Lady Hamilton 2019

VANO TO UTO (both islands in the Finnish Archipelago) – 30 miles

Day 63  Friday, 2^nd August, 2019

Vano has a shop and a café and 2 very smelly earth closets.  It’s a rocky island so no earth – just a long metal slide with a log-jam at the top!  Say no more …  and I have to scale the rocks to put the rubbish in a bin on the wooden pier.

Leave about 9 am and are sailing – real sailing without the engine – by 10.30 am.  We put out the main and the genoa, the wind is from NNW and only about 7 – 9 knots (which increases after lunch to 16 knots) and we get 4.5 – 5.5 knots out of our very heavy boat. 

We’re trying to beat the Finns – but they have much lighter boats and not weighed down with Fray Bentos pies and all our accoutrements for live-aboards!

All the buoys, cardinals, lighthouses, restrictive and information signs must cost the 5 million Finns dear.  They have to pay onerous taxes.  This is what it says in ‘Bob in the Baltic’ by Gryff Rees Jones.  I’ve been re-reading this book and referring to it many times.  And they did hit a rock, on the wrong side of red buoy on the Green Route sailing from Helsinki to Hanko! 

We’re sailing on a yacht super highway – 9m deep on this course (the Green Route was between 2 and 4 m) and we see more than 90 m depth on our instruments.  Twice as deep as the North Sea!  We’ve seen no big ships at all – just yachts and speedboats – and we’re sailing through the Archipelago National Park.

Arrive at Uto at 2pm and put out our stern anchor, which Malcolm has already prepared.  A lady from the Finnish yacht next to us caught my bow lines.  We’ve been following their Halberg Rassey  from Vano!  More yachts and motor boats arrived after us so we were fortunate to find a place. 

The man in the shop said I could pay in the Café, Hannas horizont, up the steps.  This time I paid by card – 15 euros for the boat with electricity.  They have toilets like the last island.

The lighthouse is closed until Sunday as the boss, who does the Guided Tours, has gone away.  It was the first Finnish lighthouse, built in Uto in 1753.  It has a chapel on the 3^rd floor, used since the 1840’s. 

The basket used to hang high in the original tower and was used to contain a fire for guiding the sailing vessels.

The stone building of the lighthouse keepers, Strehuset, from 1753, is now a museum.  Unfortunately the captions are all in Swedish and Finnish – but there was a film with English subtitles about schoolchildren from Uto going to secondary school in Turku in the ‘50s.  Fortunately they came over to Uto for the holidays.  They had to cross the ice in Winter, skiing 8 kms to another island and then by car to hail a passing ship.  Then they had to climb a ladder from the ice to the ship.  The large ships must have kept the fairway open.  In Summer they got on a pilot boat (Uto has two pilot boats) and had to negotiate a very wobbly rope ladder hung over the side of the ship. 

There were pictures of grey seals in the museum – they used to shoot them for their skins and meat.  No wonder we haven’t seen any seals this year! 

We go for a walk up the track to a hotel and find a maypole again.  Each village has at least one, decorated in a public gathering the day before Midsummer.  Once raised the maypole then stands until the following Midsummer.  Up to 25m tall, the whitewashed spruce poles are a cross between  a mast and a totem pole.  Motifs include sailing boats (which we saw at Hanko), ears of corn representing the harvest, a wreath symbolising love, a sun facing east and other icons of community togetherness. 

Can you spot us in the harbour?

Uto was a military base protecting St. Petersburg during the Soviet period of WW11.  It covered the area southwards to the large Estonian island of Hiiumaa.   Now it has two military areas (on the east and west side of the island) for the Finns – and you’re forbidden to enter them!

 

HANKO TO VANO (in the Finnish Archipelago) 28 miles

Day 62 Thursday 1^st August, 2019

Leave Hanko at 9 am and thread our way through rocks and islets to the Green Route.  This is a photo of the beach on the sand spit and lighthouse at Hanko.

We pass by the island of Gunnarsorarna, where we’re invited to spend a night camping by the ‘The powerful nature in Hanko’ brochure. Until the Soviet occupation of Hanko (1940-41) there were three small farms of Gunnarsorarna.  Nobody has lived there since 1941.  During the Russian occupation an anti-aircraft battery with four canons was built on the highest bit of the island and some of the structures are well preserved until now.  Now the island is equipped with a stable windbreak, a dry toilet, as well as facilities for making a fire – everything you need for overnight camping!

Besides channels marked with red and green lateral buoys, there are also marked channels with cardinal buoys, usually protecting rocks.

