Finnish Curve Cowboys

My original plan was to start from home at 14:00 towards Turku Finland (180 km) from where our ferry to Stockholm was due at 21:15. I did all kinds of last minute preparations including visiting a physiotherapist who gave some last minute treatment to my back. I also went and bought myself a kidney belt which has really been of big help. I finally got started one hour later at 15:00 and the bike odometer showed 40222 km as starting reading.

Jouko lives in the suburbs of Turku so we only had half hour to the harbor from his house. I stopped at his place and we did some last minute cleaning and especially waxing the front side of the bikes. This was in order to make the future bug cleaning easier as we were especially instructed not to leave any dead bugs on the bikes during the flight transport.

When we started from Jouko’s home it somehow happened that I drove first although we were in his hometown and he knows the best way to the harbor. All of a sudden I realize that he is no longer in my rear view mirrors. He must have forgotten something so I pulled over and waited for him a while until he came and we continued, Jouko in the front this time. This small incident started a series of similar happenings to which I will return later. Anyway, at the harbor he handed me my leather neck collar which had been flying from the back of my bike when we started from his home. My way of packing things…

We got our bikes on the Stockholm ferry and the fastening methods to the ferry were just as ridiculous as we were warned about. They had just simple nylon ropes and a rail on the wall of the ship cargo hall. I asked the loading officer if this was the only equipment they had and he told me that this is enough. They have never had a bike to fall down… OK, the ship is about 200 meters long and it will not rock much on a normal weather but still I have heard about occasions where a bike has come down. Maybe not on this particular ship, but on a similar one.
Well, we just parked the bikes on the side stand and used the nylon ropes to secure them the best we could. Luckily the sea was calm and everything went okay.