Baltic Adventure Part 10 - Back to Tallinn

One more item from Suomenlinna - great big ship goes through a little tiny slot. I had just passed the King's Quay when I saw the cruise ship. I never would've thought a vessel that size would be able to go through the narrow pass between the islands, but this one came steaming that way perfectly confidently! And now, back to Tallinn - Journal entry, 6/21/2012 (as written - not much to elaborate on this one!)

Last day of sailing, we are headed back from Suomanlinna to Tallinn. We set sail at 6 am, sailed until around 8, then the wind died about 5 miles north about 5 miles north of the Helsinki light, so we are now motoring across the Gulf of Finland, leaving a trail of pistachio shells and Pringles crumbs behind us.

We've optimistically left up the main, the wind is supposed to come up again in the afternoon, so we hope to get a little more sailing in before we dock. On the plus side, it's a beautiful day and the Gulf is totally flat - with the winds we had over the week the Gulf was pretty wavy and we were afraid we'd be motoring in that and I'm the only one who hasn't gotten seasick yet, so wallowing across the waves wouldn't have been fu. However, it's nice and smooth and sunny, so we're OK.

A few pix from the sail back

Containership in the Gulf

Tallinn 1 - first of 3 clear-water marks leading us back into Tallinn Harbor

The Lulu, another member Sailing.ee's fleet, heading out for an evening

The spires of Tallinn

Isolda II

Isolda II & Keila

8:05 pm - We made it back OK, the wind even picked up enough to give us some good sailing for the last 15 miles or so. That same wind was blowing us onto our dock, making for a bit of a rough docking, but we lived to tell the tale. Now, dinner, shopping, clean hot showers in the Old City Marina office (yay!), and our last night of sleeping on the boat. Hope my postcards make it to their destinations, I mailed them but forgot to write "USA" on them. Great trip, wish we could stay for another week!

Final notes:
Boat - the Wesilind, Elan 344 Impression, home port Orjako, Estonia. 10.46 meters long, 3.49 wide
Charter company: Sailing.ee (on the web at  http://www.sailing.ee )
Itinerary:
Day 1 - Tallinn to Naisaar then back due to forecast. 20 miles of sailing (10 out, 10 back)
Day 2 - Stayed in port in the rain.
Day 3 - Tallinn to Lähteelä - charted distance 36 miles, more like 50 because we overshot a turn!
Day 4 - Lähteelä to Elisaari - 20 miles.
Day 5 - Elisaari to Pihlajassari - 41.7 miles
Day 6 - Pihlajassari to Suomenlinna - short hop, half an hour's sail
Day 7 - Suomenlinna to Tallinn - 55 miles