We had a lazy morning and didn’t set off till 9:45 from Degerby. With only about 5 knots of wind, we motored the narrow passage for the first couple of hours.

The wind picked up and we could set our sails. My logbook entries are sparse at their best, but this day seems to have been less eventful. By the time we had made it to the Archipelago Sea, we had 12-16 knots of northerly wind and made the 42 NM trip in less than eight hours.

At the beginning of the year, we had applied and been accepted to the private sailing club Merikarhut. The club owns several beautiful islands with safe harbours that members can use. Lillholmen was the first one we were about to visit.

The first time going in to a new harbour is always a bit exciting. Even if the charts tell you that the entry looks pretty straightforward, you keep checking the depth and watching out for rocks. When you’re doing it with a brand new boat, it sort of adds something to the equation.

Lillholmen is a beautiful place off the island of Korpo, near the main route leading to Turku. The amenities are what sailors need, a safe berth, a dunny and a couple of great saunas. Peace and quiet. We are not sauna freaks, so we passed on making a booking and just enjoyed the evening and the fact that we were in Finland with plenty of time to spare before having to deliver the boat for the boat show a couple of weeks later.