A short word on gadgets: Iphone to the rescue…

During preparations for our cruise, Madeleine bought all the necessary charts and we felt very well equipped, until we entered Russian waters. There was a small note on the Finnish chart that we needed 3 small scale Russian charts to be able to snake our way to the Saimaa canal. It is quite easy to lose the prescribed channel and suddenly to end up in Vyborg without a visa and permission from the authorities – unthinkable!

During our preparations however, I had downloaded all Baltic charts onto my Iphone. This now enabled us to trace our course precisely with information on all the necessary buoyage, which were not indicated on our charts. Since the iphone has an integrated GPS, all was well in the end! Another gadget did not perform as well: our electronic translator. We tried to check a sign at the entrance of a harbour and after input into the small translator it came up with: ‘baked ravioli’…there you go. You get (mostly) what you pay for.
[PS: I have not been paid for this post by Apple or received any other incentives in kind!]