Did earlier this week a three day paddling trip to Porkkala peninsula in Kirkkonummi municipal, Gulf of Finland. Total paddled distance was about 90km. Tested equipment (camping etc. and myself, too!) for becoming 9-day paddling trip, starting next week.
When leaving club house the wind was quite strong, about 8 m/s and even harder in gusts. Good news was it seemed to be a tailwind for day 1. And it certainly was. Near Rövargrundet island waves were at least 1.5m high. Bypassing boat disappeared from my sight every now and then. Had to change the planned route a bit due to increasing waves.
Direction of the wind was from east/south-east so it was able to hit directly to coast as there were not so many islands or land slowing it down. That's the reason why waves were so high, too.
Reached Lill Skorvan island in record time. There was no soul nearby. Set up a camp and cooked some early dinner. Observed island and watched waves breaking to rocks. Tried to get some sleep with not great success, waves after waves. Then about 3 or 4 AM group of birds started to 'discuss' with each other, loudly I'd say.
The next day after breakfast headed towards Porkkala peninsula. Left the base camp to island. Wind was still quite strong so decided to take most safest route although it passed some open peninsulas, where wind hit directly.
Arrived at the shop. Lots of sail and other boats were at visitor center. Got some fresh strawberries. Then filled water tanks and headed towards Porkkala Coast Guard. Took some photos there. Didn't jump out from the kayak but circled around the head of Porkkala peninsula. Island here were nice, great rocks with pine trees. Lots of summer cottages for sure, too. Directly south from peninsula went a busy water route from west to east. Lots of sail and other boats on that route, mostly heading towards west, to city of Hanko I presumed.
Time to turn the kayak towards north east and back to the base camp on Lill Skorvan island. From now on all the way back to base camp, and next day, too, to club house, the wind stayed against me. The sun appeared making return to base camp more enjoyable. Now really big waves didn't feel so bad in the sun. Have to say experiencing these big waves in two days was really important for becoming trip.
After arriving at Lill Skorvan island, prepared an early dinner. The rest of the day followed local birds which had baby birds. Certainly there was some protection even when trying to take a photo near from them. Still didn't see a soul in any nearby islands (where's everybody?).
Spent the rest of the evening in the hammock. Sleep with all that fauna around wasn't a great success either.
The 3rd day backed everything and returned back to club house. Despite head wind all the way, the sun shined and made scenery magnificent to watch.
Need to return some day to Porkkala peninsula. There seemed to be lots interesting islands, some lighthouses and great flora and fauna. However, that region is favorable for strong wind, so need to be lucky to get a good and easy weather. Otherwise it would be tough paddling mostly.
A bit too much blogging recently, but wanted to record this one as probably not coming this area soon.
Paddled some 30km today in Sipoo's archipelago, which is located about 30km east from Helsinki, Finland.
Picked up a kayak from club house and drove there by car. Weather was a bit cloudy in the beginning but soon clouds vanished and sun shine poured downwards hitting surface of the sea reflecting from there everywhere. Wind stayed around 4m/s so pretty smooth.
A note: Seems like every year I plan to go paddling off the capital area but hit the reality year after year, I'm too lazy to pack a kayak on the car and drive somewhere to paddle. It's so bloody easy to go to the club house, jump into the kayak and go off almost anywhere near by (and what's more, Helsinki and Espoo archipelagos are so beautiful that they satisfy me mostly every time). Glad it wasn't the case today!
Sipoo (Sibbo på svenska) archipelago still has a few beautiful old summer houses on rocky islands (I don't call them summer cottages, you know). Witnessed many of them but didn't want to try to store them into pictures. Kayak is not a perfect place to take photos while there's some waves swaying you.
There are a few islands for public outdoors. The pearl of them is Kaunissaari island (owned and maintained by the city of Helsinki). At his time didn't have plans to visit there.
Saw the new harbor for water based transportation in Vuosaari. Looked modern and massive.
Basically I liked this archipelago, but most of the islands were too full of summer cottages, although summer houses were very nice. I also liked houses on islands where families seemed to live (around year?). Clearly there were some fishermen houses as piers and boat shelters hinted so. To me these type of houses reminded (good?) old days when traffic was unknown on waters and many islands presented their naked beauty.
In my previous blog post, I wrote about my paddling on Bothnian Sea last midsummer weekend. While paddling there, I spotted a nice looking, small rocky island and decided to have a short lunch break there. Later on learnt the island's name to be "Hoppostenkloppi".
While enjoying lunch there, started to look at more carefully how deserted the island actually was. Basically at first sight it looked like it had one huge rock, a big tree and some grass on one side, and that's all. Second quick sight around brought some new grown things in view, thus decided to circle the whole tiny island after lunch.
After seeing some interesting looking plants decided to take photos to record some variants of them. After taking couple of photos spotted some birds there, too. Next big surprise was to find a bird's nest with fresh eggs in there and almost stepped on a snake!
After shooting photos about 10 minutes, became so amazed about how rich such an island was in plants as well as in wildlife. As being a total novice on these, I needed some help later on to recognize all stuff. Here's some of the plants and animals spotted there. Nature is wonderful, even on a remote island.
Hoppostenkloppi island, a rock and a tree, that's not all folks ...
