.

This picture is taken from the ship terminal. In this vessel I was a passanger only and enjoyed all the way from  Stockholm to Turku, without responsibilities. 

Alvesta - Stockholm

I was tired, very tired by the time we got into Stockholm train. It was a really pleasant, quiet, smooth ride, like Pendolino back home. Being tired on pleasant train means good sleep. I slept till we arrived in Stockholm. The crew was eating and tried to serve me some food too but I did not care about eating. I know that something new and exiting was on agenda tonight - we were boarding to a bigger boat than Exter, much bigger. I concentrated on sleeping and collecting energy.

A cute little dog travelled in the same carriage. There was a bigger dog too. The first mate behaved...

Kalmar - Alvesta

This and few upcoming posts tell about our travel from Kalmar to Oulu. The vessel was all set for the winter and with slight sadness we said goodbye to her and at the same time started to wait for the spring.

This first train I did not like, it was a bit loud. The waiting for the Stockholm train in Alvesta I liked less. I was horrified by the trains speeding past the station platform before our own train arrived. Fortunately the first mate and the captain were covering my travel lair so I felt a bit safer. 

The big day - Enter Kalmar

The big day was here. Today we aimed to Kalmar, our vessel's wintery home for this year. We raised before the sun to avoid stronger winds expected later in the day. This included element of excitement as the first mate had learned that the Kalmar sound is a text book example on the wind funnel effect. Today it should be ok as the expected wind was 3-5 m/s W. Also the first mate was a little bit worried about potential ship traffic as the sound is really narrow.  We did not get the wind funnel effect but we got an other wind phenomenon example by couple of dark clouds that caused 10 m/s and quite strong waves. However as we entered the gates of Kalmar harbor it was all nice and calm and we could concentrate on admiring the Öland bridge. It was early afternoon as we arrived and in a second all the stress was gone. We just were totally relaxed and chilled in the cockpit for couple of hours. Mission completed! 

(We we got really busy to get everything done for the winter but that is an other story.)

Car show in Oskarshamn

The last stop before Kalmar

Blå Jungfru in horizon, we are getting close to Öland and Kalmar.

But before Kalmar we spent a night in Oskarshamn guarded by this mighty ship.

... that was so large that it had a carry-on vessel.

The coast guard base was close to guest harbor.

It made me feel like guarding my own vessel.

Yeah, this is mine....

Only mine...

Its getting quiet in the guest harbors, the fall is coming.

But there was entertainment in the evening...

I enjoyed the troubadour performing on the Blå Jungfru ship.