From Riga to Tallin – a new world to us both
Riga Bay is a big one. She is easily underestimated and we did exactly so. But the wind was good and we moved fast for many hours. While getting to know each other and learning from each other's stories. That is one of several hilarious ingredients in the art of inviting "strangers" onto a small sailboat.
"Two men in a boat" by Ernst Hemingway...I tried to impress my new friend with some literature skills, but I learned that the title was actually "Three men in a boat" by Jerome K. Jerome...and the book Hemingway wrote was "The old man and the sea". Touché by my young friend haha. After that,excitement I focused on sharing my sailing skills...
Day 1: Riga-Kinhu
Getting close to the island Kinhu served us some extra excitement. We were trawling for microplastics, the clouds got darker, the thunder started to get aggressive, the rain came dripping and seemingly there were heavy winds in the making south from us.
A lot going on...roll in the jib, roll out the code zero, let go of the reef in the main sail, get the microplastic trawl into the water and collect some scientific samples, let Joshua recover from sea sickness, fix some dinner and don't even think about mentioning how many hours there still is left before we reach the marina on Kinhu.
The trawl did well out there. Dragged at the side of the boat to not risk picking up any micro particles falling off from deck or coming from the underwater hull.
These four days between Rig-Tallin will be described more in this post when time allows us to...hope you enjoy what's here for now.
Day 2: Kinhu-Virtsu
Not too long of a ride, but not the marina we thought we would end up in either...
Before we left Kinhu, we bumped into a local dance team...and right after that, we managed to do two spontaneous interviews with neighboring boat owners: One marine biologist from Haapsalu University and one entrepreneur in biocide-free anti-fouling. What are the odds to tie up a climate statement sailboat between these two experts in a random marina?
Day 3: Virtsu-Hapsalu
Holy moly...the bad weather in da making two days earlier hit us hard today...
Just a short snippet of the 35-40 knots wind that day...when we took off from Virtsu Marina, zig-zagged between the ferries in the harbour, immediately got soaked by the sharp and high waves building up across the Riga Bay and lost one hat and on solar cell into the waves. Otherwise it was a great day:-)
After the rough day out there we were rewarded with super kind and generous service by Liisa in one of Hapsalu's many restaurants along the cosy and picturesque streets. Haapsalu is definitely a place to visit again.
Day 4: Haapsalu-Tallin
A long beautiful leg with great surfs once we reached the norther coastline towards Tallin.
Windmills all over the place...Hourrayy!!! Sailing with pass Paldiski and one of the large wind generator parks in Estonia. The last couple of days had to be good ones for the harvesting of renewable energy up on that rock...
Yeay...arriving Tallin in the sunset and in a splendid mood. A long day's sailing and symbolically a very important milestone due to the fact that the super sailor Helen Sunmo from Tallin doubted pretty straight forward that we would get here this summer..
