Due to unusually thick ice this winter, a hovercraft called "Snovit" ("Snow White") has replaced the ferries that normally transport 12-year-old Hugo Wickstrom, nine-year-old Julia Jalkanen and eight-year-old Nils-Johan Ostman to the islands where they live in southwestern Finland's Pargas archipelago.
This is only the third time in 15 years that hovercrafts have been brought in because of thick ice in Finland's archipelagos.
More than 81,000 islands dot the Nordic country's 1,100-kilometre (680-mile) coastline.
Here in the Pargas archipelago, 107 islands are inhabited year-round by nearly 3,000 residents.
As the cushions under the vessel filled with air, the hovercraft lifted off the icy surface and set out across the frozen sea.
In the back seat, the three children agreed their school commute was "very exciting".
"Especially when it drifts like this," said Wickstrom, showing how the hovercraft glides sideways on the ice.
"It moves very fast," Jalkanen said with a little smile.
State-owned ferry operator Finferries replaced some of its regular vessels with six hovercrafts when freezing temperatures in February led to the formation of unusually thick ice.
"The ships can handle the ice but it's so slow and expensive because it uses a lot of fuel," Jalo explained.
A trip with a commuter ferry or vessel that normally takes an hour now takes "five or six hours to cover the same distance" due to the current ice conditions, he explained.
By hovercraft, "the same journey can be completed in 10 minutes".
Behind the windows of the vessel, which has room for five to seven people, forest-covered islands slid by.
Soon it was time for Ostman to disembark.
Jalo said piloting the hovercraft required "constant concentration" as wind conditions, fog and snowfall all posed challenges when manoeuvring through the landscape at a speed of 30 knots.
"The weather conditions change rapidly here... Let's say it is both challenging and fun," he said, smiling.
This winter was the second time since 2009 that he had the chance to sit behind the wheel of a hovercraft.
"This is the kind of device you don't normally see in the archipelago," he said.
Even sea eagles and a wolf had come up close, "as the animals don't know to be afraid of it".
- Unusual conditions -
This year's ice cover in the Baltic Sea was unusual, researcher Mika Rantanen at the Finnish Meteorological Institute told AFP.
Peaking on February 20, "the ice cover has been the most extensive in the entire Baltic Sea region since 2011", he said.
In Finland, winters with long cold periods are becoming increasingly rare due to climate change, Rantanen noted.
Of the world's coastal seas, the Baltic -- surrounded by Denmark, Finland, Germany, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the three Baltic states -- is warming the fastest.
"Our winters are becoming milder and warmer," Rantanen said.
"In the long term, the maximum winter ice cover in the Baltic Sea is shrinking, and that is due to climate change," he said.
The lowest ice cover level ever recorded was in 2020.
When the hovercraft stopped briefly at a sandy beach, Wickstrom climbed out in his snowsuit and thick winter hat, waving goodbye as pine trees swayed behind him in the wind.
In the morning, he would be picked up again, gliding towards the mainland where a taxi would drive him to school about 30 minutes away.
Soon, migrating birds will return and the sea ice will melt completely, transforming the quiet archipelago.
Ship traffic will then resume as normal and Finns who live on the mainland will start heading out to their summer cottages on the islands, often rustic and without running water.
In the Pargas archipelago, there are 9,000 second homes on 1,070 islands, according to Pargas' head of archipelago affairs, Benjamin Donner.
"Ice is melting really quickly now," Jalo noted, looking at the thin layer of water covering the ice, before starting the engine and heading back to shore.
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