June 18th 2013

Leaving St. Petersburg


We spent our last day strolling in the centre of St. Petersburg which is
one of the most beautiful metropolises in the world. We had never been to
St. Petersburg before but, back in the 1970's and 80's, we had visited
Leningrad a few times and although they are one and the same city, there
is a huge difference between the two of them, and at least on the surface,
a very positive one.

The easiest way to travel between the marina and the city centre was the
metro. One ticket, or actually a token, cost a mere 56 Euro cents and
allowed you to go anywhere you wanted or spend the whole day travelling
underground if you so wished. The stations were beautifully decorated and
immaculate, no trash or a single graffiti was to be seen. It was as if you
were in a museum rather than in a tube station. Believe it or not, the
photo below was not taken in the Hermitage Art Museum but inside the
Admiralty Metro Station.

We left the Krestovsky marina around midnight on the 17th. We had two
young men onboard with us, Sergey who had volunteered to help us while we
were in St. Petersburg, and Kostja who was a photographer from Siberia
studying photojournalism in St. Petersburg. They would both come with us
to Schliesselburg which was our first stop along the route to Archangel.



The start of the regatta was rather entertaining, at least for the many
photographers and journalists who had come to see us off. The leading boat
of the fleet, namely the Russian  Peter the First, fell victim to the
marina's vicious current and after leaving her berth turned sideways and
was soon leaning heavily against the pontoon.

 For a while, it seemed as if the current had made up its mind to keep the 
boat there for the rest ofthe evening but finally, assisted by about a dozen people,
Peter the First managed to free herself from the grip of the current. Henceforth
everything went according to plan, one boat after another left her berth
and headed for the Neva River, each accompanied by a pilot.



The fleet motored through St. Petersburg until early morning. Although
motoring throughout the night was tiring it was certainly a night to
remember. The view from the river was absolutely breathtaking with gilded
cupolas of magnificent orthodox churches silhouetting against the skyline,
and beautiful old buildings lit up on the river banks.



A total of eleven bridges had to be opened for us before we got to Lake
Ladoga. Every once and a while we had to stop and wait for a bridge to be
opened or a big ship to pass us on the narrow river but on the whole, the
passage went smoothly.

June 15th 2013

Saint Petersburg

59° 57,982' N, 30° 14,671' E

We spent two nights in Kotka just waiting for the time to pass so that we could continue our journey to Russia as our visas would not be valid until the 14^th. We were supposed to be in St. Petersburg as early as possible on the 14^th because we were expected to take part in a sailing parade on the Neva River in the heart of St. Petersburg.

If someone had told me a year ago that this summer we would be taking part in a Russian regatta, I wouldn't have believed him. But here we are at the Krestovskiy Yacht Club in St. Petersburg as one of about a dozen participants in the International Ecological Regatta Adventure Race 80dg – 2013, organised by RusArc. According to the regatta's brochure “We are about to embark on a marvellous cruise in the inland waters of Russia surrounded by its original culture and traditions. We are going to see ancient orthodox churches made by Russian craftsmen. Furthermore, we are going to sail on the biggest lakes in Europe, become familiar with Northern Russian heritage and explore the Barents Sea behind 80°N latitude. This exciting adventure will provide us with a new amazing emotional experience under the Arctic sun.”

The regatta starts from St. Petersburg and continues to Shlisselburg, the Konevets Island, the Valaam Island, Kizhi, through the Belomorsko-Baltyisky Channel also know as the Stalin Channel, and the Solovetsky Archipelago, and ends in Archangel on the White Sea.

The reason why we are here now is that, after careful consideration, we came to the conclusion that by far the best way to obtain the necessary permits we'll be needing to sail the Northern Sea Route i.e. the Northeast Passage, was through the Russian organisation RusArc.

We checked out of Finland on the 13^th and after only about two hours we were in Russian waters. According to the Finnish customs and immigration officer, crossing the Russian border shouldn't cause us any problems although our visas were not yet in force. In the evening, a Russian coast guard vessel called us on VHF asking who we were and where we were going but thankfully nothing about visas. After being told that s/y Sarema was on her way to St. Petersburg, they wished us a good voyage.

Just before 5 a.m. we arrived in the new Port of Entry for St. Petersburg located in Kronhstadt. I must confess that I had been (and actually still am) a bit apprehensive about Russian bureaucracy which has a special reputation but our first ever face-to-face encounter with a Russian bureaucrat was more than pleasant. The nice lady from Immigration checked us in Russia without any hassle. She also told us that the customs officials would not come to work until nine o'clock which allowed us to take a well deserved nap.

After customs clearance, carried out by four officers and a friendly Labrador, we sailed straight to the Neva River where the rest of the regatta boats were already parading for the good people of St. Petersburg.

Tomorrow night, we'll leave St. Petersburg. The time may seem a bit strange but there is a perfectly good explanation for this. The only way to enter Lake Ladoga from St. Petersburg is through the city which means that all the bridges along the route must be opened for us. We are already looking forward to this grand spectacle!

