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Satahanka XI

Farewell Satahanka

Farewell Satahanka

International Sea Scout Camp Satahanka XI ends today on the 4th August. 1203 scouts from Finland and abroad participated the camp. Almost 200 scouts arrived to Satahanka from outside Finland. 17 Norwegians, 50 from Russia, 11 from the USA, 21 from the UK, 7 from the United Arab Emirates, 11 from France and 58 from Greece. Together with scouts 22 sea scout schooling vessels of Finnish sea scout troops spent a week in Sauvo. In addition to the scouts over 500 friends of scouts and scouting visited the camp site.

According to camp director Mr. Jouni Riihelä, the camp was successful, even more than was expected. Goals have been reached exceptionally well, scouts have been happy, adult volunteers have been working hard and schooling vessels have been used a lot and well.

Marine professions at Satahanka

Marine professions at Satahanka

The theme of the eleventh Satahanka camp realised on Saturday when ferryman Atte Illman, senior pilot Ari Saari and pilotboatman Olli Huutera visited the camp. All of the marine professionals had background in sea scouting.

Marine professions are not without tough situations and extraordinary incidents. Illman, who has been working as a deputy ferryman, has saved a family with a wrecked boat on Christmas Eve. He unfastened ferryboat cable and navigated to the site of the wreck. Contrary to the common misbelief, the cable does not affect steering of the ferryboat.

Pilot Ari Saari navigates ships to and from harbours. Pilotboatman works, for instance, as an engine operator. You have to have the competence of a sea captain to become a pilot and be physically in good shape and have a sound sense of responsibility.

Marine professions are popular among students. Being the most important voluntary trainer of navigation skills in Finland, it is not surprising if some of the scouts who participate Satahanka will find themselves on a pilotboat or ferry in the future.

Environmentally friendly camping

Environmentally friendly camping

Satahanka has been planned to be as environmentally friendly sea scout camp as possible. Enviromental considerations began already when the camp site was chosen. Ahtela is a youth camping centre owned by the city of Turku. Satahanka is not going to be visible on the site afterwards, because scouts are using already existing roads and footpaths. Greywater is pumped into the municipal sewer system. Schooling boats are pumping disposing their sewage at pumping stations. Transportation and purchases are planned carefully to avoid excessive traffic. Waste is sorted and recycled and a part of the food is prepared using wood stoves.

Environment is also a part of the programme. Baltic Sea activity takes scouts into the middle of coastal observation conducted in cooperation with The Finnish Association for Nature Conservation. Scouts' marine knowledge is tested in a special quiz. All participating sea scout schooling vessels are also participating the Nodu-project by observing the presence of algae in the archipelago sea and reporting their findings to the Finnish Institute for Marine Research.

International Satahanka

International Satahanka

In addition to the participants from all over Finland, international participants bring their own colour to Satahanka. There are around 200 participants from seven different nations. Only a part of them are sea scouts, similarly to the participants from Finland.

Inger-Lise Neslein is the leader of the Norwegian 2. Bestum Sea Scout Group. The group is the only sea scout group in Oslo and it has two ships and canoes. Like sea scouts in Finland, they usually sail once a week from May to September. Last year they participated the fleet that sailed from Oslo to London to participate the 21st World Scout Jamboree.

Athenian The 1. Sea Scout of Kifissia, Athens owns all together three ships, which is very rare among Greek sea scout groups. One of their ships is a traditional Greek ship that can be sailed or rowed. They have also a 27-feet sailing boat and a small catamaran. The distance from their suburb to the sea is too long for them to be able to arrange evening sails. Therefore they usually sail for a week or two at a time. At the moment the 15-18-year-old scouts of the troop are sailing on the Egean Sea.

Christina Tsapepa from The 1. Sea Scout of Kifissia told that they have camps only with their own group and they are always in a different place. In Greece they do not have sea scout camps like Satahanka, but sea scout groups have a joint regatta every 2-4 years. Christina has enjoyed her first Satahanka except for the one thing that is common to many foreigners in Finland: "The sun rises too early in the mornings, I cannot sleep when it’s so bright!"

Camp Fire with Eemeli the Fisherman

Camp Fire with Eemeli the Fisherman

The third sunny day of Satahanka ended at the Great Camp Fire. The programme hosted by Eemeli the Fisherman was up to the long Finnish camp fire traditions.

Sing-along, shout-along, play-along and compete-along followed each other. Eemeli advised scouts of many tricks of his trade. For instance he told that it is not advisable to cut hundred metre long electric eels cathed nearby "Cable" signs with an axe.

The campfire was a festival of scouting spirit. Especially the programmes and shouts organised by subcamps were glorious.

The first sail

The first sail

The fleet of Finnish scout schooling vessels comprises an extremely wide range of boats from over 20-meters-tall sailing vessels to smaller yachts and motor boats. Some of the boats are originally more than 100 years old and some are brand new. Some groups have a long tradition of sea scouting while some of them have acquired theirs first vessels only recently.

All in all there are around 200 sea scouting vessels in Finland excluding jolly boats, canoes and kayaks. A special aspect of Finnish sea scouting is that the boats are owned by local scout groups. The top priority with all of the vessels is their safe and suitable for educating sea scouts.

The boats present at Satahanka represent well the variety of scout schooling vessels in Finland. Naturally they have an important role in the camp programme taking every subcamp to sail for a day. As the boats vary, also the experience is different for participants. In sailing boats scouts help with the sails while in motor boats they can get more indepth training, for instance, in navigation.

Elena Denyaeva, 16, from Kobeysk, Russia is visiting Finland for the first time. “This camp sounded interesting when I heard of it for the first time and therefore I wanted to come here. I really enjoy the atmosphere here and have already made many new international friends”, she told.

Elena sailed for the first time on s/y Passeli, which is one of the new boats at the camp. When leaving the harbour Elena helped the crew with the fenders and when s/y Passeli raised her sails Elena got a chance to help in winching. After the day when arriving to the harbour in the afternoon she knotted the fenders like she would have done that many times before. Sun and swimming in the sea made Elena’s sailing day even more unforgettable.

Sunny beginning

Sunny beginning

Shining sun welcomed 1200 scouts who arrived to international sea scout camp Satahanka XI by land and sea today. After the arrival the day proceeded with setting up tents and camp sites of the participating patrols at all subcamps. In the evening at 7.30 PM will be the grand opening ceremony of the eleventh Satahanka camp.

Building of the Satahanka site began already on Friday afternoon. The precamp was participated by 250 adults. The camp site was ready to welcome scouts late in Sunday evening.

The camp site is called Ahtela (60.262290° N, 22.793560° E) and it is located in the small town of Sauvo in southwestern Finland. The nearest city Turku lies about 50 kilometres west of the camp site. The distance to the capital city, Helsinki, is about 140 kilometres.

The camp site is situated in the heart of the Finnish woods, but as the camp site is located by the sea, there is also a long, beautiful beach in the area.

 
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