baltic

Baltic trip – Summer 2005

Resources: There are some really great websites about sailing in the Baltic, although unfortunately for us, a lot of them are in Swedish or German.

This one covers all the guest harbours in Sweden – zoom in depending which chart you are on (or – check what charts you need to buy!):

http://www.maringuiden.se/gasthamnar/

Aug 2 - 5

Crossing the North Sea.

It is quite amazing how much gas is still being burnt off on the North Sea platforms. They are so bright at night that it can be quite confusing as 20 miles looks like only a few….

Even more amazing are the wonderful friendly dolphins in the North Sea. We had one fella swimming on his back under the bow so he could get a really long good look at us!

Aug 6

Sailing up the Skaggerak in the middle of the night being overtaken by massive freighters while trying to spot Hamlet’s castle (Helsingør, or Elsinore). Apart from being one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, and having ferries dashing backwards and forwards across the route every 20 minutes, there are lights everywhere (Sweden & Denmark) and only a few of them happen to be channel markers. The crew got so stressed that she tried to work out what a red-red-green-green-white-red flashing signal meant, only to discover it was a fireworks display. Captain Erik didn’t do much better when he came up on deck, asking what the “flashing green light on starboard” was? A police car on the coast road.

However, don’t let this put you off doing it. You need detailed charts, but the one way system means you aren’t likely to collide with something is you move in a predictable way, and you can work out where the route goes when the freighters overtake! I wouldn’t do it in fog unless you’re pretty handy with the radar though!

Aug 7 - 9

Copenhagen. Copenhagen is a charming city - bicycle friendly, lovely architecture, relaxed pace, good beer. Lots of sitting around in pavement cafes. The Christianshavn area is a pleasant area to stroll around by the canals. Don’t bother with the Danish Design Centre though. If a building had a head, it would be way up its own backside…

We stayed at the reasonably priced and excellently located Svanemøllehavnen (http://www.smhavn.dk/), which is right opposite a tasty coffee & cake spot (nice after the North Sea!) It’s also a short stroll to a well-stocked chandlery and is cycling distance to central Copenhagen. There are not a lot of big berths here, so might be worth phoning ahead! There is a fine marine book / chart store called Weilbach near the Amalienborg Palace, in the city centre at Toldbodgade 35 (Tel: +45 33 13 59 27) – here you can pick up all sorts of useful charts and guides.

Aug 10- 11

Sailing overnight in somewhat foggy and cool conditions to Kalmar, on the east coast of Sweden (http://www.kalmar.se/templates/Page.aspx?id=3775). Kalmar is a very pretty historic town with a nice castle & parks, and a lively town centre. The guest harbour is right in the town centre, so very handy for stoking up on provisions. Discovered Punschrullar / Stovsugar and ate lots.There is also free internet access. Being an ignorant Brit I had never heard of this place, but it was gorgeous.

Aug 12 - 13

Crossed over to the island of Öland, where there is another guest harbour at Borgholm. Here there are lots of opportunities for going to the beach or cycling, visiting the Queen’s summer house, and the HUGE ruined castle. Here we also discovered that the resort had already ended its summer season. This was a more and more common problem as we progressed from August into September. It can be good (lower prices/no fees, less crowded, alongside berths not just bow-to) or bad (facilities locked up, anchor buoys put away) depending on the individual guest harbour.

Aug 14 – 18
Pottering north through the hundreds of islands of the archipelagos to Stockholm. It took a while to get used to the navigating - you have to pay attention because a lot of the islands, and a lot of the little light beacons, look very similar. Its easy to lose your place on the chart (Hooray for GPS!) Some canoeing & bird-spotting when not sailing. Totally serene anchorages. Lots of swans.

Aug 18 - 20

Stockholm - partly dealing with boat necessities and partly tourism. A very pretty capital city with waterways everywhere and huge grand buildings. Happened that the brand-new East Indiaman was in town: http://www.sweden.se/templates/cs/Article____12649.aspx - very pretty, but probably even more of a money drain than Siobhan! Also lots of Nobel stuff. Saw one of those Kosta-Boda blokes creating a coloured glass vase which was amazing.... I would have bought it but it had to cool for 24 hours before they could sell it!

