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Jennie B - ARC Baltic - Åland is a land worth exploring.



We made it to Kokar by 2030 on Saturday 2nd August and were very glad we made the effort to get there. Many of the rally boats were at anchor in the harbour or tied up to the small quay. We went ashore to enjoy a few drinks from the small bar overlooking the harbour and listened to beautiful singing from a girl duo who were performing to the small crowd of sailors and local campers. It was a really magical evening. Sunday morning we had a bit of a late start but eventually got under way at 1030 heading for Mariehamn. We had many hours of great sailing through more beautiful channels and islands and got to the ASS marina at Mariehamn at 1800. The marina at Mariehamn was, we think, the best we've stayed at on the rally so far. Great facilities and in a very pretty location, we were all impressed with the bottle opener in the sauna! Mariehamn and Kokar are both in Åland which has the odd status of being an autonomous territory but part of Finland and the people there generally speak Swedish rather than Finnish. On Monday 4th August we spent the day exploring Mariehamn, doing a bit of shopping and visiting the Pommern square rigger. We liked Mariehamn and really enjoyed our visit to the Pommern. We ended the day in traditional rally fashion with drinks in the dock, as usual one quiet one followed by several noisy ones. We are really getting to know the different crews now thanks to these frequent social events. Everyone is very friendly and always willing to offer a helping hand or a joke! This is our first WCC rally but now we understand why several boats that have done the ARC or other WCC rallies were so keen to take part.

Paul & Elaine

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