21 - 25 June: Kuressaare, Estonia, and the Cruising Association Rally

We had a much nicer trip to Estonia than our lumpy voyage from Gotland to Latvia.  It was a bit of a grey day, but we were able to sail or motor-sail most of the way.  There was some interesting navigation for Charles to get his teeth into, and a few very strong gusts to keep Alexander busy on the helm. Here are the men at work …!

This is the narrow, dredged channel into Kuressaare Marina on the island of Saaremaa …

The banks either side are a breeding ground for thousands of birds – gulls, terns, geese, swans – and they made an incredible cacophony of squawking as we passed and got our first glimpse of the castle …

We eventually managed to tie up safely in Kuressaare marina in a gusty wind after a bit of a palaver with the stern buoys and some assistance from the Cruising Association members who had arrived early for the rally.  Later we were invited for dinner on board Anders’s boat – and a very delicious spread he produced for 9 people …

The next day we walked into the attractive little town of Kuressaare and enjoyed some well-earned refreshment and a lovely lunch with Alexander before he left the boat and set off for Tallinn …

Many of the houses here have a definite Scandinavian feel, but are smaller and a bit less smart …

However, there is quite a contrast, with lots of new building and renovation work going on.  Here is a rather more grand, traditional-style house …

… and an example of new, very modern architecture – all within a stone’s-throw of each other …

It was mid-summer’s eve while we were there, so we enjoyed joining in with the celebrations.  Everyone seemed to be out to watch traditional Estonian dancing …

… and the ceremonial lighting of the massive mid-summer bonfire …

These children were beautifully dressed in national costume …

The following day the Cruising Association Rally, ably organised by Nicholas, got under way. We were warmly welcomed by Oskar, the harbourmaster, who is also the CA’s local representative.  The Rally started with a tour round the island.

We saw some interesting medieval churches – this is Valjala, the oldest church on Saaremaa island – an interesting feature is that the tower is located to one side near the altar, and the façade has a number of differing styles incorporated in it, including Romanesque and Gothic …

We then visited the fascinating meteor crater at Kaali, where you can clearly see the perfectly round shape of the small lake and shards of dolomite which were thrown up by the impact …

This was followed by a delicious lunch of smoked fish and ‘farm beer’ in a traditional hostelry…

… and a visit to a former Soviet cold-war missile site, which is now a nature reserve, but still has quite a sinister atmosphere.  It is the site from which Gary Powers’s U2 reconnaissance aircraft was shot down in 1960.  This is one of the tunnels through which the missiles were moved to the firing site …

Back at the marina, one striking sight is this huge sculpture, which looks like some sort of celebration of fishing …

… and hidden away under the eaves of the marina building, a nestful of baby swallows waiting for their dinner!

We had a tasty meal at a local restaurant – once we had found our way in! For some reason, there are quite a lot of doors at first storey level in Estonia, but I was unable to find out why!

I wasn’t quite brave enough to try the garfish, a sort of eel-like fish, on this occasion …

… but the following day enjoyed a meal of smoked fish in a local country restaurant which felt like we were being invited into the lady’s own home …

The food was delicious …

… and in the back garden we could see how the smoking was done …

We had two very interesting tours of boat-building companies. We were surprised and impressed at how much of the process is still done by hand – perhaps it helps to explain why boats are so expensive!!

This is the underside of the deck moulding having layers of fibreglass matting applied with some sort of resin at the Saare Paat works, a high-class Estonian boat brand – the pungent smell would have been a glue sniffer’s paradise!

Here is the teak deck being laid out within a very accurate template – it will be glued and fitted together with caulking and expoxied to the upper side of the deck in one piece …

We also visited the factory where the Swedish brand, Arcona, builds its yachts before motoring them across the Baltic Sea mast-less to Stockholm where they are equipped and finished off to owners’ requirements.  This is the inside of an Arcona 410 having the bulkheads and furniture installed.

The ‘pièce de resistance’ of Kuressaare is really the beautiful moated Bishop’s Castle which dates back to the 14^th century …

It is one of the best-preserved medieval castles in the Baltic states and is built with local dolomite.  It contains an interesting museum which explains the island of Saaremaa’s history – mostly being invaded by Russia or Germany, and sometimes by Sweden and Denmark in between!  Visiting such a modern European country as Estonia is now, it’s hard to remember that for more than half my lifetime it was behind the ‘iron curtain’ and not able to be visited freely at all.  There are some harrowing tales of the hardships endured by the Estonian people over the centuries.

Here’s a rare photo of me (I'm usually taking them!) on the battlements with a view of the marina and coastline in the background …

This is one of the beautifully preserved corridors inside the castle …

Later that evening we had a medieval banquet in one of the castle rooms – the Bishop’s Dinner.  This is the master of ceremonies welcoming us – the lady beside him is our translator.  We had music played on medieval instruments and a display of dancing, which we were later encouraged to take part in.

The food was delicious – soup, cold meats and cheese, roasted wild boar, honey cake and berries – all washed down with red wine …

The feast was served in earthenware crockery, with a wooden spoon and single knife as our only utensils. There were no such things as napkins or serviettes in those days, so we were invited to wipe our hands on the edge of the tablecloth …

This was the final day of the Cruising Association Rally, so Nicholas made a presentation to Oskar to thank him for all his help and advice …

Here’s a last glimpse of the beautiful and atmospheric castle at dusk …

Off tomorrow towards Tallinn, Estonia’s capital, with a couple of stops on the way.

