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Jennie B - ARC Baltic - St Petersburg to Helsinki



We changed crew in St Petersburg and waved goodbye to Gesine and said hello to Mick and Gill who are with us for the leg to Helsinki. We had a relatively late start of 1000 from on Sunday St Petersburg as we were planning to sail the 100 nm overnight to reach the Finnish passport control point on the island of Haapasaari. We timed our arrival for Kronstadt badly as the Russian customs person had just gone to lunch when we arrived but by 1600 we were again on our way to Finland. After motor sailing west for a few hours we got enough wind at 2100 to have a lovely sail the rest of the way to Haapasaari. 

We arrived at 0700 and anchored while we waited for the customs post to open. Clearing in to Finland was very easy but I was surprised to be breathalysed at 1030! Quite a few other skippers were checked too but all were OK. We then explored Haapasaari island and relaxed for the day. After a night at anchor the next morning we headed for a nature harbour called Bockhamn to break our trip to Helsinki and give us more time in the beautiful islands of the Finnish Archipelago. Bockhamn was described in a free electronic book we found called 105 Rocks by Martin Edge which is well worth a read. After coming through a narrow entrance we got in to a lovely sheltered pool where we picked up a buoy and had a very restful night. As far as we can tell nature harbours are free but equipped with buoys and small quays and BBQ areas as well as composting toilets, all very civilised! We are now on our way to the NJK yacht club in Helsinki threading our way down the well marked channels to avoid the hundreds of islands and thousands of rocks. We hope to arrive in plenty of time to get us and the boat cleaned up in time for the crew dinner at the historic NJK clubhouse this evening.


Paul & Elaine


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