My Last Few Days - Coming Home
Some Sailing!!A couple days ago, Robert suggested we go sailing. His friend’s family owns a sailboat, and if we wanted, we could go out for an afternoon. I was pretty interested, and Saana said she would love to go.
The day of, I met Robert & Anders for lunch. I had some salad and coffee, and then we went to Anders’ apartment, where we could pick up his girlfriend Saana. Anders & Saana grabbed some warm clothes; Saana filled a few water bottles; and at the last minute Anders realized that he hadn’t hung their laundry. So we pestered the crap out of him while he slung his clothes over a metal contraption designed to air dry clothes. Finally we were off.
Where is the Damn Boat?
We needed the key; so we drove to the appropriate island, over a series of bridges, to pickup the key. From there we headed to the boat, which was just across the way, but required driving another 20 minutes to another island. Robert navigated while Anders drove. Somehow we ended up at a dead-end. No boat here!! Then came the phone calls. How do we get to the marina? Two phone calls and another 20 minutes, and we found her.
She is docked in a tiny little marina with about 8 boats and a seaplane. Anders didn’t see a parking spot, so he drove past the marina. About 10 minutes later the street dead-ended, and he thought it was a good idea to park there. He saw a foot path, and insisted that it lead to the marina. We all rejected his assessment and made him turn around. We did of course park right in front of the marina – he still insists the foot path would have taken us there.
Breaking In
The key we got to the gate didn’t work of course. So Saana had to climb around the gate and open it from the inside. I was starting to doubt whether we were getting on the right boat. It’s a great little 26 footer, similarly rigged to the boat my father bought last year and later sold. Starting the outboard took some work, but we took off. And once the sails were up, we were off.
The water around Helsinki is really beautiful. There are a series of islands and it makes sailing through it a lot of fun. Robert took us around for a few hours and then back to the marina. We sailed around into the wind preparing to drop the main, and started drifting toward a rock wall. Robert couldn’t start the outboard again. At any point we could have sailed out of there, but Robert really wanted to start the motor. So we drifted…and drifted, and then he figured out that the kill switch wasn’t being held out far enough. He enlisted Saana to hold the kill switch out with her fingers, and he then started it right up. It was nice that we didn’t end up drifting into the wall. We dropped the main and spun around to dock her. Great day!!
My Last Evening
My last evening in Helsinki, I spent with Anders, Saana, Joen, Heidi, Robert and Andreas. We had dinner at a cool little Asian/Italian restaurant. Joen said he had to go early, but a few of us were up for some drinking. After dinner we all went to a pub to throw back a few last drinks. We started with beer and graduated into shots, and we ended up closing down the bar. Joen never did get to go home early. Luckily Robert ordered me a taxi before we were too far gone, and the next morning I left Finland for one more night in Budapest.
My cousin Adam picked me up at the airport. My last night in Europe I spent having a quiet and sober dinner with Adam and his girlfriend. I’m glad – my liver hurts!!
Fantastic Trip
All in all it was a fantastic trip. I saw my friends and family. I saw a few new cities. I got to have a romantic week with Kristin. And I am coming home without any serious damage to by person. I did of course manage to lose my wallet with some cash and credit cards, but that didn’t seriously harm my trip. Of course my new rolling duffel bag is having a serious malfunction. The handle that you use to pull it is broken, and I’m gonna try to get it fixed as soon as I get home.
Well, I gotta go!! My plane is boarding - I’ll be in LA in 17 hours.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home