18 - 20 June: New crew arrive - and we're off to Latvia

Our friend, Alexander, has joined the crew and we set off about lunchtime for a calm trip north along the coast of Gotland – warm, sunny, but with almost no wind, so motoring most of the way. Here we are leaving Visby …

… and arriving at Fårösund Marina, which was a seaplane base in the Second World War – the marina building is in the old hangar …

Alexander treated us to a delicious meal in a local restaurant, and we had a lovely peaceful evening at Fårösund …

… and watched a spectacular, fiery sunset …

Before we left the following day, Charles went up the mast to attempt a repair on the steaming light.  For those of you who have never done this, it involves Charles sitting in a canvas seat – the ‘bosun’s chair’ – and being hoisted up the mast by me, using one of the sail halyards.  Luckily on this boat we have got an electric winch to do the hoisting!  The bosun’s chair has pockets to stow the tools and spares you need to do the repair.

He looks quite a long way up, but it’s actually only about half way – about 10 metres from the deck …

We then set off on the longish sail across the eastern Baltic to Latvia.  It started off grey, but quite pleasant with a favourable moderate wind, so we could get the sails up and enjoy the peace and quiet without the engine running …

However, the wind continued to increase in strength, we had to reef the sails, and the sea began to have a lumpy and quite unpleasant motion – it was like the English Channel can be with wind against tide, except there’s virtually no tide in the Baltic. This picture doesn’t convey at all how big the waves became or how rough it was – by that time, I’d stopped taking pictures!!

We arrived at Ventspils in Latvia in the middle of the night, about 12.30am, managed to pick up the stern buoy with some difficulty (it was very low down and hard to reach), then I prepared to throw the bow ropes.  As I moved across the wet deck to throw the second rope, I slipped over, but got up again thinking I would just have a bit of a bruise, and we tied up safely.  However, later I realised I actually had quite a deep cut on the back of my leg, which the ship’s doctor (Charles) patched up for the night.

However, I spent the next morning in ‘Traumpunkts’ (A & E) at the local hospital in Ventspils, which was a convenient ten-minute walk away! I was lucky to find another patient who could speak some English as no-one at the hospital did and my Latvian was sadly lacking!  The doctor was perplexed at what could have caused such a deep hole in my leg – apparently about half a cubic inch of flesh was missing! Charles said it looked like a bullet hole! The doctor cleaned it out and put in two stitches and it is now healing nicely.  Back at the boat, I identified the probable culprit – the pin which holds the anchor in place at sea.  The strange thing is that there’s no hole in my jeans!

Anyway, it didn’t stop me spending the rest of the day with Alexander getting a brief taste of Latvia and the capital, Riga. Unfortunately, Charles had work to do so didn’t join us. Alexander hired a car and we drove past miles and miles of trees and a few farms.  Latvia seems very sparsely populated apart from the few main towns.  The country is still emerging from the Soviet era, but renovation is going on everywhere, so you can see quite dilapidated houses next to smart, modern ones with tidy gardens.  Generally there seems to be quite a positive feeling in the country, but there is still a way to go to modernise.

Riga has also developed greatly and renovated many of its buildings, but there are still grotty bits in between.  However, again there is loads of improvement work going on.

We were in Riga on the official Midsummer’s Day – the Friday before the actual date – so although the weather was not very summery there was a market in the Dome Square and a temporary stage with performances of traditional Latvian dancing and music …

Here is Alexander negotiating the purchase of some traditional ‘black bread’, baked in huge round shapes, but sold in chunks by weight ..

I bought a lucky Midsummer decorated ginger cookie …

Here is the House of Blackheads, a 14^th century Guild of Unmarried Merchants, which was damaged and pillaged during World War II but has been rebuilt as an exact copy of the original building …

This shows the contrast between the Soviet architecture in front – now a museum – blocking the view of the older buildings beyond.  The banner ‘Ligo’ means Happy Midsummer or something like that!

Here’s a novel way to get around – the ‘partybike’ – with everybody pedalling at the same time …

This is the headquarters of the Small Guild, which promoted the interests of Riga’s German artisans …

The yellow Art Nouveau Cat’s House was built opposite the Great Guild headquarters by a Latvian merchant who was not allowed to join the German-dominated Guilds …

He put two statues of black cats (with arched backs and tails up) onto the turrets of his building with their backsides facing the Guildhall. Later he won the right to enter the Guild, so turned the cats around to face the building …

The pavement cafés could be anywhere in Europe …

Three Brothers – this is a group of residential houses of three distinct architectural styles, each from a different century. The oldest, dating back to the 15^th century, is the white building with a stepped gable and gothic niches. The yellow house in the centre is from the 17^th century and the green building on the left was built in the 18^th century …

One third of Riga’s city centre is built in the Art Nouveau style – again we were a little disappointed that some of the buildings looked a bit dilapidated, but many of them had renovation work in progress.  There were certainly some very beautiful examples of various Art Nouveau styles …

Back at Ventspils, the next day the sun came out and the rather ‘Soviet era’ architecture of Ventspils Harbour actually looked OK in the sunshine …

We had a quick look at some of the sights of Ventspils such as this floral cow!

… then got ready to sail on the next leg of our voyage towards Estonia.