The longest leg of the season

I had a mission. The vessel had to be moved from our home marina to the winterization site. This was a challenge. This was in towards the end of the August. The approaching fall means frequent and heavy winds. Finding a suitable slot is not easy. I checked weather forecast from all the available sources, frequently. To get all the facts. With all the available data I made decision: This is the weekend. I ordered my crew to skip their daily hunting and gathering routine on Friday. They did. We woke up before sunrise. Execute! The travel commenced - the first and the longest leg of our Oulu-Kokkola journey started.  

The night before we spent in Varjakka. This is 5.30 am.

We headed towards west. The sun rose and started to catch us from east.

Hailuoto ferry bathed in the morning sun.

This beacon serves seagoing on Hailuoto coast route.

We leave Marjaniemi behind us - we are at sea!

After 12 hours our destination is visible in the horizon.

Approaching Maakalla.

Moored. Time to wake up for me!

I love new islands.

I am full of energy after all the sleep. 

Night falls on Maakalla.

Enjoying my Anniversary Flowers

The bouquets of flowers are not only about beauty for eyes and lovely fragrances for nose but they are also and mainly enjoyed for their taste.

I really appreciate my florist adding the long and narrow leaves, they are almost as tasty as the real summer hay. 

My 1st Anniversary

Today is my first anniversary living with my crew, exactly year ago I moved to my lair on land from my parents'.

Congratulations, First mate and Captain! You have passed the first year in my service!

See how fluffy I was at 12 weeks age.

And how tiny little my feet were...

Blogging plans after Summer vacation 2012 finale

Sammakkalahti was the finale issue in my summer vacation production and its time for new plans, for upcoming summer and the blogging before it.

So I would like to share my posting plans with you.

To prepare for the new season its important to exercise both body and mind, for me and the crew. What would be the better way the motivate the crew than showing example! I exercise a lot in my lair on land, now I just have to train my crew to take pics on athletic action so that I can share those with you. Also mental training is important, meditation and some philosophical thinking - you can expect to see some feline philosophy during the winter.

In November and December the First mate arranges a lot of Xmas fuss in my lair on land. She probably will pursue me to publish some Xmas themed photos. To keep her happy I will but I look after that the attributes "cat" and/or "sea" can be connected to them. The attribute "cat" I can easily arrange ;-)

When the Spring starts to get closer it will be time for dreams of the new season's adventures. And the preparation - there is plenty of maintenance on the vessel to make it ready to venture.

And, of course, memories from the Season 2012 will be on agenda - as the days get shorter and shorter here near Arctic Circle the sunny summer day memories at sea are treasured.

Summer vacation 2012 - Sammakkalahti

We left Huvön very early in the morning as anchor alarm woke us up - the wind had woken up and blew in exactly from the bay opening causing small but effective waves running into us.  Captain decided that we will not re-acnhor but we move to an other bay very close to Huvön, to sleep few hours and then continue to Sammakkalahti. I have never run to the cockpit as fast as then - I thought that finally the crew realized that four am is a excellent time to make day's first bird observations. But no, they just started the engine and very fast collected the anchor and motored out from the bay. Getskär-Renskär is very close to Huvön and its bay is protected by mostly underwater reef that settles the waves. We decided to check if SXK buyou would be available and it was. We settled down quickly, continued our sleep for few hours and woke up to notice that the wind was totally calmed down. We had long drive ahead of us, with engine - how unpleasant.

We arrived in Sammakalahti late afternoon and it was very warm and sunny, perfect day for enjoying a beach.The mini peninsula was full of sun bathers and swimmers - my crew told me they have never before parked the boat like this. There was also entertainment for the beach folks as the captain wanted to test how the dinghy works in anchoring business, practicing the double anchor technique. This resulted that the anchor was relocated three times. "Jobbig"(hard) was a statement from our audience on the sand.

One of the lighthouses on our way through Kalix coast.

It is possible
to have such moments in your life
that
the Sun
shines from your mast.

Sammakkalahti is located between the Seskarö's  westmost "fingers" pointing to north, here is the map.

Summer Vacation 2012 - The Finale approaches

The next post in this series is the last one, Sammakkalahti in Seskarö.

In this picture we have sunrise, yes sunrise, at 4:00 as we left our anchor position in the lovely bay of Huvön.

One more time - Closing the season

I have now spent the first weekend in my lair on land and I have to say that I still need to contemplate before I can comment about my first season ending. Staying on land the whole weekend, this is different.

Before publishing my season end analysis I still want to return to the last weekend of season in the vessel, and the last morning after the night I spent in Tankar with my crew.

The morning was exquisite. My crew woke up at 7.20, this is very close to the my preferred schedule to go out, inhale fresh and invigorating sea air and observe birds. As we knew this is the last morning of the season we wanted to enjoy as much we could so I had my crew to have their morning coffee on the deck while I did my meditation. As the days get shorter and sunrise later we could admire the big yellow sun raising from the sea. Then sky turned bright blue just before big thick fog enveloped us and the island.

After few hours of lovely morning in the cockpit and having slow breakfast I felt ready for the nap. To get my crew to exercise I sent to them to a walk around island - they went once more to meet the old wise lighthouse, say goodbye and agree happy rendez-vous in the upcoming spring.

No photography while I meditate!