Saturday 7 July
A little ‘city-ed out’, to be honest, and after the briefest pause at Passport Control coming back into Finland, my crew spent the rest of Friday and most of Saturday provisioning and catching up with laundry duty. They were delighted with the treasure trove that is the new Hakaniemi market hall, only a kilometre’s cycle ride along designated cycle paths mostly along the waterside, that offers all manner of delicious fresh foods and local artisan crafts. Outside on stalls in the market square, prices of fresh fruit and vegetables, of undeniably high quality, were something of a shock: a week’s produce for two came to €80.
There was a bonus to spending so long on our departure preparations, though, in the shape of my new best friend Saltimbanque, who arrived into HMVK in time to say hello and for our crews to make arrangements for a social visit in the coming few days.
We finally slipped the lines at 1900 and headed West into the evening sunshine – yes, of course the weather had improved again now our guest was no longer with us. At last we were back on anchor, dropping the hook in a lovely peaceful spot between Pukkisaari and Pyöräsaari, two of the hundreds of islands outlying Helsinki.