I’m just back from the Helsinki International Boat Show, where I did two screenings of my film The New Northwest Passage. I also spoke at the Marjaniemen Purjehtijat and Helsingfors segelklub, two of the city’s most prominent yacht clubs. I can’t say enough about the hospitality of the Finns. Other highlights were my first Finnish sauna (served with cold beer and breaks in the freezing outdoors) and my second experience of eating raw caribou (well, in Finland they call it reindeer). This time it was served with fine wine and cloudberries…a rather different experience than my first taste!

Left to right, Sailing writer Jimmy Cornell, Samuli Lesti, project leader of X Sail Racing (my hosts) and yours truly.

I was very pleased to meet Jimmy, author of World Cruising Routes (one of those books that all ocean sailors know about), and was pleased to hear he was reading my book in preparation for his own Arctic voyage!

From Finland I flew to Swedish Lapland, well above the Arctic Circle, where I celebrated my birthday (it ends in a 0, that’s all I’ll say) at the ski lodge of an old friend. It was fantastic to be back up north, though the Swedish north (right on the Norwegian border) feels very different than Canada’s north. More roads, development, etc.

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