Saturday 30 June
Second Mate had joined us in expectation of a long-awaited lovely week’s cruising: a tourist day in Tallinn, a little light sailing to an attractive island anchorage to re-establish her sea legs – a little rusty after two years absence from the water – an easy day passage to one of Helsinki’s outlying isles, a gentle potter into one of the many marinas in easy reach of the city centre, and a tourist day in Helsinki to round off the visit, all bathed in the warm sunshine and blue skies we’ve been enjoying all season, and indeed that she’d left in the UK.
Dragging ourselves reluctantly back from this utopian idyll, the reality turned out to be: one wet day in Tallinn, one very tedious passage across the Gulf of Finland, and one brief walk around central Helsinki in the company of aches and pains brought on by the dramatic change in the weather. The consequence of the latter was a couple of quiet days relaxing on the boat – which, after all, is what a holiday should be all about.
Those weather god trainees really had a field day this week. We woke up to a brisk Nor’noreasterly, from the exact direction we wanted to sail. Technically, this is known as a no-go zone, and the boat has to be tacked in a zigzag line along the desired route. So that’s exactly what happened, against a lovely backdrop of the Tallinn skyline, for the first four hours of the day.
Eventually we came abreast of Aegna Island, on the Northeastern tip of Tallinn Bay, and could consider ourselves properly out into the Gulf of Finland. The ship’s log reminds us that we spent most of the next twelve hours motorsailing, to avoid tacking the entire distance and adding around an extra 50% to our distance. The best that can be noted about the passage was that it didn’t rain, but the sea was lumpy and the boat’s (lack of) rhythm uncomfortable. There was plenty of commercial shipping to keep an eye on: this is one of the busiest stretches of sea we have ever sailed across. At least the Mates could enjoy the luxury of long hours to chat together in the cockpit, while Skipper snoozed below. Around teatime we passed a yacht on a reciprocal course – called Escale?!
Thank goodness that this far North, the nights are not dark at this time of year, as we have a cardinal rule not to enter a strange port at night. Keeping out of the paths of a stream of huge ferries from Estonia and other Scandinavian cities, we finally wove through a few of Helsinki’s off-islands at sunset: 2230 local time, and were eventually snug in our box berth in the early hours of Sunday morning. We covered 59 Miles in nearly 15 hours, a pathetic average speed of only 2.5 knots.