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2005.... How SIOBHAN’s
next leisurely —no-passages- cruise of West-Scotland ended up in Finland....
Well, to start with Iceland
sounded great and plenty of people were keen to come along. Then as it all
got closer and later, we realised we wouldn’t have much time for
looking around there as it’s attached to the poiar ice-cap in winter
and not known for good weather in the interim..., so Scotland’s west
coast was next. Then Sarah figured that if Iceland
was too cold, so was Scotland, and we started looking at shortish distances so
there’s the Baltic! Sounded so much more appealing than Holland...
and though I still preferred Scotland
a compromise had to be made. An evening with hardened sailors Chris &
Cecily put us in the right frame of mind, and also supplied us with a massive
collection of charts and books which not only simplified the preparation (of
which there was not much it must be said) and also helped reduce costs!
We managed to depart on the 1st of August, which -as we found
out later- is when the Swedes consider the summer over. Our direct route
across the North sea from Inverness via Skagerak and Kattegat (translated as
“the cat’s ass”) to Copenhagen was quick and easy, and
Sarah proved her skills —and nerve- by letting me sleep while
successfully negotiating the Helsingborg-Helsingor channel at night, which is
one of the most concentrated shipping areas in Northern Europe as all the
Baltic-Sea shipping crowds through this barely 500m wide stretch... not bad
for an “amateur” navigator.
go back
Copenhagen is
wonderful: approachable and friendly, impressive, old, modem, lively,
relaxed. Barely 3 days later we headed for Stockholm where we had an
appointment for a week later, after having discovered just in time that we
did not yet have the charts to get us there.... In Kalmar,
one of the oldest cities in Sweden,
we met Hendrik of “Mans” who convinced us we should go crashing
through the islands rather than the fast sea-route up, which not only kept us
navigationally entertained, but also ensured we had peaceful nights at
anchor: we’re on holiday after all! What a fantastic holiday country:
sailing big & small boats, canoeing... just ignore the GIANT MOSQUITOES.
This is not easy as they are so big you can feel their weight as they land on
you. They are also very slow and barely fit through chicken wire. Beautiful
islands everywhere, a bit like.... Nova Scotia
even though without tides, mussels, smelly seaweed zones etc. Comparison with
Scotland is
more difficult:
Scotland
is much more desolate, rugged and wild.
The Baltic is tourist-yachting at its best!
I’m afraid the rest of the island-hopping leisure trip
was rather uneventful: beautiful weather, islands, wonderful people, quiet
anchorages, cosy villages, months of the stuffi
Finland,
Estonia, Finland,
Sweden, Denmark,
Germany (Kiel
Canal), back to the North Sea and Holland
(Den Helder). Then up to Newcastle
in the worst weather of the trip yet: wind and waves on the nose, cold, wet,
and miserable. Mind you this was early October...
All went well, and Siobhan’s back in Inverness.
We’re back at work (I’m with Shell for a bit again...),
there’s snow regularly which can make commuting on the motorbike rather
a challenge, xmas is approaching, and it is DARK outside. And I’m more
than a year late with Siobhan’ s update though
this time it’s not my fault: 2005 was much shorter than any previous
year, and that’s a fact.
go back
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