Two tough days

I was running low on provisions and needed to find a shop so I could restock.  My chart plotter indicated a place called Kabbole had a shop and as it was more or less on my route west I decided to head there.  It had a shop alright, but with precious little to tempt me.  All I bought was a tub of margarine. It only cost 4 euros!

I moved on and met some fairly heavy weather on the way.  I caught a snippet of a broadcast on Channel 16 (the emergency calling channel on VHF at sea) which mentioned a gale warning, but that was all I heard.  No gales had been forecast when I'd checked the weather that morning so I was a little perplexed and just a little concerned.  The days of being caught out at sea in a gale are long gone for me; I had my fill offshore racing in the 70s.  With frequent glances at the sky I sailed on, hoping I could reach port before any gale hit.  I also prepared mentally for whatever Aoleus ( the Greek God of Winds) had up his sleeve but, thankfully, he must have been busy elsewhere that day; nothing at all threatening materialised.  But Force 5 is quite enough to deal with when single handed and I was pleased to tie up in Sipoon Kaunisaari that evening after nealy 8 hours at sea.  I'd only had a cup of tea and biscuits!

I was nearing Helsinki at this stage from where I planned to cross the Baltic to Tallin in Estonia.  All the reports I'd heard of it from sailing friends suggested it was unmissable so I wasn't going to miss it.  But rather than divert to Helsinki for no good reason I decided to head for the seaward end of the peninsular that runs south west from Helsinki.  There were one or two guest harbours on my chart plotter and heading for Tallin from one of them would shorten the crossing somewhat.  The forecast promised fairly strong winds but they were in the right direction for me - up the chuff - whereas the following two days winds would be on my nose, so I decided to go for it.  But not before a most unusual experience.  Sipoon Kaunisaari had no shop of its own but I was told that a 'boat shop' would call into the island a kilommetre up the coast at 11.30 next morning.  Since I was still low on provisions I decided to wait for the 'boat shop'. There were about 30 people at the dock when it arrived and I joined the queue.  It was surprisingly well stocked and I got bread, fresh veg and bananas.

Ar 13.30 I cast off from Sipoon Kaunisaari having 30+ miles to go to my destination - 6-7 hours sailing all being well.  As soon as I was out of the shelter of the harbour the wind blew with a vengance.  I even considered turning back but since it was going the same was I was I carried on. There followed 6 hours of bumpy sailing and it got up to Force 6 for a while. The wind was behind me, the seas were quite large (for the Baltic) and I was tossed around all over the place.  But the autopilot handled it well and I was able to leave the cockpit on a couple of occasions to get something to eat and drink.  Towards the end of the trip I overhauled a German yacht which, like me, was running under genny alone.  That made me smile.  As I motored into what I knew would be a difficult and shallow entrance i saw a number of yachts moored up just short of where I was heading on the next island.  I decided to investigaqte and managed to tie up with 8-10 yachts from the Helsinki Sailing Club (whom the CA know well) who made me very welcome.  It was good to make harbour believe me and I had a stiff drink by way of celebration once I was safely tied up.

Let's see what tomorrow brings.  Tallin or not?