Three Days on a Finnish Archipelago Island With No Shop and One Sauna

South west of Turku the land breaks into thousands of islands, some big enough for villages and some just a rock with a single pine. Last August my wife and I rented a cottage on one of the small ones for three nights. It has no shop, no road, one sauna, and a population that varies between two and eleven depending on who has come out for the weekend.

We got there on a connecting ferry and then a small water taxi, a boat driven by a woman named Pirjo who also delivers the post.

Planning like a sailor

Without a shop, you have to bring everything. We spent an evening in Turku with a list, buying bread, potatoes, smoked fish, coffee, sausages for grilling, cucumbers, blueberries, and far too much chocolate. We carried it in two backpacks and a cooler bag.

I am a person who usually forgets things. This time I forgot only matches, which the cottage owner had anticipated by leaving three boxes in a drawer with a note that said, in Finnish, "Everyone forgets these."

Water and the sauna

There is no running water on the island. There is a well with a hand pump for drinking, and for washing there is the sea and the sauna. You carry water in buckets. After the first afternoon we became very careful with it, and I understood why my grandparents, who grew up on a farm without plumbing, never let a tap run.

The sauna is a small wood-fired building on the rocks right at the water. It takes about an hour to heat. We would light it around six, sit on the rocks watching the boats while it warmed, then go in and sit until we could not stand it, and walk straight down the smooth granite into the sea. The Baltic in August is cool but not cold, and the water is barely salty. Then back into the heat. Then the sea. Three or four rounds.

The light

In August the sun sets late but it does set, and the evenings go on for hours in shades of pink and grey. We sat on the rocks with our feet in the water until almost eleven, not talking much. A white-tailed eagle went over twice. The only sounds were the water against the rocks and occasionally the motor of a boat far away.

Sleeping

I have had trouble sleeping for years. Too many thoughts, too much screen. On the island I slept nine hours every night. I think it was the combination of the sauna, the sea, carrying water, and the absence of anything to check. My phone had one bar of signal if I stood on a specific rock by the flagpole. I visited that rock once a day.

Leaving

On the last morning Pirjo came back with her boat. As we pulled away I watched the cottage get smaller until it was just a red dot against the grey rocks and green pine.

We have already booked the same week for next year. I have written "matches" at the top of the list, in capital letters.