Latest logs

• 2022-06-27 Suvisaaristo - Bylandet

  After a decadent midsummer, we collected our additional crew, acquired some smoked salmon, and headed out. Summer is totally here, the harbour was hot and humid. The light winds only brought slight relief.

  

  We did a slow but pleasant passage following the side of Cape Porkkala. Eventually the wind died, and one after another all sailboats out on the fairway decided to become motorboats.

  

  We also dropped sail and motored to the nearby nature harbour of Bylandet. This is a recreational island owned by the City of Espoo, and so we could tie an aft line to a buoy instead of dropping an anchor. Some swimming and sundowners followed.

  

  • Distance today: 14.3NM
  • Total distance: 1012.9
  • Engine hours: 1.1
  • Lunch: mushroom salad and smoked salmon

• 2022-06-23 Träskön - Suvisaaristo

  After morning coffee we checked the damage from yesterday. It is still a bit cold for diving without gear, so we utilized a highly advanced underwater camera rig (waterproof mobile phone taped to a boat hook). From the pictures it looks like only the antifouling was scratched.

  

  Then it was time to go sailing. Today’s course would be dead downwind along the Porkkala Cape. The Parasailor would’ve been a great choice, but we wanted to try the heavy-weather downwind setup of boom preventer and poled-out jib.

  

  Compared to the Parasailor it is quite a lot more rigging to get it stable, and a lot more hassle to gybe. But the benefit is that it can be reefed, and it is easier to go from it back to the regular sailing setup. With the gusty conditions it was surprisingly fast. We even out-sailed a 33ft catamaran.

  Now we’re in a marina in Suvisaaristo where we were given an empty box as the locals are all away. Bergie used to live just across the bay from here, many years ago. Adventures will continue after the Finnish midsummer weekend.

  • Distance today: 20.2NM
  • Total distance: 998.6NM
  • Engine hours: 0.6
  • Lunch: feta avocado salad

• 2022-06-23 Tammisaari - Träskön

  We decided to have a bit longer run today. We filled up the freshwater tank, and then left just before 11am. First was motoring upwind the narrow Tammisaari fairway, then sails up as soon as the space widened enough to start tacking.

  

  Once we reached the main Helsinki - Hanko route, the wind was down to a slow but comfortable broad reach. Lots of traffic, but nearly all heading the opposite direction. It looks like all of Helsinki wants to be in the archipelago sea for midsummer!

  Crossing the wider segment in front of Porkkala went quite smoothly. Light wind and very small swell, and no problem avoiding the shipping traffic from the port of Kantvik. We added a preventer to immobilise the main sail.

  

  We chose an anchorage just south of Cape Porkkala, and reached it at midnight (this time of year the nights don’t really get dark) Unfortunately at the entrance we also found an uncharted rock. Seems no major damage, but we’ll inspect the depth of the suspected paint scratches tomorrow. Good thing we were still under sail, and going below 2kt. And now the position of the rock has been submitted to Navionics.

  Our sonar trail on the left, the official nautical chart on the right. Chart says it should be 6m deep there

  • Distance today: 42.4NM
  • Total distance: 978.4NM
  • Engine hours: 1.3
  • Lunch: Caesar salad

• 2022-06-20 Bastuholmen - Tammisaari

  The morning’s departure from the nature harbour turned out to be a bit trickier: our anchor had fouled on a huge pine log. Luckily we were able to dislodge it with the boathook. But this means the anchor likely wasn’t properly set. Scary.

  

  The short sail to the cute port town of Tammisaari was a slow one. Broad reach with 3-5kt of wind. But sometimes it is nice to just let the autopilot work and enjoy the scenery. Two ospreys flew over the boat.

  

  In Tammisaari some provisions, and a visit to the local chandlery to acquire spare parts to fix things broken during the storm in Sweden. Next will be some family visits.

