In Finland, kids take hovercraft to school over frozen Baltic Sea

It is only the third time in 15 years that hovercrafts have been brought in because of thick ice in Finland’s archipelagos. Read more at straitstimes.com.

PARGAS, Finland - Skipper Sampsa Jalo greets three young children on their way home from school as they board an unusual amphibious vessel docked and humming at a wooden pier on the frozen Baltic Sea.

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 south-western 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 1,100km 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.