28.08.2006   I'm back. Back again. Although technically I've been back for a few days already. And boy oh boy. I have tons to write now, since I have not been updating for well over a month, and still have the sailing trip to cover as well as the recent trip to Russia. Yes, see, about a week after I came back from my epic voyage to Estonia I set out to the wild wild south east to visit various relations and just have a good time in general. So now I am faced with a monumental task of putting it all down in writing... Oh if only I weren't so lazy and wrote the sailing bit right after I came back, while it was still fresh in my memory... I'd have much less to write now, and would be much more eager to do so. But alas... I did nothing. So I guess I should stop procrastinating and kick-start this blog back into life again, or then just declare the project officially dead.   Well, I guess I should start with the sailing bit. As you have probably read below, the idea was to basically cross the Gulf of Finland and head south to the west coast of Estonia and the Estonian archipelago. There was also talk of doing some biking as well...   We set sail on the 30th of July, around noon. We were supposed to rendez-vous with Mr.Z's boat somewhere at Porkkala, since he had work that day and couldn't start as early as we did. Besides, he had some trouble with the punctuality, or the lack of thereof, of his crew. We started off with a nice strong breeze, full main and working jib, although that almost proved too much after a while when the boat regularly heeled beyond the comfortable angle of 35 degrees. Towards the evening the wind died, but since we were in no hurry we tacked against the wind without using the motor. All the while Mr.Z was sending us progressively gloomier estimates of his departure. In the end we reached the small island of Stora Svartö, a mooring place I thoroughly recommend, where I embarked to test my new fishing rod and my crew mate Joose relaxed with a good book. We ended up waiting for Mr.Z until 22:30...   The following morning we had a little meeting in order to decide upon where to cross the Gulf of Finland. Originally we had wanted to have our mandatory Customs check-out at Jussärö, but the wind looked good and the sea friendly, so we thought we might as well get the Customs procedures over and done with already at the Porkkala Customs Station, which was only a few miles away (compared to about 20NM to Jussärö), and head south west to Dirhami, our designated port of entry. This meant that we would be a day ahead of our original schedule, thus giving us some more flexibility. Of course crossing the gulf from Porkkala meant having to travel about 20 extra miles, out in the open sea, but that was hardly a problem. So we set out. The border formalities were negligible, except for having to fill out a form in triplicate (or was it quadruplicate?) stating the names of your crew, departure date, arrival date, ports of entry etc. etc. All this messing about is due to the fact that Estonia, while being a member of the EU, is still not a member of the Schengen states. Anyway, the sail over was awesome. It was the first time I crossed the Gulf of Finland, and it was great. The wind was roughly from behind, and so were the waves. Small thought they were, they seemed huge. Especially towards the evening when the wind strengthened and we moved further away from the shore. The waves started resembling hills, and steering the boat down the crest of one started to become progressively more difficult. Difficult, yet exhilarating! Sure, there were a couple of scary moments, but I put that down to the fact that we were unaccustomed to the normal conditions out in the moderately open sea.   We sighted Dirhami around 19:00 or so, the crossing having taken us about 12 hours to complete. During that time I set an absolute speed record of 9.8 knots over ground (according to my spankin' new GPS), surfing down a big wave... And that's a lot for a dumpy little 23 footer! Oh, and one must add that the first breakage of the voyage occurred on that crossing as well, with Joose accidentally kicking my old GPS off its mount and shattering its antenna. Needless to say, it was a goner. And I forgave him, not even throwing a characteristic tantrum... The mellowing effect of the sea breeze must have been to blame.   Dirhami proved everything it was said to be in the pilot book. A shit hole. And a chock-full shit hole at that. Linda (that's Z's boat, btw) managed to find a spot, while I was relegated to a temporary mooring behind a rusting hulk of a trawler in a oily little corner by some petrol pumps. And it still cost me a whopping (or so I thought then, so far not having seen the monstrous prices in other Estonian marinas) 150EEK! Anyway, I later withdrew my first impression of Dirhami. Sure, it was small, but it did have a store barely a kilometer away and it was well protected. The absence of a bar remained a big minus, though.   