When we arrived at Vano payment is cash only – in a box at the end of the jetty – 10 euros and 2 euros for electricity.  We’ve only got 20 euros left between us as we’ve paid by card everywhere and didn’t find a cash machine in Hanko.   

The lady on the boat next door told Malcolm that a fisherman was selling fish from his boat on the jetty – they’ve only found fishermen selling their catches five times since they’ve been sailing for more than twenty years.  And he has smoked fish too (not sure how he smokes the fish on his boat!!!) .

The ferry comes in and people get off with suitcases. They must be staying here on this small island – or perhaps they live here or have holiday homes? There are only 15 people who live on the island of Vano, but they have summer visitors of 300 – not to mention the sailors!

We walk to the chapel, 1.5km away, down a well-signed route, past lots of heather.  It reminds us of the North York Moors which were covered in heather when we came home in July.

Eventually we arrive at the Chapel, down a wide path which is shaded by trees.

We go inside and find that there’s a ship’s figurehead of Alfred the Great! Apparently the frigate ‘Alfred’ sank west of Vano in the 19^th  century and divers rescued the figurehead in the 1970’s.  Alfred (849 – 901) fought for 7 years to rid the Danes from England and then he reigned wisely and well, according to the English version in the Chapel.

Malcolm prepares the stern anchor (the anchor and chain are in several lockers), and has to put the rope and chain in a bucket at the stern,  while I write the Blog of Hanko and cook spaghetti bolognaise (again!) .  Later we watch the finale of ‘Mad Men Series 4’.  And Don’s got engaged to his secretary!  

HANKO

Day 61  Wednesday, 31^st July 2019

Had a leisurely breakfast – toast and Jackson’s marmalade from the butchers down in Ruswarp.  I blogged most of the morning about the last two days, from Helsinki to Hanko.  The skipper went for fuel, scrubbed the decks and the waterline – a very busy skipper!

In the afternoon we went to see the Tsarist villas – they were quite extraordinarily beautiful.  Most have been turned into B & B’s, hotels or restaurants. 

This is the one recommended in Lonely Planet (Scandinavia): Villa Maija, built in 1888.

We loved this maypole with yachts on the top, and it’s on the beach too. 

Walked up a hill to the Water Tower which we could see sailing in yesterday.  It’s 48 m tall and sits 65 m above sea level.

It has a lift inside, going up to the 4^th floor.  We talked to some people in the short queue for the lift – a Finnish lady who spoke to her daughter in Swedish, but she answered in English as she went to school in England!  She also told me that many Finns (approx. 300,000) had emigrated between 1880 and 1930 to the US, Canada and Australasia from Hanko.  She showed me the place where they stayed before emigrating, it’s now a hotel – it’s the blue building in the middle of the picture.

This is where we came from yesterday.

And you can almost see our boat in the harbour!  The island harbour you can see in the distance.

 

The water tower has had a varied history.  Originally it was a wooden tower in 1886, then a granite tower in 1910.  But the Soviet Union troops leaving Hanko in 1941 had burst the tank in the water tower.  As water distribution was an essential element for the citizens to move back to Hanko, they quickly built a new one, starting plans the very next year.  It was originally painted grey – you wouldn’t have been able to see it from the sea – so it was repainted in a reddish colour. 

You can also see the church from far out to sea.  The church is next to the water tower so we had to go inside – we do love churches!  This has a balcony like St. Mary’s in Whitby.

After that we walked to the supermarket and stocked up – they even had Knorr stock cubes!  I saw this doormat and cushion on the way back – love the thought!

There was market on the quayside so I bought vegetables there, and Finnish raspberries!

We went to look at restaurants on the quayside but they are so expensive, even the pizza restaurants.  The euro is only slightly less than a pound now.  So we went for showers and got a Thai takeaway from a van on the quay and ate it in our cockpit on the table.  Played Elton John until the live music performed on the quayside started .  After that we watched two episodes of Mad Men – last episode of Series 4 tomorrow!

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. 

 

 

 

HELSINKI TO BAROSUND (41 miles)

Day 59  Monday, 29^th July 2019

I didn’t put a Blog in for Sunday as I was typing up our St. Petersburg experiences!  We arrived back at the boat on Sunday morning, after a circuitous route by the taxi driver who couldn’t find our landing stage for the ferry.  Anyway, he charged us the same price (16 euros), at Malcolm’s insistence, as the one who’d taken us to ‘Princess Anastasia’ on Wednesday!

Another ferry ride to the shop: this is the ferry – our only link with the mainland.

