IOM European Championships, November 2008

Eero L. (FIN-45) and myself (FIN-41) had the pleasure to represent Finland. We travelled to Croatia by car, the nonstop journey from Vasa to Dubrovnik took 3 days.

We had pleasant mediterranean weather, 20-25 degrees and mild winds, the kind of weather we have in Finland during summer months. The tide, on the other hand, was a new fenomena for us northerners.

Croatians really worked hard for the event and as You can see from the results, they are very good sailors too. On the way home we made detours to Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Germany and Sweden.

Saint Henrys pilgrimage, September 2008

St Henry, the patron saint of Finland, was an Englishman who became appointed bishop of Uppsala in Sweden — or, according to other sources, as a missionsbishop. In 1155 he accompanied the Swedish king on a crusade to Finland and stayed on to do missionary work until he came to a violent end on ice-covered Lake Köyliö in 1156.

According to a legend his bones were first brought to Nousiainen and later in 1300 moved to the newly consecrated Turku Cathedral. In the Middle Ages the road from Köyliö to Nousiainen and further to Turku was known as St Henry's road and became a popular route for pilgrimages.