We didn't spend much time in Dirhami. The following morning (from here on "morning" means about noonish) we set course for Haapsalu, a large town some way down south on the west coast. The sail was relatively uneventful, as I recall, so I don't remember much of it. The weather was excellent and the sea calm, is all that I can say. Haapsalu looked nice from the sea, yet showed its rundown side when we approached its unquestioningly excellent (although rather pricey at 300EEK) harbor, as we passed several hulks of semi-submerged trawlers still tied to their piers! Haapsalu in itself was pretty nice. It had a moderately large old town, a large, well preserved castle dating back to the 12th century, and lost of fairly moderately priced bars and restaurants. The modern part of the town hosts lots of various stores & services, so you wont have any problems finding anything you need there. Haapsalu was also the place where I was joined by my old (we go back to the first grade, back in the USSR...) school buddy, Sasha Gronsky. From then on he was a permanent member of my crew.   From Haapsalu, where we ended up staying for two nights, I think, we headed to the island of Vormsi, a short distance away, something around 10 miles. We moored at a tiny hamlet of Sviby, rented some bikes and went off to the main village of Hullo. There we had some lunch, well cooked and even better priced, and biked off to explore the northern shore of the island. I must say that at about that point I started having misgivings about the biking portion of our trip that was soon to come. Even thought I biked only about 8Km I still felt as if I did 80. Later that day me & Sasha bought 24 cans of beer, did some drinking and barbecuing, and went off to sleep. In the morning we set off for the town (?) of Virtsu.   That sail was already of a decent length. I'd say something like 30 miles, not having my log book at hand. The weather was nice, the sun was shining, and the going good, even though the wind was somewhat against us. No matter, we even managed to squeeze in some swimming in the middle of the sea once we got close to Virtsu and the wind died down. Virtsu itself, though, was rather dismal. A small, somewhat unprotected harbor of rickety mooring pontoons huddled in the shadow of a ferry terminal, with ferries running 24/7 and cargo ships coming in to unload their cargo of sand. The only redeeming feature of the harbor was a decent cafeteria in a bus terminal nearby, where one could get simple meals cheap, and Estonian beer cheaper. The town as such does not exist. There is one long road, starting (or ending, whatever) at the ferry terminal, that goes on for about 3Km until one comes to a 24hrs gas station and a sign signifying the end of Virtsu. Along this road there are practically no buildings, although there is another road branching off going into what appeared to be a sleepy suburbia dating back to the Soviet era, with all the charm of a... Well, of something dead, gray and blocky. Oh, and made of concrete. What did you expect, literary gems? At 3:33am? Anyway, that little cul de sac also boasts a disco set in some sort of a shelter/bunker/potato cellar that we were told was filled to the brim with writhing, moaning, sweaty teen nymphettes in the last stages of sexual starvation. Well, it was closed. And good, too. I mean, they'd have fucking killed me with their senseless lust and fleshy cravings. Anyway, such is the beautiful town of Virtsu. And we shall come back to it later, but for now lets move on.   The next "morning" we set off towards the island of Kihnu. A fairly long way off as well, about 35-30NM, it was none the less a pleasant sail. That means I have very little in the way of memory regarding the trip itself. I think it was then that I tried open sea fishing and trailed a lure behind us. But I guess the speed of 4Kt was a bit too much for the fishies, or then the lure was unappetizing, so we caught nothing. But kept trailing none the less, just in case. It was then that Sasha somehow managed to drop one of my comfy red cockpit cushions over board, so we executed a near-perfect MOB (man over board) maneuver and eventually brought the soggy thing back up. And when next I looked at the fishing rod tied to the aft pulpit I noticed that the line no longer streamed back, but rather disappeared under the boat at an improbable angle. Apparently, with all the turning and swearing going on we've managed to wrap it around the keel. A good couple of loops, too. Somehow. So there went another lure and any desire to try fishing, underway or not.   