Aug 20 - 26

Sailing through the Aaland islands toward the Finnish mainland (Aaland is really spelled with one of those A with a cricle on top, yes, geeks, like Angstrom). The Aaland islands are part of Finland officially but have their own identity and own flag. I suppose its a kind of Scotland/Britain situation. Christa joined us on this part of the trip which was great... We did some excellent fast tacks through a couple of ridiculously narrow channels between tiny rocky islands. We havent been able to mention the T word since, though. Encountered our first day of rain!

Aug 27 - 28

Hanko, on the corner of Finland. More rain but some truly excellent restaurants and some rather nice victorian summer houses. Pity it wasn't more beachy weather. Went to the market and discovered you could buy ex Russian military stuff - including guns! The captain was apparently hypnotized by the cute blonde selling jam. We now have lots of jam on the boat.

Aug 29 -30

Sailed over to Tallinn. Christa thought the waves were huge (but sadly they were fairly average!) Tallinn really pretty, though very touristy. Succumbed to the temptation to buy amber. Discovered Estonia has good beer & pear cider.

Aug 31-Sept 1

Took the ferry to Helsinki with Christa. Shopped til we had passed the dropping point several hours ago. Failed to get to grips with finnish. Also, bizarrely for us, went to a church (Temppeliaukio) and stayed quite a while because the atmosphere was so amazing. The building is stunning too, but none of the photos I could find on the web really did it justice. Anyway - go visit Helsinki yourself. Its a fab long weekend place: not too touristy, edgy/trendy shops & bars, superb art deco and modern architecture, loads of boats. And then its got this great church too.

Sep 2 - 8

Sort of retraced our steps from Tallinn through the Aaland islands to Stockholm. Stopped in Arlanda which was a lovely rural island where all the houses looked like one of those "swedish style" source books!

Sep 15 - 17

Sailed to Dalaro and hung out there watching hundreds of Swedes out sailing on a sunny weekend.

Sep 18 - 23

More island pottering, via a slightly different route, and in the company of A & S. Having such a huge crew (all 4 of us!) made it very relaxing sailing and the weather was still sunny. Pity A didn't manage to catch any fish!

Sep 19 - 29

To Karlskrona (on the bottom right corner of Sweden) via Kalmar & Oland (That's the crossed out O!) which is a long skinny island next to the east coast of Sweden. Huge castle and lots of windmills on Oland. Karlskrona is a UNESCO heritage site because of its naval history, so it was a good place to buy new oil lamps for the boat. Also a fascinating naval museum (never thought I'd hear myself saying that).

Sep 30 - Oct 1

To the Danish island of Bornholm which is famous (in Denmark anyway) for its round churches. More bizarre was a park full of granite penetration sculptures which we found while cycling through the woods. Cute harbour with cafes and shops round it so a nice place to hang out when it turns out to be too rough and too in your face to go anywhere. Christa: these really were big waves!

Oct 2 - 3

Overnight sailing from Bornholm along the southern side of the Danish islands to the Kiel canal. Last part was without a chart (oops) but we figured if its freighter proof we should be OK if we follow the channel!

Oct 4 - 5

Kiel Canal. I thought this would be horrible and industrial but it was mainly countryside, with lots of interesting boats and victorian bridges to look at. We got overtaken by a submarine at one point. And found an excellent chandlery at the halfway place (you can't beat fresh coffee in the morning!)

Oct 6 - 7

Sailed down to Den Helder in Holland, accompanied by great tits (the birds!). Met up with one of E's best friends, who was a lovely lady. Had Nasi Goreng for supper (when in Rome...)

Oct 8 - 10

Crossed the North Sea (passed lots of platforms, and hosted lots more small birds - they are mad!) and arrived in Newcastle in time to help make cookies for E's niece's birthday. Spent several days chez E's brother, waiting for wind to turn, and trying not to get in the way around the house. Not that we added to the general chaos much, given there are 3 small children living there...

Oct 14 - 16

Made the final leg back to Inverness. Had a reception committee of one! Kind of glad to be back, and kind of sorry.

go back

Skärgård

Dalero

Öland

Tide Cuxhafen

Estonia Xing

Bornholm

Djurö Bridge

Ferry

Stockholm