The Kinvig’s sailing to the Baby Islands

Before we start we need to make it clear that this blog is written entirely by Madeline, Leila and Cameron. So this will be a far better blog than one written by Uncle Andrew and Auntie Jenny.

We started off on Madeline’s birthday where we got a flight from Edinburgh to Stockholm. Stockholm is a lovely sunny place during the summer. We arrived there late at night at a hotel and went to bed to get a good nights sleep. The next day we started it off by having a huge breakfast with salmon, potatoes, bacon and more. We then got a tram to Uncle Andrew and Auntie Jenny’s boat and then set sail to some small islands. I sailed the boat out of Stockholm and navigated the complex rights of way (That means I didn’t hit anything) We then anchored our boat at a lovely baby island and went swimming, paddle boarding and kayaking. I went paddle boarding with my brother (Well,  until my Dad tipped us over) and then we went and had a lovely barbecue for dinner on the island. Leila  Age 15.

Hello my name is Madeline. Yesterday I learned how to swim in my Uncle Andrew and Auntie Jenny’s sailing boat. I drove their boat past an ocean liner! It was sooo fun I loved it but, I was scared I would crash the boat against the huge cruise boat. It took 4 hours to get to a really nice baby island. At some parts the boat would get really wavy because some ocean liners and big fast speed boats went by. Then we went into our wet suits ( me and Leila) we were expecting the water to be FREEZAN! but it was actually quite warm, I went for a wee swim ( with my bouancy aid , a life jacket ).  The water was covered in seaweed so my feet kept on getting caught in it. Then my dad said “take off my life jacket”, I said ” but I cant swim!” ” yes you can, you are swimming perfectly fine” “ok fine I will try” I took off my life jacket and tried to swim and I SWAM I was really happy and when we were all out of the water and dried off we had a lovely barbeque. Madeline age 10.

 

 

The Next Day…

I woke to a crisp summer morning, the silence occasionally broken by the gentle patting of the waves against the boats hull, originating from a far off passing boat that has since long gone.  I drifted in and out of sleep for a few hours until hearing voices from above.  I got dressed and climbed up the ladders to meet everyone on the deck.  Madeline had gone out for a morning swim, Uncle Andrew and Auntie Jenny were stowing away the paddleboard and kayak for the voyage that lay ahead.  We all had a breakfast of cereal and fruit before lifting the anchor and leaving the bay that cradled Feath for the past 12 hours.  The boat sweeped between the Islands passing ferries, speedboats and other sailors as we went before arriving at a small harbour to refuel as it was the last opportunity to do so for a few miles.  The task deemed more chaotic than we planned, to reach the fuelling jetty we had to traverse a queue of other vessels, big sailing yachts to small cruisers.  The smaller boats decided they were more important and jumped the queue whenever a small space became available, instead of waiting for the other boats to leave and for the next boat to berth.   Leila and I paddled around the dock in the small rubber dingy whilst my Dad and Madeline secured a spot for the boat.  After such a terrifying ordeal we enjoyed some ice cream to calm our nerves before taking on our next task of finding a shop.  A local pointed us to marina on the other side of the island to do our shopping, after the traversing around the rocky beaches we were stopped by a cosway that left only a small opening to reach the marina on the other side.  The rubber dingy was deployed again for my Dad and I to scout out a shop.  We passed through the opening to find a small dock, with the dingy tied up we had a look about but had no luck in finding a shop.  Only a few houses.  Admitting our defeat, we rowed back to Feath and got back on our way.  A lot of exercise and 1 hour time difference (not much I know) had left me feeling tired and I dozed off for an hour or so.  I woke to find that we’d anchored at our spot for the night, a similar bay to the night before but with a few more houses and docks dotted about.  The paddle board and kayak came out and we played about on them for a few hours before dinner.  Dinner was an extravagant meal prepared by my Uncle Andrew, Pork and Mushroom Stroganoth.  I may not know how to spell it but boy it was good!  I washed up the dishes and retired to the cabin to write this blog post before a good nights sleep.  Cameron, age 16.

