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Updated July, 2015 | |||
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Jugendstil "Grotto" Doorway, Helsinki | |||
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Russian Orthodox Cathedral, Helsinki | |||
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Parked in Tammisaari (Niclas Erclin Photo for Västra Nylands) | |||
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Our berth in Helsinki was at 60°09.69'W / 024°57.77'E, or 3,325 nautical miles from home. It is the furthest north and furthest east point of our trip, and as we dropped our lines and headed out of the harbor we were headed home. Not, to be sure, by a very direct route, and there was still much to see and do, but nonetheless toward home.
We left with heavy hearts, at least I did; I'm not entirely sure about Barbara. Simo and Sisko are very dear friends, and we are all at an age where one never knows what the future might be like. |
Old Workshops, Tammisaari | ||
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In any event, we headed west, through the islands, toward our next port, which was to be Porkkala. This little peninsula had been a Russian naval base and trading center, and it seemed as though it might be interesting. The only place for a small craft, however, is up a river, in a a town called Dragesviken, where there is simply nothing.
Country isolation may be nice for vacations, but that is not what we are here for - there is plenty of that at home. We came to Europe to see interesting towns, villages, historical sites, and besides, the place is very exposed to the south, we had 20-25 knots of southeast wind, and the glass was dropping. |
City Hall, Tammisaari | ||
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If the float moorings let go in the night we would be in a difficult situation, so we started up and headed out again for Barösund, a very enclosed and secure place. We had a somewhat lumpy 17 or so miles to go, but really felt much better after we arrived.
We lay over a day to let the gale blow itself out. I did some maintenance, and in the afternoon I noticed a gentleman in a truck looking at us, so we talked a little and he invited me for "coffee," which turned out to be a full-scale supper. Matti and Eeva-Marja have retired to what had been their summer house and could not have been kinder to a complete stranger who washed up on the shore, just waiting for a chance along. |
Church, Tammisaari | ||
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By late in the morning of the next day, May 14th, the wind had moderated and the forecast was better, so we headed out for Tammisaari, an old town up a river, called Ekenäs by its inhabitants, who speak Swedish as their first language.
About 10% of the Finnish population is Swedish-speaking, and concentrated in the western islands and the southwest corner of the mainland. |
Restaurant on Pilings, Tammisaari | ||
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Alongside, Hanko | |||
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We had just tied up and I was thinking about exploring the town, when a young man came by and introduced himself as Niclas Erclin, a reporter for the local paper. He had seen us in the strait by Barösund and, and after some conversation he wrote a nice article about us for his Swedish-language paper, Västra Nylands.
Tammisaari is a pleasant little town, with streets full of old buildings, and one oddity, a restaurant/bar built on pilings, next to the wharf. It seems that at one time there was an ordinance that allowed only one bar in town, and since there already |
Hanko Water Tower and Church | ||
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was one, there was no space to open another.
This dilemma was solved by building the new place on pilings, so it was not "within town territory."
I had a good dinner at the restaurant on the wharf, then headed early the next morning for Hanko. Although the area has been inhabited since the 15th century, Hanko is a new town by European standards. Founded in 1874, it quickly became a vacation spot for the Russian gentry (we remember that Finland was still a grand duchy under Russia). |
Russian Villa, Hanko |
A spa was built to attract more tourists, and rich Russians built elaborate villas, some of which are still in use as hotels.
The peninsula was a major combat area in the war between Russia and Finland that took place alongside the Second World War, and there are still remnants of Russian fortifications. The town remains a vacation and yachting center. |
Old Machine Gun Post, Hanko |
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Nice Old Buildings, Hanko | |||
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Alongside in Korpoström | |||
| In an interesting develop- ment, Barbara has begun to develop her own following. I posted a picture of her to the AIS web site Marine Traffic because it seemed like a good thing to do, but now there are 19 pictures of her, most by people I have never met. In Hanko I met Kai, who added 4 of those pictures, helped me to find some copies of Västra Nylands, and would have done much more to help. Meeting such people is one of the great pleasures of this trip, and one I had not really anticipated. |
Traditional Boat, Korpoström | ||
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From Hanko we went back to Kasnäs, which had really woken up in the meantime. There were many more boats in the marina, but still room for us. Unfortunately, I had to pay this time. I also bought some more firewood, which the marina had for sale.
