One lighthouse and two daymarks

 A quick post about a wee kayaking trip a few weeks ago in August to break the radio silence.

I have still have a few stretches on the Osthrobotnian coast to visit, and I got Alf with me for this one outside Nykarleby. We started from Monäs in late afternoon in nice weather.

About two hours later it was time to land at a place to spend the night.

A small stroll to look at sizeable pile of stones, that in all likelihood had been a sea cairn a long time ago, when the island was lower (the land upheaval is close to 1 m / 100 years here) and there were no trees.

Tent and hammock are up.

Dinner and enjoying the evening.

And then it got dark. At this time (August 21st) the sun set at around 21:30.

There was a little rain during the night, but it was very warm, probable no colder than 17°C.

I know a trail, Alf said. It will be easy walking to the other side of the island. Well, I've never seen a trail like that. Usually the trail is visible in some way and also easier to walk on, but not in this case.

We now had a 6 km crossing to the Stubben islands and maybe some 6 m/s wind mostly from behind. For some reason, though, there was some quite uncomfortable cross sea most of the way and very few pictures.

We first landed on Storskäret, but I took a detour to Lillskäret to conquer the Stubben lighthouse.

While the lighthouse itself wasn't anything in particular, the old village on the island was nice.

Back with Alf on Storskäret it was time for lunch in an old ruin. I think Alf ate bark.

I was also here for the older Stubben daymark.

Some local flora.

Coffee before continuing.

And then we continued. Now we had an 11 km crossing in side and tail wind.

There was some risk for a thunderstorm, and I kept an eye on the weather behind us.

When closing in on land, we entered a minefield of fishing nets. Alf's paddle got caught under a fishing  net line and pulled him under. The pair rescue still went well in the waves of about one meter. No pictures, though. We found shelter on the other side of a cape.

We had plenty of time for a coffee break, but during that time a thunderstorm passed a little to the west.

It got brighter for a while, but soon after we started paddling again, it started to rain.

And then some winds from a thunderstorm hit us. Quite fun, actually.

It quickly passed and the visibility soon returned.

Entering Socklothällan. We quickly put up the tent and hammock.

Dinner time on the other side of the island with a nice view.

A rare treat, I very seldom eat beef.

For dessert we went closer to the tents and watched the thunder storm move closer.

We continued to enjoy the evening until a really hard rain shower forced us to run to our shelters. I was fine in my tent, but Alf made a holy promise to never again pitch the hammock without a tarp on top, not even in the finest summer weather. He and all his sleeping gear got as wet as it is possible to get. The night was warm, though.

The next morning we again took a stroll, this time to the neighbouring island.

A view to the north.

The little village at Socklothällan.

The final leg.

The wind was mostly from the side.

That's it. A really nice trip again.