We pulled in at Kihnu fairly late, something like 22:00, and the harbor was pretty darn full, as I recall. We quickly grabbed our shit and went off to look for a bar. The bar proved to be 2Km inland, but trod it we did, even though most of us probably suspected (but didn't dare say out loud) that the darn thing was already closed. I know I did. But no! In a large, two story building in the middle (ok, there wasn't any real "middle". It was all pretty haphazard) of the village there was an open bar! The kitchen was closed, but we had all the garlic crackers (basically little square bits of black bread dipped in garlic sauce and then dried) and beer we wanted. Ah, bliss... We went off back to the boats full of them damn crackers and cheap beer. The evening was a success. Next day we woke up to find the harbor deserted, apart from us that is. Most of the sailors around seem to have this crackpot idea that waking up at 6Am and rushing off towards your next destination is somehow cool. Well it aint. Them goofy motherfuckers always look so damn harried to me. I think we have stumbled upon a somewhat better philosophy of going about voyaging. Don't stress with the waking up. The best part waking up is not having to do it under duress, of waking up whenever the fuck you want to. Lie about in your cozy bunk. Smoke a cigarette. Read a book. Let out a few of them morning farts, if you're the captain. If you're not, don't. Where was I? Oh yes, exploring Kihnu. The island turned out to have a wonderful sandy beach a couple of kilometers long, which sorta gently grew into a sandy bar stretching out far into the sea. So far, in fact, that we didn't even walk all the way along it. Besides, it just as gently disappeared under the water, and I bet you could wade all the way to the mainland along it, local depths being what they are.   We left them friendly shores the following morning, or the same evening, I'm not sure. Were I to have my log book next to me, I'd even know the minute we set out, not to mention the date. But alas, it is at the boat. In any case, we set sail for Pärnu, that famous (in Finland and Estonia, at any rate) summer town full of bars, tourists, and beaches. We were not disappointed. Pärnu marina was nice, not as ostentatiously high class as Haapsalu (they had blond errand boys at the pier, for chrissake), but somewhat more somber and professional. And no wonder, for the Pärnu Yacht Club celebrated its 100th anniversary that year, I think. So yeah, the marina was nice, with a full range of services and a nice, if expensive,  bar & kitchen. The town was even better. It was moderately large, with a fairly big old part with winding alleys, souvenir shops, bars and restaurants. And a whorehouse called Nastya. Or was it Nadya? No matter. The beach was a little way off, but fairly close to the marina. And boy was it huge. It must have stretched for about 5Km, at least. There were some bars and a big disco next to it, as well. Its only minus point was that it was typically Estonian when it came to swimming: i.e. you had to wade offshore for a kilometer just to get you balls wet. The beach also sported a nudist section, we stumbled on it by accident. It just sorta gradually grew into an assortment of naked old people in various state of decomposition. We had to wash our eyes and brains in gasoline that evening. The picture that stands out the starkest in my mind is that of a dapper middle aged man standing on the shore, looking at this dump of human flesh in various stages of aging decay, grinning idiotically and methodically thumping away at his erect pecker.   We spent three full days at Pärnu, days filled with blissfully leisure, beer, sun and relaxation. Me and Sasha even went to the disco on the beach, advertised as a "foam party". We've never been to one, plus we wanted to see the locals in their own element. The entrance fee was rather steep at 500EEK and it turned out out be one of them fake foam parties, the foam being sprayed into a special enclosure outside the damn disco. So rather disappointing in that respect. The music and the people were quite fab, though. Although we quickly found out that nobody likes Russians in West Estonia (somewhat surprisingly they DO like us in the archipelago) much, and pretty young ladies are not an exception to that rule, unfortunately. Speaking of pretty young ladies, I must say that Pärnu even dwarfs Sweden in that respect. And I'm not talking Stockholm, I'm talking Gotland & other Swedish places where the well-off and good-looking frolic their summer away. So yeah, Pärnu was great. I'd love to own a summer flat there...   