The next day I went on in beautiful weather to Korpoström, a little town that is also a base of the organization that takes care of the archipelago national park. |
Korpoström | ||
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Traditional Fencing, Korpoström | |||
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Well Smack, Stockholm | |||
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The next day (by now it is May 18th) the sea was like glass and I headed out, intending to stop again at Jungfruskär, but I arrived there at 12:30 so relaxed that I decided to stand on for Degerby, and arrived there just after 16:00, after dodging Finneagle and Baltic Princess on their way from Turku to Kapellskär, in Sweden.
I had a good dinner at a restaurant in Degerby and a pleasant conversation with the harbormaster, a retired skipper, and headed west again the next day. |
Puppet Show, Stockholm | ||
| Off the southern point of Lemland, at about 10:00, it occurred to me that we did not have to run the eight or so miles north to Marie- hamn, but could just keep on going and still arrive at Arholma at a reasonable time, so that is what we did. We had patchy fog off and on, with the sound signal blaring much of the time, but otherwise an easy passage. This time there were two other boats at the wharf, but there was still room for us. All over the Baltic, the season was beginning. |
In the Engine Room, Sankt Erik | ||
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Icebreaker Pilothouse, Stockholm | |||
| The next day the weather was a little better, and we headed south, going slowly through the narrow Furusund and dodging Baltic Princess yet again, but otherwise enjoying a good passage and arriving in Stockholm after just about seven hours. Here we had to set the clocks back, because Finland is on Central European Time, two hours ahead of Zulu (Greenwich) time and ten hours ahead of Barbara and Anne in California. |
Band at the Classic boat Meet, Stockholm | ||
| I had not intended to stay long in Stockholm, but there was to be a festival of classic boats at the Wasahamnen that weekend, so I decided I had to see that. Between the classics and visiting boats, the marina was full, quite a change from our first visit. Some of the boats were really beautiful and lovingly cared for, and it seemed that their owners used and enjoyed them, as well. |
Royal Barge Replica, Stockholm | ||
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I also, of course, walked around Stockholm a little, and finally visited the island across from our berth, which was once a naval base and is now the home of several interesting vessels, and of a traditional boatbuilding operation that I coud not find out about, but that I enjoyed looking at.
Sometimes it seemed to me that every place in Sweden either is a miitary base or used to be one. Of course Sweden was a major power in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but for a modern neutral country there certainly is a large military presence. |
2-Person Submarine, Stockholm | ||
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Classics, Stockholm | |||
| In fact, the Wasahamnen area is still called Galarvarvet, or the "Galley Shipyard." In the 17th century, some admiral determined that rowed galleys, much like those used by the Romans, would be the best vessels for naval operations among the thousands of islands off the Swedish coast, and a yard to build these was established. Although the galleys became obsolete, the area was still used as a navy yard until the end of World War II, building and maintaining small craft like torpedo boats. |
Floating Sauna for Sale or Rent, Stockholm | ||
| The Wasa museum, in fact, was established on top of the old dry-dock, carved out of the rock, like most Swedish docks. The old ship was floated in, the entrance gates sealed shut and the dock pumped out, and with a few amenities like stairways, the old dock became a multi-story museum. |
Classics 2, Stockholm | ||
| I also re-supplied in Stocholm. In the process of finding a new battery for my watch, I discovered a good grocery store quite near a tram stop, so I made couple of trips. There are aspects of living in various countries that the normal tourist does not encounter. How for example, does one tell the difference in the Netherlands between dishwashing liquid and more general-purpose cleaners? And what would be a good replacement in Sweden for "Scout," a pre- wash spray? Or what is the Finnish for "fabric softener"? (It's huuhteluaine, in case you need to know.) |
Arcona, Stockholm | ||
| Stockholm felt a lot like home. The Harbormaster, Leif, was exceedingly helpful and friendly, as were all of his staff, and the small community of boat owners who winter there were still around. Again we enjoyed our stay and seemed to be in no hurry to leave. |
Carla III, Stockholm | ||
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Boat in Frame, Stockholm | |||