Day 3

I started off waking up in the tiny bedroom I was sharing with Leila. I woke up and heard voices upstairs. It was hard to get up with Leila in the way off the door,( since I was behind the cupboard ) It took a while, but when I got to the door I ran out of the cabin. I walked upstairs and saw Auntie Jenny, Uncle andrew, and dad. morning I said. Did you have a nice sleep everyone said. Yup I said. After getting changed and everything the boat started sailing away, off to the opposite side of the island. It didn’t take too long to get there because time went past very fast, it took an hour to get there. When we got there I watched Auntie jenny put down the anchor. finally we had breakfast it was yummy. I had cereal and some butter on bread. Cameron and Leila went out on the dingy to look for a path to a shop, because Cameron used all the bread and milk. They couldn’t find anything except for a big field. Leila and Cameron came back and got out. Then after a while I went for I tiny swim but I came out because I was bored with no one else coming in. Then we went in the dingy to look for a shop (again). we finally found a sign that read “butiker.” ( I think that meant shop). We followed the path that the sign said to go to.  It took about 20 mins but we finally came to a village that had a football match. The players were from many different islands around Sweden. We met a lady with a dog that was a chocolate Labrador. We all got an ice lolly. I don’t know what team won? We came back and went swimming. After swimming we had a lovely dinner that was fried chicken with potatoes and broccoli. And now I am writing this. Madeline age 10.

After discovering that we were dangerously low on supplies (because of Cameron’s greediness), We decided that we would have to go on another adventure to the shop to get more supplies. The shop shut at 3 o’clock and it was 2:30 so we had to be quick. Cameron and I  set sail on our dinghy over to shore. I was attempting to row the dinghy while splashing Cameron but he eventually took over as I kept going the wrong way. We got to shore and started our treacherous journey through the woods to get to the shop whilst getting many ticks on our legs. When we got to the road we realised we only had 15 minutes to get to the shop so we started running as fast as we could in the warm heat. We finally got to the shop with 10 minutes to spare. We bought cheese and ham and decided that after all our hard work we would secretly buy some chocolate for us to share. We had a nice long walk back enjoying our chocolate and rowed back to the boat on our dinghy. We got back to our boat and showed everyone what we got. Cameron gave the receipt to Uncle Andrew to show him how much everything cost. Cameron forgot that the secret chocolate we bought was on the receipt and Dad thought it was cheese so we thought we where in the clear, well until Auntie Jenny found out that it was chocolate and we got caught. Leila age 15

Day 4

The best parts of today were, when early in the morning we went sailing to Finland, it was very rocky and I nearly went right out of the boat. When I tried to get up and down the stairs I kept on smacking myself on the walls AND I kept falling into the bathroom because that is the room right next to the stairs. ( We were going sideways). I was very hungry for some reason. Anyway when we got there we went for a walk. We found a swim pool , that we are hopefully going to tomorrow. Also a nice beach. We had ice cream I had mint chocolate. When we had came back we had a rest for walking a lot. I didn’t like the bathrooms when people were having showers because there were no doors so you could see people having showers. At 9pm the gun went off and people were racing to there flags at the back of the boat to put them down. For dinner we had hotdogs and potatoes and beans. Madeline age 10

 

Today we all woke up very early before leaving our anchorage to cross the Baltic to Finland.  The wind was strong enough so my sisters and I hoisted up the sails and before we knew it we were flying across the vast Baltic under the hot sun.  It was very rocky and the whole boat was tilted on it’s side, it was very disorientating inside the cabin and I felt the beginning of sea-sickness but it faded away quickly after I started steering the boat.  Perched up on the high starboard side I used a gap between the trees on Aland which lied on the horizon as a way marker to our target entrance to the island.  Uncle Andrews’s cunning plan was to go around most of the little islands to avoid the shipping lanes that would be riddled with towering ferries and a free-for-all of small boats trying to gain access to the harbour.  We weren’t surprised to find that the plan worked and we had arrived earlier than expected.  Afterwards we had some amazing pizzas for lunch before heading into the town to explore.  We passed a music festival and saw a helicopter taking people for ride around the island (which looked quite dangerous) and headed back to the boat for dinner.  Leila cooked us (but lost interest in) hotdogs, potatoes and baked beans which all was up to an acceptable standard, whilst I was washing the dishes I heard a thundering boom, I climbed up to the deck to find everybody in the surrounding boats frantically rushing to get there flags down.  It turns out that it’s tradition to take down your boat’s flag at sundown which is quite interesting, if you don’t you will be deeply frowned upon by the community and almost certainly sentenced to death.  Cameron, age 16.