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My 'driver' from yesterday turned up at my little harbour. At first I didn't recognise him but once he'd reminded me I invited him on board. He told me of the 'large' harbour where he had his motor boat and also where I might get a paper chart portfolio of the northern Saimaa Lakes. This would be most useful since zooming in and out on the chartplotter was time consuming and not always successful and having the entire area in front of me on fairly detailed charts would be much handier. Unfortunately the harbour lay the far side of a road bridge which was too low for me to pass under with my mast standing but we thought I might be able to anchor in the narrows and walk or take the dinghy the extra half mile or so.
I transferred Toytown to Tom's 'large' harbour 4NM away which was complete with toilets, sauna and a cafe, so a real hive of activity in the middle of the season. But when I arrived there were no buoys available and all three small pontoons were packed cheek by jowl with boats. I circled for a few minutes considering my options when Tom hailed me from his boat. Two of the skippers of motor boats had adjusted their lines and made room for me to squeeze between them so I picked up and shared a buoy with the boat next door and edged in. There was quite an audience as boaters watched this English boat manouvre single handed into the gap and there was no shortage of hands to take my lines once I edged my way in.
Tom brought his chart portfolio of the northern lakes over and suggested I photograph them and download them to my laptop in case I couldn't find the charts at the small chandlery the other side of the bridge. This I did and, whilst not ideal, it was better than nothing.
The next morning I went the 5NM to Orivo in search of charts. I managed to tie up on a small pontoon and hitched a ride through the bridge and into town on a fishing boat. Unfortunately the harbour office had no charts but offered me a portfolio of small, basic 'charts' designed for canoeists etc. Not very good but better than nothing. I bought them for 19 Euros! After a lift back to Toytown on another motor boat I took off in search of somewhere to spend the night and made for another 'visitors berth' marked on the chartplotter When I arrived there was a large motor boat there and whilst they all waved I didn't want to disturb their peace and went on to the next 'v' (visitors berth). Nothing was obvious when I arrived but I found the rocky bottom readily enough when the depth gauge showed 3.5m under the keel. I went hard aground and half an hour of struggling to get off with high engine revs and listing the boat to port and starboard proved ineffective. Cursing silently I started to blow up the dinghy so I could row my kedge anchor offshore, drop it and (hopefully) winch myself off when a small fishing boat appeared. 'Great' I thought,' they can take my kedge offshore for me' and once I'd managed to attract their attention this is what the two old fishermen did. They didn't speak a word of English nor I Finnish but sign language served the day and they quickly got the gist of what I intended. They dropped the kedge about 25m offshore and I started winding on the primary winch. It was hard work but I came off first time and was soon floating in 4.5m. Boy was I happy. I thanked the fisherman who appeared as pleased as I was and got well away from that inhospitable shore. About 2NM away I found a shallow bay which offered some protection from the wind and I dropped anchor for the night - well offshore and away from the danger of uncharted shallows and rocks.
The wind got up during the night and I was woken by the anchor chain working against the bow roller. At 07.00 there were strong gusts every minute or two, no sun to be seen and whitecaps out in the sound. 'Stay put' I thought, 'I've got nowhere I've got to be today'.