In Sommaröstrand we had quite a moment of panic when the door to the forecabin was locked leaving us outside. The locking button was accidentally depressed and as we closed the door the lock was latched from inside. There was nobody in the cabin to open the lock 🙂
Also the roof hatch was closed and locked. There was no way to enter the cabin. After pondering for a while we removed the hinge pin and afterwards the complete door from the “wrong side”. We depressed the lock button and reinstalled the door. It took for us a good part of an hour.
After the incident we had an uneasy feeling because it can happen to any of the five doors aboard of Suwena. What if this happens while sailing at sea? It would not be a nice to start dismounting doors from hinges now and then.
Later when we had Tuula and Kaj Gustafsson visiting on board we told about our incident in Sommaröstrand. Kaj listened to the story and after a while asked if we had any toothpicks? We provided some and a moment later he showed us a small hole just above the door lever. By pushing the toothpick into the hole the door lock can be released from outside. We had quite a laugh about our project to dismantle the door. Kaj told that they chose these locks for safety reasons. If somebody would go into panic and not get the door opened mates could open the door and help him.