We stocked up at the nearest shop in the morning, quite a long walk, and had a sleep in the afternoon.  And that was our day. Back to ‘Mad Men’ in the evening…..

Today we are leaving Helsinki and heading West for the first time since Fehmarn.  We’re leaving behind the cities and following the northern Green Route through the archipelago of islands, islets and rocks.  Up-to-date , large-scale Finnish charts are a necessity when cruising this area.  The skipper reminds me to put a sticky arrow on the chart – this serves as a reminder of where we actually are.  We’ve also got the chart-plotter on the computer down below and the waypoints on the GPS in the cockpit.  I don’t think we’ll get lost with all this information!

First we have to cross the shipping lanes to the cruise ship and ferry terminals. 

Goodbye Helsinki!

Then we’re suddenly on the Green Route, steering the route marked by green buoys, leave them to the left (port) and the red buoys, leave them to the right (starboard).

 The wind was fluky but gusting over 20 knots – pleased we were in sheltered waters!  We tried the genoa several times but we were on a tortuous route,  so with the fluky wind and the route deviations we motored all the time.   If you don’t stick to the channel you might end up on a rock, like this one!

There are many yachts and motor boats, which leave you rocking and rolling from their wake, and lovely holiday homes like this one.

We eventually arrive at Barosund.  The Finns are justly proud of Barosund, with its narrow and high rocky sides.  It boasts a small shop, one of the few between Helsinki and Hanko (our next destination) not to involve a considerable detour.  There is a good strong jetty to tie up to – with stern buoy moorings.  We just squeeze in between two other boats – and then later in the evening another yacht squeezes in between our boat and the next-door yacht!

 This is the view from our boat of the gorge ahead of us!

ST PETERSBURG

Day 58  Saturday, 27^th July 2019

We paid for tickets on a River Trip just outside the Hotel Asteria but it didn’t start until 1 pm so we did the stations on the metro, the Red Line.  As we were walking to the station I took this photo of a church. 

We bought tickets for the metro, 50 roubles – about 57p – and this must the longest escalator in the world. 

The most iconic stations must be on the Red Line!  We went as far as Avento from Pushkinova, the nearest station to our hotel.  These photos tell it all – such grandeur with chandeliers, and sculptures at different stations. 

After that we did a River Trip – it was all in Russian – but that didn’t matter as we had a cooling breeze going along the canals.  (It was very, very hot today.)  So many splendid buildings everywhere – palaces, department stores, the Hermitage, the back of the General Staff building, Peter and Paul Fortress, the Summer Palace…. the list goes on and on.

 

And I had to buy Russian dolls in St. Petersburg so after the river trip we went to the Gostiny Dvor shopping centre, by the Nevsky Prospect.  We’ve been there before because I forgot my cable for charging the phone and found one in the shopping centre.  I’d noticed the Russian Doll store and was determined to go back there!

Walked back to the Hotel and took a taxi to the port.  Managed to take the photo out of the taxi window of Peter the Great’s statue which Catherine the Great had proposed and then made. 

We found the ‘Princess Anastasia’ – not such big queues this time! 

So all is well – back to Helsinki.  The Naval Display is tomorrow (Sunday) and Putin is attending.  He comes from St. Petersburg.  There’s a huge procession of all the best of the Russian Navy’s ships – we’ve seen them bearing code flags on the river, submarines and an aerial display.  Fireworks in the evening too.  Glad we’re not here for that – probably very crowded along the Neva River embankment!

 

 

ST PETERSBURG

Day 57  Friday, 26^th July 2019

This morning we went to see the Impressionists in the General Staff Building – part of the Hermitage Museum.  The Hermitage Museum was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and now contains over 3 million items.  Apparently it takes 8 years to see everything!  Anyway, onwards and upwards … to the Sergey Shchukin and Morozov Brothers Memorial Gallery.  There are more paintings by Monet, Signac, Pissarro, Sisley, Renoir, Degas, Manet, Signac, Toulouse-Lautrec, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Rousseau, Vlaminck, Kandinsky than we’ve ever seen!  Fiona, who went to St. Petersburg after we’d met up in Tallinn, said that there must be more than in Paris itself!

I focused on yachtie paintings for my loyal Whitby Yacht Club readers – but we were totally overwhelmed by the amount of impressionist art. 

Apparently this is featured in the museum booklet, ‘The Lady in a Black Hat’ by Kees van Dongen, painted in 1908.  And this is a huge Matisse and an early painting by Kandinsky.

 

After this we went to the Carl Faberge memorial rooms to see the only egg and the imperial coronation jewels – very tiny but immaculately portrayed.

