Hello all,
After a visit to the Family and some victualing (mainly Beer – at 25cts a bottle, almost cheaper than water)in Kiel it was time to push of again to enjoy the last of the Sommer in the Baltic and to have a Drinkie with my mate in Stockholm.
Easterly Wind first pushed us to the Schlei for a bit of time on the hook and then through the Danish Islands from where i first jumped to Ystad, SE and then with a good forecast in hand (very changeable weather over here) straight to the Stockholm Archipelago in 2 nights at Sea. Traffic was pretty thick so i did not fetch a lot of sleep and was pretty buggered when i got there.
What a wonderful place but ! 1 mio beautiful anchorages between Pinetrees, sometimes free swinging, sometimes tied up to a rock or tree. Meet my mate Conny on Miramis between the islands (last seen in Bora Bora a a few years ago) and we had a wonderful cruise through the Archipelago, utilized the free Saunas on some of the Islands and generally had a (boozy) whale of a time.
After a few days we decided to head over to Mariehamn in the Ålands which was a really nice daysail in warm and Sunny weather. Due to the Rona entry to Finland is banned for almost everybody – except Pleasureboats ! Felt almost obliged to go 😆 Had a very nice time in Mariehamn, good chats with some of the locals – and of course we visited the Maritime Museum with one of the legendary flying P-Liners: the “”Pommern” one of the last commercial sailships, all steel (a Windjammer) and back then engaged in the Wheat trade between South Australia and Europe. Even found a photo from the ship in Port Lincoln, South Australia – same spot we docked a little while ago.
Mariehamn is probably the furthest north (60-08N) we get this year which not bad considering we where at Cape Agulhas early this year (34-81 S).
Now off to Stockholm for a little visit and we’ll see where where going to bunk down for the rapidly approaching winter.
Further along, Niewpoort in Belgium, Harlingvliet, NL (where i sailed out from 9 years ago) and further Den Helder, NL where we entered in the dark to find the marina quite full with every possible berth taken and boats rafted up 3 deep on the hammerheads. Add to this an 25kt wind, a narrow channel in the middle and being unable to turn – it was certainly an interesting entrance.
Another uneventful overnight passage along the Frisian Islands and we made just in time for the tide the entrance to the Elbe where we docked the next night.
The English Channel is certainly always a tricky passage, with tons of traffic and tides all along which run quite often at 4-5kts, so even after careful planning you always get a bad one or it turns 5 nmi from the next harbour and it takes you 3 hrs to get in instead of 45min.
The next day took the tide up the Elbe already and locked into the Kiel Kanal where we spend the next 2.5 days, the weather being perfect and with enough spaces among the trees to tie up and get among the excellent german beer and sausages.
Storm Petrel is now tied up in Kiel in the tideless Baltic Sea and we will take a little bit of time to visit the family and attend to some repairs, purchase of spares and victualing to maybe still get a little cruise in before the Summer ends. Which by the way has been excellent in the past days : 30c, blue skies, light winds. Everybody is out and about, the Kiel inlet is crowed with sails and vessels of all shapes and sizes.
Very nice wildlife upon approaching the continental shelf, 2 finn whales came for a visit and tons of dolphins.Bit of excitement as the AIS cut out and wouldnt show anything over 4 miles – the traffic being rather thick on the entrance of the English Channel. Traced it later to broken shield/ground of the PL/SO Antenna connector of the board of the unit itself (after climbing the mast with a long cable and a solder iron between my teeth put new plugs on the cable) so all good now and very necessary in the channel and the north sea.
