Baltic in the Baltic

Following two summers of Covid restrictions, at last we have plans to spend the whole season exploring the Baltic Sea again.

Originally, our intention had been to sail North and explore Finland and Estonia and leave Melodrama in Tallinn over the winter. But now, the geo-political situation has changed, and we’ve taken the decision to return once again to Augustenborg for the winter. We were very fortunate that Anders the yacht harbour owner was able to find us a space, even though we’d abandoned him. And our space in lovely Kakumäe in Tallinn has been held for us for another year.

Excited by the prospect of being afloat again, we arrived in Denmark on 1st May, and set off towards Sweden and Stockholm a few days later, planning to arrive before mid June to pick up crew.

But basically, it’s still pretty much winter here. The sea temperature has risen to 10°, but that means that the temperature inside the boat is also 10° – a fibreglass hull doesn’t exactly have thick insulation. So despite having a boat heater, when that’s turned off, it soon gets cold. It’s hard to get up in the morning!

But we have warm clothing, waterproof sailing jackets, trousers and boots, and woolly hats, so the old adage that ‘there is no such thing as poor weather just poor clothing’ has worked in our favour.

The wind has mostly been from great sailing angles, and we’ve had some fantastic days covering 40-50 miles at 7-9 knots; it’s been fab. The sun is shining, and the harbours are always pretty.

So we are already in Sweden, and today are snuggled in the corner of a small harbour, with gale force winds blowing, catching up on washing, cleaning and admin and even finding time to blog and read a book.

Tomorrow we’re staying on an island nature reserve, Tjärö, then on to Karlskrona for a trip to Lidl to stock up the cupboards.