  • Distance today: 6 NM
  • Total distance: 936 NM
  • Lunch: pizza

• 2022-06-19 Tvärminne - Bastuholmen

  Sun again! We hoisted the FLINsail in the morning, and by afternoon the boat batteries were full.

  

  A motorcycle brought us a lunch visitor: Rambo. After the meal we packed up the boat and had a pleasant quick downwind sail to the next nature harbour.

  

  This one has a lot of convenient metal rings installed into the cliffs, but some of them have rusted through, so important to check before utilizing. This time were tied to one of them, and one of our rock anchors.

  • Distance today: 8.5NM
  • Total distance: 930.1NM
  • Lunch: spaghetti Bolognese

• 2022-06-18 Tvärminne - Tvärminne

  The day started with fetching our day sailor Annis from the shore.

  

  We did a round trip in the nearby archipelago. Thanks to the Finnish defense forces we got to enjoy some of the sail with lovely sounds of BOOm, rätttättää and PUM. This sail had a bit of everything. Wind from all directions and both small and big waves.

  

  For the evening we’re tied up in the other end of the bay. Here in the south side there is a narrow segment deep enough for Scandic mooring.

  • Distance today: 14.2 NM
  • Total distance: 921.6 NM
  • Engine hours: 0.6
  • Lunch: Forest mushroom risotto

• 2022-06-17 Klobbarna - Tvärminne

  A lovely sunny downwind day. After morning routines we hoisted anchor at the scenic nature harbour, and headed back to the fairway. With the wind forecast, the Parasailor was the clear winner for the day.

  

  Evading the ferry to Hiittinen, we spotted an osprey nesting on top of a fairway marker. Then a nice fast downwind sail. There were couple of bigger boats following with their carbon sails, but they couldn’t catch us. The ride was smooth enough for baking bread while under way.

  Nearer to Cape Hanko the fairway became narrower, and we switched back to the white sails for faster gybing. We passed the southernmost point of continental Finland under sail. Now we’re in the Gulf of Finland.

  

  Since there was a “luxury music festival for adults” in the Hanko harbour, we were happy we had already decided to continue on to the nice anchorage near the Tvärminne research station.

  • Distance today: 31.5NM
  • Total distance: 907.4NM
  • Engine hours: 0.7
  • Lunch: feta salad and fresh rye bread

• 2022-06-16 Helsingholm - Klobbarna

  We left Helsingholmen after work and sailed with the wind on our back past Kasnäs marina resort to a secluded bay in Klobbarna.

  

  • Distance today: 10.3 NM
  • Total distance: 875.9 NM
  • Lunch: smoked salmon and avocado wraps
  • Motor hours: 0.7

• 2022-06-14 Dalskär - Helsingholm

  After a nice sunny day in the nature harbour, we hoisted anchor and sailed across to the tiny guest harbour of Helsingholm.

  

  Sadly the sauna here is not operational at the moment, but we were able to fulfil our primary mission: smoked fish. The keeper of the guest harbour had just smoked a fresh batch today. Great stuff!

  • Distance today: 6.2NM
  • Total distance: 865.6NM
  • Lunch: asparagus with sauce hollandaise
  • Dinner: smoked fish and archipelago rye bread

• 2022-06-13 Heisala - Dalskär

  From our anchorage at Heisala it was just a short hop to one of the first nature harbours inside the UNESCO-listed Archipelago Sea National Park. With this in mind, we left only after Suski’s workday, tacking upwind between the islands for a couple of hours.

  

  This was our first chance to try the new rock anchors we got in Turku: this particular island doesn’t have suitable trees, though in places there are fixed metal rings for boats to tie to. The summer season has really started, this is the first time we’re sharing a nature harbour with other boats.

  

  On the way in, we noticed that one of the seams in our foresail has failed. Time to fix it!

  

  • Distance today: 7.4NM
  • Total distance: 859.4NM
  • Engine hours: 0.4
  • Lunch: potato-pecorino patties and a tomato cucumber salad

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