Driving through northern Estonia, cheking the ports

Using the Estonian Cruising Guide 2007 the Skipper checked several ports to visit in the next summer. Narva and Narva-Joesuu, depth should be OK in both ports but according the Guide "entry is dangerous in very strong N-NW winds".

Vergi is quite popular and highly recommended by the fellow yachtsmen, probably because it seems to be the only well-serviced and safe guest-harbour between Tallinn and Narva... at least according the Cruising Guide.

But while visited Turbuneeme, the village seems to be active. Also in the port there was a new "captains office" probably this port has changed it status from fishing port to guest harbour. Will find out.

What was fairly interesting that the sea was still open in the Estonian coast, even though there has been an extremely cold wether since the beginning of Decemeber.

Happy new year 2010

The Year 2010 has finally begun. Countdown for the new season has started. There will be some major changes in the boat equipment, biggets one is the new mast that arrives on January-February. After long selective work we ended to buy the Seldén mast. The Price-Quality seems to be OK

The plan for the next summer is to explore the northern coast of Estonia and probably to move in Sweden and from there via Åland back to Helsinki. Also there should be a trip to Kotka and Hamina on the eastern Gulf of Finland. Let´s see what happens.

Anyway Somewhere on January-February the Captain will explore again the physical conditions of the northern estonian ports.

Aquiladeux transfer to the winter rest

3rd of October - what a perfect sailing day and weather. The skipper, helmsman Per (photo) and deck-monkey Pasi (photo) started the transfer trip from Helsinki to Loviisa at 9.15. We headed our nose eastwards. The wind blew in the morning from w - sw something like 6 m/s raising up in the afternoon up to 11 m/s. Majorly we had direct backwind.

Loviisa was reached at 17.15. We enjoyed a small dinner at the boat and after that we went to see Loviisa nightlife, which was surprisinhly lively.

When we went back to the boat there was really gale wind (18 m/s) and the it was raining cats and dogs. After quite unrest night we unpacked the boat empty. The boat-rebel Matias came to picked us up around 11.15 with a car.

Happy but tired crew returned Helsinki about 14.00.

The Skipper would like to thank AquilaDeux and all its crew for the fantastic summer experience.

- Petri Matikainen, the Skipper

Helsinki Tallin Race is over

In the picture part of the brave crew, from left to the right: Stidi the strategist, Jaska the steerman and erkki the deck-officer.





The race started at 18.00. We had a quite good start. The weather was perfect. Wind was blowing from E / SE. We reached the highest speed of 9,1 knots and our avearge speed was 6,427 knots. Tallin was reaached in 6 hours 30 minutes and 2 seconds (arriving the finish line 00.30.02). We were the "69ers" being the 69th/194 fastest participants by the average speed. In our own class we reached the 18th place.

On Saturday there was of course the traditional evening party in Pirita harbour.

Sunday the 23rd we took the ropes off at 9.10 and reached the home-port at 16.10Fantastic experience again! Big thanks for the crew for the great time. -Petri

Start at 18.00 to Helsinki-Tallinn race

The start will be in front of Helsinki exactly 18.00 Finnish time.

There will be totally seven members in the crew including the Skipper. Jaakko, Stidi, Erkki, Petri, Ville, Riku and Pekka.

Wind forecast for the start is 6 m/s E. The total mileage of the race is approx 48 nautical miles. The race should be over by the morning and on the saturday evening there will be small party in Tallinn.

Emsalö Runt

Emsalö Runt can be considered as a "recovery test sail after summer" for the crew. The race was sailed in the beautiful day the barometer showed 1010 hPa and the wind was blowing between 6-10 m/s (as forecasted).

Sun was shining. All the crew was well motivated and as always we did some typical mistakes, which we should prevent in the Helsinki-Tallin race that is the climax of the sailing year. For example for the long direct back winds it is better to take Spinnaker than Gennaker but on the other hand... if there is open not direct backwind ...gennaker is more effective, we can not use them both.

Lets see what the forecast will be for the Grande Race and decide in the last minute.

Results? not published yet, but will be in the net latest tomorrow.

Long time silence in this blog is over...

Yesterday, the 11th of August the boat was released from the boatyard. The engine service is finally over...

Because of the overheating in the southern Baltics the malfunction list was massive:

The ventiles are changed, the Pistons and piston rings are changed. The exhaustion fumes pipe is changed (was burned). Water temperature-meter and oil-pressure meter are added.

But basically the Volvo engine must be good, beacause even with these failiures we managed to drive over 18 hours with the engine in our Baltic Tour.

Next Saturday it will be early morning start to go ahead Emsalö, to participate Emsalö-Runt, 100 years jubileum race.

At the moment the weather forecast is promising: NW-wind 7-9 m/s

VIDEO CLIPS BELOW

Another video Clip to see.

Sailing is fun!

Somewhere from the Southern Baltic Sea between Kolobrzeg and Copenhagen. In this leg we experienced a wide spectre of different weather. There was gale wind, no wind, Thinderstorms and heavy rain. We also had the best medium speed in the first 10 hours of this leg (around 8 knots)... but then the wind came down... On this leg we also experienced the engine breakdown... But in the end we are back in Helsinki and the summer continues. Next Summer maybe we experience St. Petersburg and the Northern coast of Estonia. Probably with several boats.

Small obligatory pause because of Services

The biggest service is naturally the engine. Very soon the engine will be bolted out and the service company will check what is the original problem.

The same time some minor things will be corrected. For example the new WC-bowl will be installated. Generally the boat is in excellent condition and is very satisfactory and reliable companion in all conditions.

The story will continue after the small changes are done...

Tomorrow the Engine Service

Tomorrow morning we wash the dirt away from our trip and Bring the boat to the Engine Service. Hopefully we get the engine working before the season ends.

The round Baltic-sea trip 2009 is over with success

We did it!










AquilaDeux has now sailed around the Baltic sea. We visited waters of all countries of the Baltic sea in the following order: Estonia- Latvia- Lithuania - Russia (kaliningrad)- Poland - Germany - Denmark -Sweden!

We visited 7 cities: Ventspils, Gdynia, Kolobrzeg, Copenhagen, Ystad, Kalmar and Oxelösund.

Totally 1422,1 nautic Miles.

Longest leg Oxelösund- Helsinki 343 nautic miles

Shortest leg Copenhagen - Ystad 60 miles

Great job, great crews and good mood during all legs.

We had 4 different crews:

Helsinki - Ventspils - Gdynia:

Petri (Skipper) - Lotta (1st officer) - Ari (bosun)

Gdynia - Kolobrzeg - Copenhagen:

Petri (Skipper) -Lotta (1st officer) - Ari (bosun) - Stanislav (deck monkey) - Kristof (cabin boy)

Copenhagen - Ystad - Kalmar -Oxelösund:

Petri (Skipper) - Annika (his master) - Matias (his rebel)

Oxelösund - Helsinki

Petri (Skipper) - Ari (1st officer) - Ville (deck monkey/cabin boy) - Vessu (deck monkey)

THANKS FOR ALL PARTICIPANTS

The story continues