June 11th 2013

Departing from Turku

The two weeks we stayed on the River Aura passed far too quickly. Pekka had to work hard on the boat to get her ready for our possibly rough summer sailing while my priority was to spend as much time as possible with our family and friends.

Alex and the Frog

Vida and the Magic Pond

When it was time to leave, I felt downright miserable. But 'A girl's got to do what a girl's got to do' and so, on the 9^th of June, we bid farewell to our friends who had come to the river bank to see us off.

We then motored only for a few hundred meters to the other side of the river and tied up alongside Inga Lill, a beautiful 34 metre galeas built in Finland in 1948, where our children, their families and more friends were waiting for us. We were greeted by a moving trumpet solo, and after a few speeches, dozens of hugs, kisses, and tears, we finally departed from Turku.

Inga Lill escorted us all the way to the Airisto from where we continued to the Torasviken Bay in Nauvo. There, we dropped anchor and spent the evening with our friends and ex-neighbours from Turku.

Next morning, we woke up to a cold and rainy day which made it easier for us to continue our voyage. We weighed anchor and headed for Kotka to check us out of Finland.

May 24th 2013

River Aura, Turku

May 22nd 2013

Utö, Finland

From Holtenau, we motor-sailed on smooth seas and in an all-engulfing fog to Utö, Finland's outermost island. Utö has always had a special place in our hearts, not least because Pekka spent the first five years of his life on this rocky little island. As it was the last place we visited when we left Finland eleven years ago, it was only appropriate that it was our first port of call now that we had returned.

Back in the 90's when we started taking sailing more seriously, Pekka remembered reading an article in the Finnish Boat Magazine on “Real Sailors” who gather in Utö every year on the 6^th of December to celebrate Finland's Independence Day. As we too wanted to become real sailors it was only natural that, on the 5^th of December, we set off for Utö. During the passage, an icy sleet began to fall and soon our deck was like a skating rink, and all the lines were frozen stiff. We arrived in Utö as the night was falling and the wind picking up and, of course, there were no other boats to be seen!

During the night, the wind increased to gale force and was eventually blowing close to 70 knots from the south. We spent the following two days tied up to the L-shaped dock, our good boat Sarema tilting so fiercely that nothing could be kept on the tables. We passed the time watching pilots crawl on all fours along the dock to see how their boats were doing. Oh, those were the days!

NATURE FIRST

May 18th 2013

To the Baltic Sea

It turned out that it was only the split pin in the forestay toggle that had broken and as a result, the proper pin had come off (and disappeared, if I have understood it correctly). Luckily, Pekka managed to fix it himself. Pekka has gone up the mast so often frequently that this time, I didn't bother to take any photos.

The Brunsbüttel marina is an interesting place because it is located literally right next to the lock, and the big container ships passing by block the view completely. This time, the marina was absolutely packed because of the Helgoland Regatta that started the following day. Sarema was along a floating pontoon with two Swans alongside her. This meant an early morning for us as, before leaving, the crews of both Swans, about ten of them, walked across our deck to and fro between the bathrooms and the boats. But it was just as well as we wanted to get to Holtenau and the Baltic Sea before nightfall.

It was a beautiful day with warm sunshine, by far the warmest day since Lagos, and very little wind which was perfect for motoring through the Canal. We enjoyed the lush greenery of the Canal banks and listening to birds singing in the nearby trees.

There were an amazing number of waterfowl in the Canal which we tried to identify with the help of our Field Guide to the Birds of Europe: Mallards, Cormorants, Oystercatchers, Great Blue Herons, Mute Swans, Canada Geese, Greylag Geese, Tufted Ducks, Common Mergansers, Red-breasted Mergansers etc. and to our great surprise, birds that bore a remarkable resemblance to Egyptian Geese?!

We went through the Holtenau lock around eight in the evening and spent the night in a marina close to the locks. There was clearly another kind of Regatta taking place here with beautiful old sailing ships from around Europe.

Again, we awoke earlier than we had intended as a member of the marina personnel came to collect the overnight fee around seven in the morning. After unhurried breakfast, we cast off, motored to a fuel station and with our tanks full, headed for the open sea.

May 17th 2013

Through the English Channel

I now know a place where I will never ever want to go back again, and that is the English Channel! Oh my God, there were currents running every-which-way, ferries rushing back and forth, and a zillion ships all over the place. It was a miracle that we managed to squeeze us in!

Although after Dover Strait the conditions improved considerably, it was a rugged ride altogether and we arrived in Brunsbüttel, Germany, dead tired as neither of us had hardly slept a wink while sailing through the traffic-infested waters. We were also a little upset as our forestay broke in the Channel. To be quite honest, we could very well have done without this additional delay in our already tight schedule!

But, as you know a good night's sleep can make a world of difference, and this morning when we woke up and realized that we were soon about to enter the Baltic Sea for the first time in eleven years, we felt absolutely marvellous!

We'll try to fix the forestay problem as quickly as possible and continue, hopefully already tomorrow, our passage through the Kiel Canal towards Finland.