Excellent dinner at Restaurant Scola in Barösund. Stop-over at Hanko, dinner at the boat with smoked fish. Lovely upwind beat to Högsåra. Farmors Cafe delivered maybe the most delicious dinner on the whole trip. The stop-over at Borstö, a great experience of a remote place in the Archipelago. A local fisherman gave us a stack of pike perch which fried in butter made our meal for that night. Nagu with all its attractions was great again and Turku offered us a day of sightseeing.

I’ve signed up for a Finnish summer cruise on a cold, English December day. A week earlier, I chatted to my friend about wanting to return to the landscape that looked like something from a Jackson Pollock painting. Then an email landed in my inbox, promising Finnish sun (it sounded like an oxymoron to me) and the Baltic, where I swam on a family holiday in Poland many moons ago. I was overwhelmed by the serendipity of it all. A friendly chat with the skipper, and there was very little room left for any doubts about what to do and where I wanted to be that summer.

The sailing bug that bit me only the year before poked its little head, and I was again packing my gear with giddy anticipation and silent terror of the unknown. As it turned out, from the very beginning, I should have left any ballast of worries and fears on the English soil. It always comes down to one thing – people. If you can call a stranger a friend within the first minutes you meet them, you know that the universe is well and truly looking after you. Seb, our skipper, went out of his way to make sure I was well looked after and began my Finnish adventure with the smoothness of a calm sea. His warmth and humour immediately put a little seed of trust in my soul, and I knew that as spontaneous decisions go, this one would be one to remember. Soon we were joined by our First Mate Vilhelm, a bundle of knowledge and unlimited enthusiasm; Eira – skipper’s daughter, the nicest, fiercest kid out there; and the funniest and warmest of couples – Mary and Colin. We were ready to slip the lines and discover the beauty of the Finnish Archipelago.

The capricious weather offered us the sun, but there was very little wind in that deal. The sail went up, and the sail went down, but I didn’t mind. With my eyes filled with an ever-changing colour palette, from hues of blue of the sea and the sky, to the shades of green and grey of the coastal line, I was soaking up the beauty of what was in front of me. The Finnish Archipelago was simply showing off. In the background of it all was Seb’s and Vilhelm’s commentary – history, culture, politics, all spiced up with impish humour and some sailors’ tales thrown in for good measure. What was most heartwarming was seeing those two men so incredibly proud of where they come from and how much they wanted to share their love for all things Finnish with us.

It’s hard to pin down what was my favourite thing, moment or even a place. Maybe playing volleyball with Eira and feeling like a kid again; perhaps tucking into a delicious meal cooked by Vilhelm, or getting locked in the loo in one of the harbours and thinking that if that’s the only way for me to stay here forever, so be it! I felt at home in my cabin on our German tub, as I lovingly called our boat, and I could easily have sailed for many more days, going from harbour to harbour, and just happy to watch the world go by while at sea.

I came home with this bittersweet feeling of something gained and something lost, but most of all, with a heart full of wonderful, warm memories and that one thing you can never put a price on – new friends. And Finland – you have surprised me in so many ways; I am already looking forward to seeing you again! Till then. With love.”

Ewa, the guinea pig on the very first Finnish Archipelago cruise