Destination: Saimaa Lake

19/20/21/22/ June

 We spent quite some time in Helsinki getting everything ready for our transit through Russia to the Saimaa Lake. We had to contact the Board of Management of the Saimaa Canal (one week before the intended passage), the fee had to be paid in at a Finnish bank.

Now the dice are thrown and we are on our way.

Several yachts, which we have encountered from the United States, Holland, Germany and even Switzerland who have been cruising here for several seasons told us that the Saimaa Lakes are even more beautiful than the Archipelago Sea. If you had enough time at your disposal you could sail with a fixed mast and a deep draught some 200M through the lakes! All that we will be able to do will be to sail as far as Savonlinna some 86M from Lappeenranta (the entrance from the canal).

We are slightly concerned about the weather. It hasn’t been at all settled in the last few days and we just hope that we are not going to get stuck in the eastern corner of the Gulf of Finland, unable to return in time to collect our friend Beth from Stockholm on the 17^th of July.  Now that we are east of Helsinki, the sea is less sheltered and becomes short and steep with force 6 (gusting 7). Yesterday we tried to go eastward with a NE wind (bad idea…) and quickly gave up and found an alternative harbour.

On the 20^th, the wind, although still strong, was from a favorable south-westerly direction and now we are anchored in a gorgeous group of islands called Sävtäktet (60º 17’N 26º 08’E) some 50M east of Helsinki. I cannot get over the gorgeous light, which you get in the evening until almost midnight. The red in the sky lingers and bathes the trees and the rocks in a warm pink glow. The sun rises just after 03.00 and sets after about 20.00 hours, not to mention the twilight!

The longest day we have spent in a charming little harbour on the island of Kaunissaari (60º 21’ N 26º 47’E). There are very good pontoons, a shop, a fish smokery…and yes I almost forgot: plenty of mosquitoes. The most surprising feature was a small but fascinating museum (an art installation I would call it) of local fishing history interwoven with curios from all over the world. A pity that we could not understand the explanations.