Monday June 25th: Rodhamn is a cozy guest harbor located less than 10nm south east of Mariehamn. I had first heard about it, and the couple who run it, Christian and Annette Kull from Andy and Mia’s 59-North podcast a few years ago. Not only does the place offer sheltered slips in a gorgeous bay, but the Kulls also run a cozy little café serving terrific coffee and homemade pastries, and for a small fee they will deliver fresh-baked bread to your boat each morning. Arcturus was returning to one of her former haunts and we were thrilled to visit a place which had been so evocatively described on the podcast.
After two nights at Mariehamn the day dawned bright and clear with 8-10 knots of wind from the south east. This allowed us to untie our lines and run the engine for barely five minutes before turning to port and hoisting our 135% genoa for a pleasant reach all the way to Rodhamn. The route is all inside channels with no Baltic swell to negotiate. The only real challenges are dealing with frequent gusts and shallow water, but we safely dealt with both and within less than two hours we were snapping our rear lines onto a mooring ball and hopping off at the jetty.
The harbor is framed with the usual granite rocks onto which sturdy wooden jetties are attached, forming a walkway to the café and harbor control office. The place can handle about 50 boats but when we visited there were perhaps 15-20. The landscape is dotted with half a dozen traditional ‘falu’ red buildings, including the café and office, the sauna, the garbage hut and the vault toilets. We quickly said hello to Christine and enjoyed a pastry and coffee while meeting other sailors. I recommend the sauna in particular, which you reach by following the ‘red road’ (ask Christine) round the corner a traditional two-room hut right on the water, boasting a wood-fired stove with the most enormous pile of firewood next door. Suitably refreshed, we repaired to the cockpit of Arcturus for a vegetarian Thai curry and a chat about what a wonderful experience our sailing had been thus far – but not before J scored some nifty drone footage, which can be seen below.
But as always, the highlight of the visit was meeting other sailors, most notably Christian Juslin, a gregarious and charming Åland native and operatic tenor who sings around the world but loves sailing in his own back yard better than just about anything. And who can blame him? Christian came to visit us on Arcuturus and give us some tips for anchoring in the area. His suggestions were like gold to us.
You can find Rodhamn at their own website here or find them on Facebook.
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