Second mate John IV here, writing to report on the latest happenings aboard the Windleblo.

I came aboard on Monday, August 2nd, in Mariehamn after a short day of travel from Talloires, France, where I’ve spent the summer working in the French Alps at the Tufts University European Center. We spent the next week circumnavigating the Åland archipelago, stopping first at the 13th century castle at Kastelholm.

Here we tied up to a small hamn with relatively modest amenities, including a harbor sauna where sailors would sweat out their sins after a day of labor – more on this in my next blog.

The next day we awoke and walked to the castle, which was first built in the 13th century and added to over the years until it was restored as the museum that stands today. There were delightful Ålanders dressed in costume to relate the castle’s illustrious history, a history closely related to that of Åland, which is at a strategic location in the struggles between the Scandinavian peninsula to the west and mighty Russia to the east.

Later the same afternoon we set sail to the hamn at Bӧmersund, a spot which looked promising as shelter from the gale forecasted for that night. Here we discovered a harbor and camping ground hybrid with a group of Scouts from Uppsala, Sweden (boys and girls were welcome to the troop in such a progressive culture).

After a little more investigation, we found the 18th century Russian fort of Bӧmersund, which, when intact, was the largest building ever built on Åland (designed to house 5000 soldiers). The fort was destroyed by the unstoppable French and British navies of the mid-19th century in the Crimean War but ruins of the semi-circular building stand today as a reminder, as well as a tiny museum with historical information and artifacts. Two nights, two mӧlkky games, and two sauna sessions later, we departed this hamn for a more secluded anchorage in the far north of the archipelago – Djupvik.

At Djupvik, on the island of Geta, we found a delightful cove and solitary anchorage. Shore reconnaissance dug up a walking trail with signs every 500 meters detailing the lore of the area in Finnish, Swedish and, as luck would have it, English.

We learned of Stefan Lofving, who evaded the Russians more than a century ago by hiking to a secluded cave with his boots turned backwards so the Russians wouldn’t be able to track him in the snow, and the woman who strangled the Russian hound that had discovered the hideout of locals awaiting rescue boats from Sweden.

All this we found courtesy of a pair of climbers I encountered on a scouting mission, who told me of the loop and the excellent bouldering nearby. Our hike took us to the highest point on Åland -- 100 meters -- where we ran into a delightful family from Helsinki who allowed us to use their 3G coverage to download weather information when the staff at the summit café denied us usage of their wireless internet.

After so much excitement, we chose a much more secluded anchorage at Finbo for a night of rest, relaxation, and Paderborner, the fine German beer that my dad was saving for my arrival in the hold (really he was counting on me to consume the surplus he had purchased weeks before).

The next morning we arose early to cross from Åland to the Stockholm archipelago, about 40 miles. Partway across we stopped at the lighthouse of Mӓrket, where we were in for a surprise.

We had been imparted some local knowledge a week earlier that we should stop in at a lighthouse a little less than halfway between Åland and our destination, Arholm, Sweden. We tied up to the mooring ball just south of the rocky outpost and were battening the hatches when a bearded Finn motored out to the Windleblo.

We said hello and he took us ashore, where we were suddenly the center of attention. About a dozen Finns were on the island, volunteering a week of their time to help with the restoration and improvement of the functioning lighthouse.

They treated us to a two-hour tour, where we learned about everything from the original plan for the lighthouse to the jury-rigged sauna they had set up to the fact that the isolated rock had risen one meter in the last century due to the rebound following the disappearance of the two kilometer-thick ice sheet that had covered the region 15,000 years earlier. It was a fascinating tour.

Since leaving Åland, we’ve cruised the Stockholm archipelago -- called the skӓrgard, including stops at Arholm and Bӓtholmen. On Arnholm, we anchored in Ӧsterhamn -- a delightful little cove -- amongst about ten other yachts of various flags and rowed to shore to find a sauna and an island entirely devoid of cars.

We walked on gravel paths to the local Krog and Kafe (restaurant and café) where we found out that a crayfish party was happening that night! We didn’t miss it,though we weren’t exactly prepared, as most attendees brought their own dinners and only bought drinks. Still, it was a memorable cultural and gustatory experience.

Now we are anchored in foggy Bӓtholmen, where we have a sauna time set for 8 AM and a plan to sail to Vaxholm tomorrow, where we will spend a day or two catching up with email/internet and cleaning the Windleblo. It has been a delight to be aboard for the past week and I look forward to the next, though I can’t imagine it to be more action-packed than the last.