We left Pärnu relatively early in the morning. And no wonder, since we had about 70-80 miles to cover till we'd reach  the island of Saaremaa... The longest ever single stretch I've done on my boat, I believe. The wind was rather weak, and the sun was scorching hot. Z left somewhat earlier than we did, plus we decided to try and use our sails as long as possible, so we ended up somewhat off course and a few hours behind "Linda". All went well and I went below to sleep, leaving Sasha, Jakki and Juhani on watch. I woke up when it was already dark. The sky didn't look that healthy, nor was it helped by the giant orange moon hanging over the horizon. We were sailing straight for an ominous cloud bank stretching between us and the island of Saaremaa. And if that wasn't bad enough, the bloated monstrosity started spitting lightning. I was in a bit of a state by then, actually. I dialed up Z, and, although transmission was a bit patchy, he did manage to report that he was smack dab in the middle of the blasted thing. And I think at that point we got cut off. We slowed down almost to a halt and changed course to go along the line of clouds instead of through it. That proved to be the winning strategy, since in a few hours we found a break in the clouds and managed to proceed towards Saaremaa, although instead of Kuresaare (the island's capital) we proceeded to a place called Roomassaare, just about 5 miles from Kuressaare, but at this course much more convenient. We sailed in exhausted, most of the crew asleep, a few hours after dawn...   Now that we've reached Saaremaa it was time for our little company to split up, with the majority going on a 4 day bike trip around the island and me taking Sasha and the boat on a trip to Ruhnu, the most remote island in Estonia, close to the Latvian border. But before we did that, we received a phone call from another of my old class mates who happened to be on Saaremaa with his girlfriend. And a car. So we spent a day driving around, going as far as the Sõrve peninsula, with its picturesque lighthouse. It felt incredible how fast 80 Km were swallowed up when going by car... After that little excursion it was decided to head to a little island of Abruka, about 4 NM from Roomassaare, and then to Ruhnu. With all four of us on board. Abruka turned out to be pretty neat. We walked right across the island and then started looking for a place to eat. There were few people about, but we managed to scrounge lunch from a farmer's wife who was starting up her own catering / accommodation business aimed mainly at backpackers. After lunch we started off, hitting a rock in the process, a rock pretty much right in the middle of the narrow "fairway" that leads to the dinky harbor. The harbor itself was pretty silted up, so much so that we even got stuck for in the middle of it, but managed to get off under our own power.   The crossing to Ruhnu was uneventful, at least at first. We played various word games to while away the time, but then night came and our passengers went down below to sleep while me & Sasha kept watch. At first the weather was rather tame, a moderate wind from the stern, but as the night progressed it turned quite brisk, and while it was ok as long as we ran with it, we had to make a sharp turn towards the Ruhnu harbor, thus turning us beam on to the wind. The waves were already fairly large, the night pitch black, and our passengers were deeply regretting having set foot on "Blowfish". The entrance into the harbor was rather tricky, and I was a bit worried since some of the markers on the map seemed not to exist, nor did GPS help much with that matter. We did manage to enter some time around 3 or 4 am... Once we woke up it was time to explore. The island shares a peculiarity common to almost all Estonian islands / harbors. Namely that you have to walk for at least a kilometer (and more often about two or three) to get anywhere like a bar or a shop. That was the reason I developed huge, painful blisters on my feet... I can honestly say I haven't walked so much in years. Besides, Sasha being an avid walker, he dragged me all over the place, wherever we happened to be.   Ruhnu proved to be a pretty cool place. It even felt slightly different, the forest was not as Scandinavian any more, nor were the distances user-friendly. Actually, once we reached the center of the island, or in other words the village of Ruhnu, we found out that the northern part of the island was given away to... Rehabilitating bears. Yes. Bears. Bears hurt in hunting accidents, bears traumatized in zoos, circuses, you name it. There were about ten all in all. The islanders weren't happy. Oh no Sir. They tried fighting the decision, but hey... The Government had a bit more clout than they did. So now half of the island is in the possession of wild beasts, and the other half has to read survival pamphlets and hope for the best. And so do the tourists. It did add a bit to the experience, I must admit.   