26 July–1 August: Return to Helsinki

We’d had such a fabulous time in St Petersburg that the return journey might seem like a bit of an anticlimax, but actually there is still the amazing Western Finnish archipelago to explore and some more visitors to welcome. There is still an all-night disco going on near Krestovsky marina this morning, so we’re also looking forward to a bit of peace and quiet!

But we still had the opportunity to visit a couple of other small ports in Russia and clear out through the border control at Vyborg instead of via St Petersburg (Kronstadt) again.

We were required to follow designated shipping lanes and take the long way round to reach the small resort of Dubkovaya Bay, as the sea areas in between are forbidden. Our paperwork also had to indicate our precise itinerary and our agent, Vladimir, phoned the border control and the harbourmaster at Dubkovaya to make sure they knew our intended route!  Having done all that, we didn’t come across any patrol boats and our passage to Dubkovaya was uneventful.

Here we are saying goodbye to Vladimir who has been so helpful and welcoming and really helped to make our stay in St Petersburg trouble-free and very enjoyable.

The village of Dubkovaya is half holiday resort and half building site – it will be lovely when it’s finished! Apparently it was formerly a Finnish patrol boat base. The harbourmaster was there to meet us and was very friendly and we enjoyed a meal at the restaurant – all without anyone speaking much English at all. The harbour dues were a quarter of the rate in St Petersburg – about £8 a night. Dubkovaya is a pretty little spot, with extensive beaches where I enjoyed a swim, and it was a beautiful evening with a lovely sunset.

However, there is not a great depth of water in the narrow entrance, seen here about midnight …

… so we were a little alarmed the following morning to find the harbourmaster surveying the entrance with a measuring stick as the water level had dropped overnight and he was worried we wouldn’t get out! However, our visa for Russia ran out the next day, so we really had to leave! At least the harbourmaster’s survey indicated which was the deepest part, so we headed for that – slowly – and managed to scrape through!

Here are our Russian friends from a smaller boat just squeezing through …

They presented us with a gift – a large bottle of квас (Kvass), a fermented drink made from black or rye bread. They said it tasted like coke if served really cold – I’m not sure about that, but I thought it quite refreshing if you could ignore the smell of fermented bread! I won’t mention what Charles said it tasted like!

So we were able to make our way along the coast to Vyborg, which used to be part of Finland until 1944 when it was taken by the Soviet Union during World War II. The Finns all left and Soviet citizens were moved from other parts of the country to re-populate Vyborg. It has an attractive and historic castle and in the late afternoon sunshine the view from the small harbour is very pretty …

But when you look more closely, there are signs of the buildings crumbling and not being well maintained in the past – however, we saw lots of evidence of building work going on so the problem is being tackled …

Here’s something which needs to be tackled – there are some massive potholes in the roads and pavements …

It took us about one and a half hours to clear out of Russia, which is no time at all really – we had expected a far more bureaucratic attitude.  We had a very easy passage back to the border with Finland, but no wind so we had to motor most of the way, passing the industrial port of Vysock …

… and a timber carrying barge …

… as well as wooded islands which look very much like Finland.  Of course, this part of Russia was Finland until just after the second World War!

We cleared back into Europe at the customs post on Santio Island, which is not manned full-time – you have to radio ahead and the customs officers arrive by fast motor boat from the mainland.  Here we’re raising the Finnish flag and the yellow Q flag to indicate that we require customs clearance …

We saw the customs officers dock just ahead of us, and by the time we’d moored and secured our lines they had already caught enough fish for their supper!  After a cursory glance at our passports, they resumed their fishing and we had cleared into the EU and Schengen area in exactly 19 seconds!

From there we returned to Kotka to try and sort out an engine start problem by purchasing a new battery.  We then made our way back through the islands to Helsinki with the wind generally in the wrong direction!  However, some of the passages through the islands are so narrow that being under full sail could be quite foolhardy.  You have to keep your eyes on the charts and navigation buoys and marks constantly.  There are a variety of different navigation aids – buoys, leading lines, large letters on boards ashore which correspond with points on the charts, IALA stick buoys and so on – some quite sizeable and obvious, and some tiny and faded and hard to spot …

We made just one stop on the way back to Helsinki – at Lillfjärden where we anchored off Hästholmen.  The wind became really strong and gusty just after we anchored (force 6), then suddenly dropped and went completely calm before a gentle breeze came in from exactly the opposite direction!  There was a beautiful sunset after the storm – I love those oily patterns on the water …

The next day saw us motor-sailing against the wind (again!) towards Helsinki and, as rapidly as we could, away from some very threatening clouds …

We made for the Helsingfors Segelklubb (HSK – pronounced ‘ho-ess-ko’) Marina this time and took one of the fine line of visitors’ stern buoys …

This little dog, Nelson, fell in as his crew were mooring their boat and had to be fished out with a boat hook through the loop on his lifejacket!!  He soon dried off and seemed none the worse for his experience …

HSK is close to chandlery stores and yacht repair businesses so we could do some boat maintenance as well as exploring a bit more of Helsinki.  I finally got to see the inside of the Church in the Rock – yes, very impressive and unique being literally cut into the rock, but quite busy with busloads of tourists. I managed to get this picture in between bus tours!

We moved back to NJK Marina in the centre of Helsinki harbour and had a delicious wedding anniversary dinner at the Saaristo restaurant on Klippan island next door – we got there by jumping across stepping stones between the two islands!

The following day Caroline joined us and we’re now ready to set off and explore the Western Finnish archipelago …