Woke up toasty and warm mummified in the bag after my second night in the lean-to. Really glad for it too, as the weather has gotten MUCH colder. There are no shorts or sleeveless tees today. Plenty of thermals and fleece jackets and raingear instead. Set off around 11, giving ourselves plenty of time for todays short section of the trip, as we'll be paddleing into the wind for a good portion of the day.
We made good time even though it was a long slog south to Papusaari where we had the option of setting up camp. But given the sparsity of good pitch sites for our tents, we opted instead for a long lunch and brewed soup or tea to offset the chill which was sinking through our layers of clothes, and even numbing my hands through 5mm of neoprene! After about an hour the stoves were packed away & we were back on the water again. About an hour of constant fighting to (a) keep on course and (b) prevent the swell from coming in over the side of our boats and we made landfall on the beach at Laajalahti. With tents up and a roaring fire going in the covered fireplace, Jamie, Eoin, Dennis and myself decided to brave the cold water to wash the weariness from our bones, not to mention get rid of the smell of campfire which has built up over the last couple of days. To describe it as bracing wouldn't quite cover it, but it's pretty close. We timed it well, as by the time we were out & dried, and had the stoves fired up for dinner it was starting to snow. And not the mush we get at home, but nice clean powder snow.
It only stayed for a short while unfortunately, as it would have made a nice scene in the morning. Anyway that's about as much as i can type on a phone in one sitting, more tomorrow...
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