Estonia

This story began weeks ago in Sweden, but it's time to go public. We were in Ystad harbour one morning, when a yacht flying the 'red duster' standard UK red ensign was leaving port. 'Ahoy!' he cried sociably, 'What's your yacht club?' 'Fahan, Donegal in Ireland' we replied, sociably. 'Well' he said, not so sociably, 'you shouldn't be flying that ...

So it was, with trepidation, that we made our way into Estonian waters, expecting at any moment to be boarded by officialdom, and marched off to the county court to pay our Ensign fine. The contrast could not be more extreme. Our first call was Kuressaare, where the harbour master had hoisted a huge Irish flag on his flagpoles to ...

There is a local history museum in Kuressaare Castle, which shows the islands of Estonia emerging from the sea over only the last 10,000 years or so at the end of the ice age. A mere instant in geological time! The new land is therefore low-lying and very flat - great for cycling! But the sea is also very shallow, ...

Three days in Kardla, with a strong easterly gale, dramatic lightning and thunder, and torrential rain - what's not to like! The young harbour master and his staff were very disappointed that they had no Irish flag for our visit, and insisted that we must come back on our way home, and they would definitely have one by then. It ...

So, Melodrama made her way into the Port Ops zone of the capital city of Estonia, Tallinn. It's a beautiful, UNESCO protected medieval city, and one of the big destinations for cruise ships. Combined with the commercial tankers, cargo, and container ships coming and going, it made for very busy waters, closely policed by harbour officials. Within minutes, we were ...

Before arriving in Tallinn, we contacted a young sailmaker, Oleg, who was happy to repair the torn stack pack. It's not that difficult to remove it once the mainsail is well tied up with a pile of sail ties, but the key thing is to hold on tight to the lazy-jack lines that hold it in place and guide the ...