New Blog Pages

The new Blog pages about our sailing experience you will find from the following web link.  Please enjoy about our sailing trips also in the future. 

http://syparsec.blogspot.fi/

While waiting the next summer

Here is again a short photo clip. Please enjoy.

http://youtu.be/Kb5qvYkj0uA

Some nice pictures from the summer

The summer sailing has ended now. The Parsec has been docked for the winter. Here are still some nice moments and pictures from the past summer.

North sea in June

On the way to Bornholm in June.

 Midnight in July in Tankar (Finland).  

 Sunset in September in Gulf of Botnia.

 Autumn sailing. Last trip for the summer.

Sailing video

From the following link you can find a video from one sailing weekend.

http://youtu.be/XKCy558Sk0k

The Island of the Yacht Club

Östra trutklimpen is the yacht club's island. The island is about 5 nm from Kokkola's harbor.  In a normal weekend there is from 5 to 10 boats in the harbor. The place is open and free for all the club's members.

In the island you can meet nice people who love to sail. You can hear good old and new stories about the sailing experiences. The atmosphere is good and open.

From the island you can find a beautiful sauna, small summer cottage and a good outdoor kitchen. The buildings have been build by the active and skilled members. The latest achievement is the new sauna built during 2011 - 2012. 

Venetsialaiset 2012

The Venetsialaiset is a celebration weekend for the end of the summer. This tradition is local in the western coast line of Finland. In the past this was the weekend when people moved from the summer cottage to the winter houses.

We spend the weekend in place called Köpmansholm. We sailed about 20 nm from our home harbor to south towards Pietarsaari (this was the sailing after my ½ marathon during the Saturday morning). The sailing day was beautiful tough the wind was not that high. The sailing took ca. 4 hours. Köpmansholm is a nice small island. There is a good restaurant that is open during the summer time.

In Kopmansholm we spent time with our good old and new friends. The dinner table was nice with some Finnish fish and meet delicates. The evening was relaxing and went fast as we were talking about this summer's sailing trips. After the sun set it was time for the fire works.

This Venetsialaiset is a nice event but the sad side is that is considered to be the end of the summer. There is still one month to sail but after that we need to prepare for the winter.

Video from the trip.

In the following link you can find a short video about our summer trip. Please take a look.


http://youtu.be/aLrO5ns644U

The ligh house island Tankar

Tankar is a beautiful light house island in the sea of Botnia. The place is worth to see and visit. The atmosphere in the island reflect fisher man's traditions and old habits. In the restaurant you can enjoy about the local fish soup made from fresh salmon. The service during summer 2012 has been outstanding.

There is lot of history present in the island. There is an old church where you can find special God's service in some summer weekends. The museum areas are worth to visit also. Those places tels a lot about the life style in the islands in the past. The local sauna is a place to refresh the mind and body.

The trip and visited harbours

Kampen (NED) 24^th - 27^th of May

Stavoren (NED) 27^th - 28^th of May

Makkum (NED) 28^th – 29^th of May

Vlieland (NED) 29^th - 31^st of May

Lauwersoog (NED) 31^st of May - 2^nd of June

Norderney (GER) 2^nd – 4^th of June

Cuxhaven (GER) 4^th - 6^th of June

Rendsburg (GER) 6^th - 7^th of June

Strande (GER) 7^th - 8^th of June

Gedser (DK) 8^th – 10^th of June

Rønne in Bornholm (DK) 11^th - 13^th of June

Kalmar (SWE) 14^th - 15^th of June

Byxelkrok in Öland (SWE) 15^th - 16^th of June

Visby in Gotland (SWE) 17^th - 19^th of June

Stockholm (SWE) 20^th - 22^nd of June

Vaxholm (SWE) 22^nd - 23^rd of June

Öregrund (SWE) 24^th of June

Sundsvall (SWE) 25^th - 26^th of June

Norra Ulvön (SWE) 26^th - 28^th of June

Vaasa (FIN) 29^th of June -

Stockholm area and the Swedish coast line

We have passed the Swedish coast line and our location is currently in Vaasa in Finland.