| Ond question that Niclas, the reporter in Tammisaari, asked me was how operating among the islands in the archipelago was going. At the time, my answer was that it was not too different from sailing around among the islands at home, that the Maine coast also had many islands, including some with narrow passages between them. There are differences, however, and one of them is that there are so many islands here, and that they are very hard to tell apart. |
Waldemar's Point, Stockholm | ||
| The cruising guides sugggest using stick-on arrows on the charts to keep one's position up to date, and without a chart plotter one would have to use some such system; in many places the islands are almost identical, and it is often not clear where the gap between two islands lies. In Finland, particularly, there are often cairns, painted white, to help keep track of points and ledges. |
Former Fort, Stockholm | ||
| An additional issue is buoyage; my first time in Helsinki, many years ago, I took a ferry to Suomenlinna, an island fortress, and was surprised to see the harbor dotted with small yellow-and-black bouys, with no trace of the green or red I was used to. As I found out, these are "cardinal marks," that indicate by their colors the side where the safe water lies. They are used extensively in Finland and Sweden. |
West Cardinal Mark | ||
| Buoyage internationally is rationalized by an organization called the International Association of Lighthouse Authorities, and just to confuse things, this organization recognizes two distinct codes, "IALA A," used by most of the world, and "IALA B," used by the U.S. and now Bermuda. Our mnemonic "red, right, returning" is true only of IALA B; it is reversed in IALA A. But these are things one can learn. |
Stockholm Archipelago (BNP Photo) | ||
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The archipelagoes are truly beautiful; in particular, there is often a golden lichen on the granite rocks in a narrow band a certain distance above the water, adding an accent.
There are thousands of islands, the exact number, as usual, depending on what you count, jammed in tightly together with deep-water passages between them. There are passages of relatively open water, followed inevitaby by tight slalom gates, an immediate sharp left, and then right, all within a boat's length of granite ledges. |
Yellow Lichen (BNP Photo) | ||
| Even the open sections have ledges to left and right, just a little further away. The charts all have approved routes marked on them, often with maximum draft indications, and sometimes there are ominous warnings that other areas are "inadequately surveyed." Before entering a tight section it is well to take a quick look at the chart and note the bouyage: "two reds, a green, another red, then a green, then a red and green gate," for example. Once in the chute, there is no time for looking at charts, just for following the buoys, and one has to get them in the right order. |
A Section of Our Route Through the Swedish Archipelago | ||
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Entrance to a Tight Passage (BNP Photo) | |||
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One gets used to it, but at first this kind of sailing was quite nerve-wracking, and when it is windy, with maybe a three-foot chop, and there are breakers all around, and the chop makes steering difficult, . . . well, let's just say it can be a little exciting.
Sometimes the excitement is compounded by people in small sailboats who do not seem to have noticed Rule 17, which says that the privileged vessel shall maintain her course and speed, and who tack blithely across the bow of an oncoming large power boat. |
High Island With Tower (BNP Photo) | ||
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Summer House Sauna | |||
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Island With Typical Cairn | |||
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Wind Turbines on Nyhamn | |||
| On the other hand, there is the necessity of staying out of the way of the huge ferries that are also negotiating these tight passages. Often the first warning is the sight of an enormous white superstructure moving seemingly across an island. Like other objects in this very clear air, they are often much further away than they appear, but when such a superstructure appears, you know it is only a matter of time before its owner appears in front of you; he has nowhere else to go, he is following the route just as you are. |
Island Village | ||
| In the tighter pasages, as one might expect, there was not a lot of leisure for photography, so you will have to take them on faith, but I managed to put together this portfolio of images that I hope will give some notion of what it is like to sail among these islands. |
Remote Island Summer House | ||
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Typical Swedish Lighthouse | ||
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Entering a Narrow Passage (Speed Limit 4 km/h) | |||