Kiel Canal

Johanna

N 53° 52.456', E 8° 42.350'

We didn't want to sail around Denmark, so we took a shortcut through Germany. 

When approaching Kiel there were almost too many marinas to choose from. We chose the marina in Holtenau right next to the locks that separate Kiel Canal from the Baltic sea. We were hoping to see the action in the locks, but it wasn't possible. But we did see a lot of ships passing and boats circling in the waiting area. 

There are four locks, two old ones and two new ones. Yacht usually use the old locks with smaller ships. We had been listening to VHF and watching the yachts for one and half days. There didn't seem to be any order for the boats. When it was ok to enter the lock boats just sped up and tried to fit in the lock. On Sunday it was more crowded and the slower more careful yacht didn't make it. Even though they had been in the waiting area for the longest time.

So, on Tuesday morning we were ready to go. Timo had his quick morning coffee and I had a banana. Then we joined the other yachts in the waiting area. A ship came out. A ship went in. There were two German boats that looked like they knew the drill. so we followed them. This time there was plenty of room so every one fit in fine.

I was kind of looking forward to see the scenery on the way. Well, there were almost none. We saw some nice houses, bridged and ferries, but mostly it was just trees after trees.

As I'm very keen on ships, we luckily saw many ships passing by.

We were not in a hurry, so we spend a night in Rendsburg. What a lovely little town. And I think they are quite good ship builders there since we saw some mega yacht that were just half way done. I think the millionaires who order them want the best quality.

Even though we have been sailing in the tidal areas before, we are quite newbies to it. We decided to spend an other night in the Canal in Brunsbüttel and study the tide tables and currents.

In Brunsbütttel the marina is really near the newer and bigger locks.

We had a time in our minds that'd be the best to enter the Elbe river and head for Cuxhaven. I called the lock on VHF if they had any estimate when we could enter the lock and they said NOW. This was maybe so far the fastest start up for the engine and the crew. Everything was not maybe ready for the open sea, but we cleared the tables and staff in the lock.

Our first calculations for tides and currents were really a success. The best current we had was almost 4 knots so we made our way quite fast to Cuxhaven. Entering the harbor in a 3 knot current was quite interesting, but there were no problems.

At the moment the wind is howling, but when the weather gets better I think we are ready for North Sea.

One tack in 3 days

Johanna

N 55° 8.180', E 15° 8.671'

We barely made it out of Gulf of Riga without tacking.

For one day we sailed south really close to Latvian coast. Then the wind changed and we tacked heading southwest. 

We sailed close hauled for almost three days and made it to Bornholm. At some moments the sea was quite rough and life on board was a bit difficult. Not too much, but not the best time to make gourmet dinners. We really hope there's gonna be a time when the wind is not against us.

Svaneke harbour

We've been slowly moving south

Johanna

N 58° 14.681', E 22° 28.295'

While we were preparing our boat in Helsinki it was blowing from north to east for maybe a month. By then we already knew that when we leave it's going to change. 

Now we have been on the way for 10 days and the wind has been from south to west. Btw, we are trying to get to Kiel  which is southwest.

Tomorrow our luck might change. We are now in Kuressaare, Saaremaa, Estonia. If the grib files are right we could actually make some progress for the next couple of days. Hopefully as far as Bornholm, but we'll see...

The season in the Baltic Sea seams to be already over. Kuressaare is the only real town and marina in Saaremaa. Here we are just Iiris and one other visiting yacht (German).

Finally we left Helsinki

Johanna

N 60° 9.253', E 24° 53.464'

What a joy it was finally to sail today. We have already lived on board for more than two months, but we have just been working on the boat. Now we got to do what we love.

Our new life begins. Photo: Minna Pellikka

When are we leaving?

Johanna

N 60° 9.253', E 24° 53.464'

This is the question we here every day. The answer is the same every time. We leave when we are ready. Then the bigger question is, when will we be ready to leave? Hopefully next week. In May we thought we'd already be gone by now, but since then we have had a quite a lot of stuff to do. We cleared our apartment and moved on board while doing antifouling on the hard (don't really recommend doing those things simultaneously). Then we started to order stuff and install them. And when there are two perfectionists doing things you can imagine it takes time. Well, when it's about electricity and other cables, it's also about our safety, so we really want to have things working for a long time.

We have already installed a new windlass and a wind generator. We've also made quite many changes to our electrical systems. We've installed a new starter battery (in addition to our previous capacity), some CTEK devices (DC/DC charger and smartpass) and about 100 meters of wire (now I might be exaggerating a little bit, but not much).

Timo installing our new AirBreeze

We are hoping to get our new solar panels installed tomorrow. Then we still have left to install an AIS transceiver, SSB radio, and maybe another 100 meters more wire :)

Oh, and I forgot all about our mast. It was also down for a couple of weeks and we did some maintenance on that too, and also renewed all the wires and lights.

After all this we just have to find a place on board for about a ton of our stuff that is now in a temporary storage and then we are off.

We have now worked about 8-10 hours a day for the last two months so we are really looking forward for the time when we can just sit back and relax....  and to go sailing...

This might not be the roomiest place I have worked in...

Our dream is coming true

Johanna
N 60° 9.253', E 24° 53.464'

While we have been trying to sell our boat all the sailing friends have been asking the same questions. What next? A new racer or what? We have been kind of mysterious and mumbled something about a bit bigger cruiser and about the need to sail further than the Baltic sea.

Now it's about the time to come clean and tell everyone what our plan has been all along. To buy my parent?s boat.

Last month on my birthday's eve my dad called us and made a dream come true offer. If we have not sold our boat when the sailing season starts, he'll take it in exchange and continue to sell it.

Our new boat to be is nothing new and fancy, but good and well tested. My parents have already circumnavigated her twice. So here comes the next generation on board "S/Y Iiris".

We are still doing our best to sell our current boat "Valpuri", but now we can actually start making plans and prepare us for our new life.

Once more, we survived

Johanna

N 60° 9.253', E 24° 53.464'

I'm not talking about the apocalypse. I'm talking about the darkness. Yesterday was the shortest day of the year. In Helsinki time between sunrise and sunset was a total of 5 hours and 49 minutes.

Today I actually saw the sun for the first time in a couple of weeks, there really was a large patch of blue sky visible. That was something after all that snowing.

But I don't feel like winner yet. There's still a long and cold winter ahead of us. Sure there's going to be more light, but according to the statistics January and February are the coldest months...

Finnish winter before the sea is covered by ice.