I loved these portraits of Napoleon and Josephine,

 

And this is Nicholas 11, the last Tsar, in the Russian Guards uniform.

And this is Cromwell looking at Charles 1, after he was executed of course!  (I watched a programme about Charles 1 when we had a week at home.)

After this we had a sandwich in the Hermitage Café and then proceeded to Peter the Great’s Winter Palace.  We couldn’t find the entrance – the whole Hermitage  is not very well signed – but took a small door on the Palace Embankment and it was right.  Unfortunately we think that they knocked it down to build the Hermitage Theatre,  but we managed to see Peter the Great in a wig made from his own hair!

Next we went to the Church of the Saviour of Spilled Blood with amazing mosaics inside.  It’s a very popular spot with many tourists, but I managed to get my photo taken outside. 

 

We tried to go the Russian Ethnographic Museum, recommended by my sister, but the galleries were closed.  Walked back to the hotel and had a jacuzzi bath – it was in our bathroom!  And then took a taxi  (taxis are cheap in St. Petersburg) to the restaurant found by Malcolm near the Mikhailovsky Theatre where the ballet was being performed. 

We saw the last performance of ‘Swan Lake’ – the closing of the 186^th season.  The performance started at 8 pm and finished at 11pm, with two intervals.  The theatre is quite small – not as big as the Mariinsky Theatre – but the ballet was absolutely enthralling and wonderfully staged, with a full orchestra. 

These are the principal dancers – Anastasia Soboleva and Victor Lebedev – taking their curtain call at the end of enchanting evening.  They’re flanked by the Evil Genius and the conductor, Pavel Sharshakov.

What a night to remember!

ST PETERSBURG

We left Helsinki on the ‘Princess Anastasia’, Moby – St Peter’s Line ferry,  on Wednesday 24^th July. This is a 3 Day visa-free trip, two nights on board the ferry and two nights in a hotel, returning overnight from St. Petersburg to Helsinki on Sunday 28^th July.

Unfortunately we had to queue for ages at the Helsinki end, for boarding tickets, meal vouchers, departure and arrival tickets, and again at the St Petersburg end, initially to get off the ship, for passport control, and for buses to St Isaac’s cathedral.  Unfortunately the bridges were up for a naval parade so we had to go the long way round over this bridge.  St Isaac’s Cathedral below.

Eventually we arrived at the Hotel Asteria, after walking with our luggage for half an hour, about 2 pm.  But we had 2-day tickets for the Hermitage and had to get there today! 

We did the State rooms – arriving about 3pm (you do a lot of walking in St Petersburg!) – and the tour groups were everywhere. 

I took this for my brother – he catches lobsters in Robin Hood’s Bay! 

We also went into the New Hermitage, which has an exhibition about the Russian Guards.  This is me in front of three  horses.

Walked back to the hotel, past the Au Pont Rouge department store, which is at the end of Nevsky Prospect, a popular boulevard with many shops, restaurants and cafes.  Our hotel is on the Fontanka River, one of the many waterways in St Petersburg which has the nickname of ‘Little Venice’.

We ate at Pane e Vino – not the chain! – but a nearby restaurant to the hotel.  I had salmon lasagne.  A very tasty lasagne which I might try at home.  Next instalment tomorrow. 

HELSINKI

Day 55 Tuesday, 23^rd July 2019

This morning, after the short ferry ride to mainland, we took a tram to the central Train Station.  We purchased a day ticket yesterday at the ferry terminal.  Apparently if you take trams 2 and 3, in  a circle of the city, you can do a much cheaper version of the Hop 0n – Hop Off bus!  

The Central Station is a truly splendid building – we think it has a look of Russia about it. 

First we went to the Ateneum, almost opposite the station. 

The top floor of Finland’s premier art gallery is an ideal crash course in the nation’s art.  But first there’s an exhibition, ‘Silent Beauty’, to celebrate the 100 years of diplomatic relations between Finland, Sweden and Japan.  You can read about all about it here!

And here’s a picture from the ‘Silent Beauty’ exhibition.

There’s also a small but interesting collection of 19^th and early 20^th century foreign art.  We found a Van Gogh, a Le Corbusier and a Paul Gauguin.  Can you tell which is which?

There are Finnish paintings from the late 19^th century – much influenced by the Impressionists – through to the 1950’s and later, including Symbolism.

We both admired the large painting of a boat, for its exquisite light.  Can you see the child’s coffin on board?  A very sad funeral procession.

And we both chose this ‘Wounded Angel’. 

This was in the Red Room.

Hope we don’t hit a rock as big as this one when we’re going through the Aland Archipelago!