We left Ruhnu on the 12th of July, by sail, while our guests, traumatised by their first sailing trip, left by ferry. We  decided to head back to Roomassaare, but the weather was so crappy, the waves so choppy, that we diverted to Kihnu instead. Kihnu the second time around was nice. We got to know some pretty special local bozo's, wino's that is, and got to pay another 20€ for the privilege of mooring there. So we hung around, waiting for our friends to depart from Saaremaa, and finally they did. We then had a long trip to Virtsu, and moored there at around 2:30 am. And then the fun started for real... Thinking the boat was safe, we (Sasha and I) decided to take a bus to a friends summer cottage, about 80Km away in the midlands. In the middle of all the flowing vodka, saunas, girls and all, there came a message: "the pontoon your boat's attached to is breaking up. Await further messages". The rest of the night went on along the same lines. The danger passed slowly, and my bucking bronco was tamed with the aid of Mr. Z and his professor friend that had an Atlantic crossing under his belt. Once I came back I beheld a boat tied to everything and anything available with everything and anything available. It was not pretty but it worked and I was very thankful to the people that managed to save my boat from wrecking itself like that one Estonian boat did. And I'm not insured, either. Still.   Anyway, we were pretty much stuck at Virtsu for some days. It apparently wore too heavily on Sasha's patience, so the bugger left for Tallinn and from there to St.Petersburg. During the forced wait we had a very nice sauna and a shower, quite a few drinks and stuff, and then, the weather having died down somewhat, sailed off towards Dirhami at around 2am. We were quite drunk, I guess, but that didn't deter anyone since the weather window could have closed at any moment and we'd have been forced to sit in Virtsu for another few days. I slept most of the way to Dirhami. The crew preformed admirably and were quite competent... In Dirhami the weather got worse again, so there was no way for us to cross the Gulf of Finland. We were stuck once again, and in a worse place than Virtsu, too, since Dirhami had no bar or anything to do except play cards and board games.   On the second day of waiting I decided to strike out for Paldiski, an old military town that used to house the Soviet navy. I figured it had to be better than Dirhami in terms of entertainment... "Linda" with Mr. Z, and his crew staid behind, as they intended to head off to Nauvo archipelago after crossing the gulf. We were going in the opposite direction, to Helsinki. "Blowfish" was crowded for the Paldiski trip, with four people on board in total, Juhani, Joose and Jakki. Plus me of course. The trip went relatively fast, but went a bit hairy towards the end, with the night fast approaching and the weather deteriorating fast. The waves were growing and I was kinda worried about the heavy traffic coming out of Paldiski. One of the ferries went by really close, really fast. I can't be certain they even saw us on their radar screens, since the waves were pretty high by then. There was only one harbor accepting yachts in Paldiski, and to my horror I noticed something I didn't bother reading in the harbour book. Namely that it was unsuitable for pleasure craft! Yeah, it had 3 meters high concrete walls, no services, not even a toilet! No electricity, no water... It was a shit hole worse than Dirhami! Plus there was some sort of a building site right next to it, with trucks and bulldozers going to and fro 24 hours a day, and the dust of construction coated our sails and deck! And once we ventured into town we found out that the place had not a single open bar, restaurant or even a simple eaterie... Thank God they had shops, at least. One odd thing is that Paldiski was the most Russian place I've yet visited in Estonia. I haven't heard a single word of Estonian through out our stay there... Since the weather deteriorated once again, we decided to visit Tallinn instead of wandering aimlessly around Paldiski. Plus, unfortunately, Joose's leave was running out, so he had to leave us and head back to Helsinki on a ferry. Anyway, the train tickets cost us only 11 EEK! After the usual walkabout in Tallinn and walking up an appetite, we had a pizza, some beer, plus I bought some books, and then we jumped on the train and came back. The yacht was covered in grime from the construction site. The sails turned murky brown, instead of the usual off-white. We went to bed, hoping that the following day would bring some respite from the weather.   