The first thing asked when arriving at the destination after a sailing trip is whether there is a sauna and if it's possible to rent it. Price doesn't matter!

After sweating for a day or a few on the boat at sea, washing up is the first thing on your mind. The beer is already open, usually, or maybe even a better bubbly has been popped to celebrate reaching the destination.

Saunas are available on almost every island, but the luck of finding one free for rent just when you most want and need it rarely aligns. Here, we are quite rigid, even money won't get your sweat and salt-encrusted mane in order. Saunas are heated on certain days of the week at specific times, and if you miss it or it's full, welcome back next week. In a country with 2 million saunas, sauna availability is like randomly stumbling into a church during a service. You can't just request or order it randomly.

So, one should not set sail without their own sauna! Lauren has plenty of space on both sides of the salon to store a sauna. Specifically, a tent sauna. It takes up no more space than a hockey bag, including the stove, benches, water heater, and tent.

Tent saunas are available from various manufacturers, with Savotta perhaps being the most well-known. Savotta offers different sizes to choose from, but the issue lies with the benches. They are available from Savotta, but the implementation is less compact. They don't even fit in a regular car, so transporting them on a boat is also ruled out as an option. And without benches, there's no sauna.

The Finnish Nexi must also be mentioned. Its tent, stove, and benches have been praised in the tent sauna scene, despite the almost €4000 price and limited availability. However, the problem is the same as with all tent sauna sellers: there's no visible tent sauna to explore and compare what you're buying. I only found out the size of Savotta's benches at the cashier when the warehouse guys, panting, carried them from the stock. The deal ended there, and the guys struggled back to the warehouse with the benches, tent, and stove.

I continued the search for a sauna suitable for the boat and came across a Russian brand called Mobiba online. It had Finnish resellers, such as [reseller name], so thankfully, I didn't have to order it from the last corner of Siberia for hundreds of thousands of rubles. Antti Mukari from Korpimetso.com told me that he has had the Mobiba tent sauna in use for years, and the quality is impeccable. It can be assembled in fifteen minutes, and the stove is really fast and energy-efficient. You can start sauna in just over fifteen minutes, and only a few logs are needed. Similarly, you don't need to throw buckets of water onto the stove. This sounded good even though, in practice, I had to buy the tent sauna like a pig in a poke. On the other hand, buying from Korpimetso.com had the good side that it's an online store, so the purchase came with a consumer protection 14-day return policy if this Siberian gift for sauna-loving wilderness men turned out to be a pig.

The tent sauna was a must-have on the shopping list, so of course, corona managed to mess up the careful procurement process. They sold out instantly, not only in Finland but on the whole pandemic-ravaged globe. When people can't travel, there's pent-up consumption need that bursts out into various things, such as hiking and everything related. Korpimetso.com was expecting a truckload of Mobiba tent saunas from Siberia, and I managed to get one for myself before those were sold out as pre-orders too. In twenty-four hours, the package was at the Matkahuolto service point in Kampi from Nurmo, and the unpacking could begin. It was warned in advance that getting the stove out of the sales package would be a real task, requiring an electric drill, hammer, etc. The stove is packed like a Russian matryoshka souvenir. Inside the cardboard box is a wooden box. It's solidly made, and getting it back into board shape requires tools. Inside the wooden box is another cardboard box containing the shiny steel stove in protective plastic. No styrofoam to be found, as is typical in degenerate Western packaging! That's why this robust packaging, protecting the stove, can withstand over 5000 km of travel through Siberia to the gates of civilization without scratching or denting.

Both the stove and the tent and benches seemed well-made. They were easy to pack compactly, and they didn't take up any space on the boat, so there was no need to give up anything. Like an army tent stove, the nearly 2.5-meter chimney comes in 6 pieces in the stove's chamber during transport, as well as the stove's legs. The water heater going into the chimney fits into a small bag, and the stones for the stove fit into the sauna bucket. 10-12 kg of stones is a suitable amount. 15 kg is an absolute maximum because if the stove is heated too hot, the steel under the load turns into a banana glowing from the weight of the stones. The stove's chimney draws well, and air supply is ensured by the structure of the chamber. The wood lights easily, and the stove has a spark-reducing design. Only dry wood should be burned in the sauna, reducing the risk of sparks causing holes in the tent. So, you have to be sensible with heating; the stove's power can easily surprise. Don't put more than two logs at a time. One log is enough to keep the stove hot for sauna. And by log, I mean, for example, the logs in 40 L birch log sacks sold at gas stations and hardware stores, which can be split once or twice. With a five-euro birch log sack, you can sauna at least three times according to the long program. Water is used about 20 L for three sauna sessions for two people, as sauna water and for washing, with a sense for water use. Cold water doesn't need to be used since the chimney has a water heater. And those sauna sessions! Air circulates naturally in a wood-heated sauna, and there is an opening behind the stove in the tent. Without exaggerating, I can say that they are the best sauna sessions of my life. The stove has enough power, the heat is even, and the feet don't freeze. Probably due to the sauna's construction, there's enough oxygen, and the steam is soft and moist.

The sauna tent is two by two meters in floor area and two meters high. It is available both with a window and without a window. A curtain-covered window is nice because it gives a feeling of more space, and it's nice to look at the scenery. In addition, Mobiba offers another tent for the sauna tent as an extension, creating a spacious one-meter by two-meter vestibule with a door in front of the sauna for cooling off and as a dressing room/privacy screen.

The benches are sturdy. They fold into a very small space, and when opened, they can accommodate 3-4 sauna-goers. In addition to the upper bench, Mobiba also manufactures a corresponding lower bench, and I got two of them. I used one as a resting bench so that you don't have to stand around when taking a break.

The stove cools down quite quickly when the fire goes out in the stove's chamber. Therefore, the sauna can be packed up about half an hour after the sauna session if you're in a hurry. Often, the sauna has stood in place throughout the weekend in strong winds without any problems, so there's no need to dismantle it in that sense.

A small solar-powered light is handy in darkening evenings, and there's a pre-installed attachment point on the sauna ceiling for this purpose. Since the sauna is on a painted floor, I bought a box of plastic tiles from Ikea (0.9 square meters). Additionally, a spare boat shower found a new life in the tent sauna.

I can genuinely and warmly recommend Mobiba's tent sauna, and it's truly worth its price (approximately €2000) with all the additional accessories that I got to enhance the austere island life. The stove is packed for convenient storage (P 60 x L 30 x H 50 cm). The benches, tents, and water heater each have their own storage bag, taking up storage space equivalent to another stove altogether. The wood is carried in a lidded box, and sauna water in a 20 L container with a spigot.

And if we happen to be on the same island, I can certainly set up and heat the sauna upon request. Or if you want to try it before making a purchase decision.

Capt. Simma
Dictated but not read.