Lady Hamilton 2019

BAROSUND TO HANKO (35 miles)

Day 60  Tuesday, 30^th July 2019

We leave Barosund about 9 am and take the route through the gorge.

There’s a bright yellow ferry on the island, and a school.  The ferry is unloading a van and taking cars on board so it’s not going anywhere immediately, so we pass by. 

We follow the Green Route on the charts.  I’m so pleased that the skipper has put in so many waypoints.  He had to delete the waypoints from Helsinki to Barosund because there were too many for our old GPS.  There are more rocks and islands all the way to Hanko – and we have to concentrate very hard! 

We did manage to put out the genoa on some legs, but the wind is still fluky and gusting up to 23 knots. 

We arrive at the marina in Hanko, Ostra hamnen. This is much cheaper than the one on the island,   Itameren Portii (Gateway to the Baltic) Smultronggrundet, which has a ferry going back and forth all the time.  We’re done with ferries!

Shown into a berth by the boy in a dinghy from the Harbour Office – first time this has happened in ages.  Managed a perfect clipping on of the stern buoy and leapt ashore to tie off the bow lines – but I shouted at Malcolm as I couldn’t understand what he said about attaching the starboard line.  I must have been very tired as I lay down in my cabin afterwards! 

Hanko has a population of about 9000 and is on a sandy spit at the southwestern end of Finland.  They speak two languages here – Finnish and Swedish.  Once it was a spa town favoured by the Russian ruling classes – and there are a number of majestic wooden villas located near the harbour – which we’re looking forward to visiting tomorrow.

It’s a good place for sailing over to the Estonian islands. And it has the Hangon Regatta  – a major summer fixture in the national and international sailing calendar – in early July.