bike

A ferry hop to Muha, a causeway to Saaremaa... The main island is bigger than I had realised - four times the area of Menorca and one-third the population of my reference isle. Long empty forest roads give time to think. A road sign alerts to the possibility of elk. The islanders are welcoming of visitors: cycle routes are marked, points of interest indicated These are flat islands. 20m constitutes a mighty cliff. The sea is shallow and warm at this time of year, but come winter may freeze and link the islands - roughly 900 of them - by ice.

A bit of routine maintenance was planned whilst passing through Latvia's capital city. It seemed a good place to replace the tyres which had become worn treadless and were perhaps becoming liable to cuts / splits. It would be a real nuisance to write off a tyre far from a major town, and once into Finland am not expecting to find many of those...

Lots to tell (Norwegians, please be sure to read to the end):

Expedition board

The board stays proudly displayed in Surf Shop Burgas. I had been thinking of sending it back to the UK, but the National Maritime Museum turned down my offer, and I was never 100% easy with the carbon footprint involved with sending it back to sit in a shed somewhere anyway. Better all round this way and there is even a chance it will sail again.