I liked most of the paintings but these caught my fancy.

Next stop, after a coffee and a doughnut in Ateneum Café, the Kamppi Chapel. 

The Kamppi Chapel is intended for personal peace and quiet but you can talk to Social Services and Health Care employees in the lobby if you have any problems.  All conversations are anonymous.

The chapel was designed by 3 architects belonging to the Helisinki based practice, K2S Architects.  The chapel is 11.5 metres tall and is made of three different types of wood.  The external wall are made of spruce, the internal walls are made of alder and the fittings and internal door are made of ash.  The ceiling of the chapel contains plasterboard, which has a sound proofing effect.  It was certainly a calm and silent place!

Next back to the no. 3 tram.  Helsinki isn’t as old as Riga or Tallinn but it melds flawlessly into the Baltic.  Half the city seems to be on the water, a complex coastline which includes any number of bays, inlets and islands.  We get off no. 3 and get onto no.2 tram, back to the station.  We’re disappointed by what we’ve seen so far but I don’t think we’ve been into the old part near where we caught the ferry yesterday.  Had lunch – quiche and salad – back at the Ateneum Café and I pass through the shop while Malcolm reads the Financial Times (free to read in the café). 

Then we took the no.7 tram out to the cruise terminal/docks to see where the big ferry to St. Petersburg, Princess Anastasia, is going to dock.  Took the same tram back to the station and got the no. 3 tram again – we’re all trammed up now!!

Found this art-nouveau house on the way back to the boat – with my name on it!

I won’t be writing the Blog for the next few days as we’re going to St. Petersburg on the visa-free ferry.  We have an overnight trip tomorrow night (Wednesday), stay in a hotel for two nights and come back on Saturday night.  I’ll tell you all about our Russian visit – going to the Hermitage and the ballet (I’m so excited!) –  on Sunday when we get back to the boat!

 

HELSINKI

Day 54 Monday, 22^nd July 2019

We took the ferry to the mainland this morning and walked a long way to the ferry for Suomenlinna, the island which was a sea fortress.  The fortress is one of the most popular visitor attractions in Finland with about one million visitors every year. 

These are the views from the ferry.  The Uspenski Cathedral – one of the largest Orthodox churches in Western Europe – and the Finnair Sky Wheel.  The ferry took about 15 minutes.

Finland is part of the kingdom of Sweden in 1748 and that’s when the sea fortress begins – it’s named Sveaborg in Swedish.  In 1808 the fortress is surrendered to the Russian Army and remains a Russian naval base for the next 110 years.  In 1918 the fortress is annexed by Finland and named Suomenlinna.  In 1939 WW11 begins and the fortress serves as a coastal artillery, anti-aircraft and submarine base.  In 1973 The Finnish garrison leaves the island and Suomenlinna is added in 1991 to UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites as an outstanding monument to military architecture. 

We follow the Blue Route through the two islands where the key sights are situated.   This is me in front of the Russian traders houses.  They imported everything – including food to feed the garrison.

 The Suomenlinna Church was built as a Russian orthodox garrison church in 1854, but was changed to a Lutheran place of worship when Finland gained control.  The tower works as a lighthouse serving both air and sea traffic!  Malcolm steered towards the ‘lighthouse’ when we sailed to Helsinki yesterday.  This is Malcolm outside the church with a cannon and chain fence.

Kustaanmiekka is home to Suemenlinna’s original bastion and a late-19^th-century Russian defence line, complete with sand embankments and artillery points.  This is one of the huge cannons.

And this is the King’s Gate, built between 1753 – 1754 as a ceremonial gateway to the fortress.  The gate was built on the site where a ship carrying the fortress’ founder, King Adolf Frederick of Sweden, was anchored while he inspected the construction of the fortress.

We walked round Kustaanmiekka to orientate ourselves where we sailed yesterday.  So many rocky islets!  Thank Heavens the skipper put so many waypoints in!

The dry dock is one of Europe’s oldest operational dry docks.  In the 1760’s ships for the Swedish naval fleet were built here, but nowadays the dry dock is used for renovating old sailing boats.  There’s a marina here – can you see it in the distance?

We had a late lunch at the Café Piper but it started to rain so we had to eat our sandwiches under cover on the balcony.  We queued up to take the ferry home as the showers were present all afternoon and we hadn’t brought our kagouls/umbrella with us!  It wasn’t raining in the forecast.  Walked back – a long way – to take the next ferry to our island retreat.  We haven’t got any neighbours at all – Billy No-mates on the guest side of the pontoon!