KUIVASTU (MUHU ISLAND) TO DIRHAMI (mainland Estonia)
Day 46 Thursday, 4th July 2019
We leave at 7.50 am and I take photos of the cliffs at the end of Muhu Island. They’re only 8 metres high so not a patch on Boulby Cliffs, north of Staithes, which are supposed to be the highest cliffs in England.
We were surprised to see a large ship coming down the Moon Sound. (We think Muhu was known as Moon by Arthur Ransome. The island was taken over by the Germans after the Russian Revolution in 1917.)
Many more Finnish yachts streaming down the Sound. It’s only 48 nautical miles from Hanko (Finland) to the second biggest Estonian island of Hiiumaa, just north of Saaremaa. We see the ferry going from mainland Rohukula to Hiiumaa and it also goes to Vormsi, another smaller island between Hiiumaa and the mainland..
We take many dog-legs in the buoyed channel. I’m so pleased that the skipper has put the waypoints all in and printed out the waypoints for each journey. We should be going to Haapsalu (which we pass quite close by) but it’s going to be very windy tomorrow and Saturday, and that’s why we’re going to Dirhami, further north: our only window on Sunday to get to Tallinn.
Many rocks on either side of the entrance to Dirhami. They must have come from Finland! We will be rock hopping all the way through the Finnish archipelago.
The harbour master takes our lines in Port Dirham (Dirhami) and says we can pay at the harbour office when we’ve tidied up the boat.
We have a meal in the fish restaurant with quite a few others – on boats or in a nearby B and B. It’s been recommended on Captain’s Mate and it’s the only restaurant in the area. There’s absolutely nothing here except a small beach by the harbour! We had a starter platter of roe, smoked salmon and raw white fish, followed by perch (for M.) and fried white fish for me. The perch and white fish are locally caught but the salmon is from Norway. We found the fish rather tasteless as the Baltic Sea’s salinity is much lower (0.1% in the north to 0.6% in the centre) than ocean water (which averages 3.5%). Bring back Whitby’s famous Fish and Chips!
Lady Hamilton 2019 