In the morning though, we were faced with a gloomy prospect of staying in Paldiski for another day. The crew was not amused. To appease the monkeys, and admittedly because I was not enthusiastic about staying either, we decided to go further east, to the Lohusalu marina. There, at least, we'd have proper amenities, electricity, sauna, water... The works. And perhaps a cheap local bar too, if we were really lucky. We set off against a heavy swell, doing about 2kts at full throttle. Once we rounded the Paldiski peninsula, we could turn away from the wind and hoist a reefed main sail, reaching comfortably at about 5kts. We were at Lohusalu in no time. It was indeed a comfortable marina set in a pretty bay. What made the bay more interesting was an old rusty hulk semi-submerged in its middle. Later I tried looking up info on it but was unable to find anything. The marina, while comfortable, was far from any civilization (i.e. bars, shops and restaurants), but was horrendously expensive, at 350EEK per night! And our cash reserves were running out... As the weather was still bad, me and Juhani decided to explore the wreck. As it was deceptively close to the shore, we thought we'd simply wade up to it and explore it from up close, perhaps entering whatever was left of its insides. We were quite wrong. Having reached the sand bar opposing it, we took off most of our clothes and prepared to wade, when Juhani had a bright idea of taking our clothes and phones with us. He reassured me that they waded with all their stuff remaining dry in the army, and that he remembered how to make an impenetrable bundle with just two plastic bags. I shrugged and agreed. I left most of my clothes and my camera on the shore, however. So we started off, Juhani walking with the bag lifted above his head and me stumbling onwards unburdened. It was soon obvious that we underestimated the distance to the wreck. What looked like 300 meters tops turned out to be closer to a kilometer. And we were soon chest deep in water and still quite a long way from the wreck. In the end, what with the waves and all, it was a struggle for survival. We had to swim part of the way, but we reached our objective. It was a dismal sight. Apparently either somebody tried to demolish it or then decades of winter storms did their job, but the superstructure was gone, and there was only the rusty, torn deck left where the aft superstructure used to be. I managed to climb aboard cos I was wearing my sandals, otherwise my legs'd have been torn to shreds by paper thin rusty sheets of jagged metal. Juhani on the other hand was barefoot, so he was reduced to helplessly circling the wreck with the by now well soaked bag of clothes in his hand. He later said that it almost drowned him, weighing like a sin once the water got inside. The wreck was unimpressive, but still it was an interesting experience. The way back was even harder than the way there, for we were really cold and tired when we started off for the shore. On the shore we discovered that the phones we packed separately into a "waterproof" container were drenched in water. They never recovered. The wreck expedition proved to be an expensive one...   We left on the same day. After going through a painless customs procedure, we were once more out in the open sea and heading for Finland. The trip back was pretty exciting, with large waves and strong winds, but luckily the weather held and we were back in Finland in no time. It still took us two days to reach my marina, but reach it we did, full of memories and a sense of achievment. The total mileage for the exactly 3 weeks of sailing was 579,7 Nautical Miles.   Phew. It took me a bit over a week to finish this entry! I was away sailing in the vicinity of Porvoo with bonus for 4 days, too, so that slowed me down as well. Anyway, I hope I didn't fuck it up too bad, and that its readable. I will write something about my trip to Russia in the next entry, I think.   I'll even throw in some links, dammit. First, watch a surreal "Pancakes" video. Then take this Religion Quiz. Interesting. I, of course, turned out to be an Atheist. And then, finally, feast your eyes on some nice photographic works by M. Hayden. Phew. I'm off to play some BF2.

Starting off from Helsinki. Under the Kerosene lamp. Lonely night watch. The local disco. Quite glam... Somebody really hates horseflies! Tallinn has changed quite a bit... The Lohusalu wreck. A somewhat messy map of our route.

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