We spent close two weeks in Sweden. We passed the following harbours: Kalmar – Byxelkrok (in Öland) – Visby (in Gotland) – Stockholm – Vaxholm – Öregrund - Sundsvall – Norra Ulvön. All the places had their own and nice atmosphere.

We spent three days in the Stockholm area. We had two nights in the islands and one night in the downtown harbour. Stockholm's islands are beautiful and there you can see a lot of nice summer cottages. The manouvering is easy as the waters are deep enough. In the downdown area there are lot of nice places to visit. We visited the Old City of Stockholm and the King's Castle.

In the evening we went to the Gröna Lund's amusement park. In the Stockholm area we stopped to the Vaxholm where we spent the midnight festival night. 

After Stockholm we continued to Öregrund that is small harbour. The sailing was 80 nm and we arrived there in the morning time. The winds were calm during the night sailing. From the Öregrund we continued to Sundsvall. We started the sailing in the afternoon. The total trip was 135 nm. During the night time the wind increased up to 10 m/s and we were sailing with the speed of 7 knots. We arrived to Sundsvall in the afternoon after 24 h sailing. Sundsvall is a beautiful city that has lot of old buildings.





After Sundsvall we continued the trip to Norra Ulvön that is in the High Coast of Sweden. This was our third time to visit the island so we knew what to expect. The visit in Norra Ulvön gives always a nice feeling. The old fishermen buildings are beautiful and well maintained. We also tasted the local speciality, hermentated Northern herring. We spend two nights in the harbour before our trip to Finland.

Öland and Gotland

We left from Bornholm to Kalmar in the afternoon at 3 PM. There was around 100 nm to go to Kalmar. We started with good back wind. The wind was ca. 10 - 12 m/s but it calmed down quite soon down to 6 – 7 m/s. In the morning we got again a good wind to sail to keep up ca. 7 knots speed. For our surprice we saw the Finnish war ship Pohjanmaa doing her duties during the night. It was interesting to listen the VHF discussion between the ships. We arrived to Kalmar after 20 hours sailing.

Kalmar is a beautiful Swedish city. The quest harbour is nice place to stop. The harbour has all the needed services. The main atraction in the area is the old castle that has a long history. We took the tour and enjoyed about the nicely built castle. The visit at Kalmar was only one day as the main target in the area was Gotland.

From Kalmar we continued to the Northern part of Öland. The trip was 45 nm and we had really good wind to maintain 7 knots sailing speed. We had one night stop at Byxelkrok prior the trip to Visby in Gotland. From Byxelkrok we continued to Visby in nice weather at Saturday afternoon.

Visby is a known holiday ressort in the middle of East Sea. The old town of the city is really a place to see and visit. The old churches, castles and narrow roads give an own atmosphere for the down town. Also the quest harbour has nice and good international atmosphere. Gotland's Visby is a place we can recommend to visit and spend couple of days.

On the tuesday afternoon, 19^th of June, we targeted to go to Nynäshamn and Stockholm area. There is ca. 100 – 140 nm to go depending on the final destination.

Denmark's beautiful islands

The next destination 8^th of June was Denmark. We had good sailing winds and beautiful sun set. During the trip we saw one submarine navigationg on the surface. We arrived to Gedser late evening after 14 hours sailing. It was already dark but we found a spot for the boat. In the morning we found that the community was idyllic and the atmosphere was social and open. We enjoyed about the small village´s services. Finally we ended up to spend two nights in the small and nice quest harbour. We continued the trip 10^th of June. Due the high winds in Gedser we waited until the afternoon before the next start.

From Gedser we targeted to Bornholm. The distance was ca. 100 nm. After two hours sailing we heared an odd sound beside the boat. There were at least 2 little dolphins playing games beside our boat. That was a fantastic and sudden nice experience. The cruising was mainly motor sailing as there was no wind during the night. The surprice was the number of the vessels going in both directions.

Bornholm is really a place to visit. There are a lot of small and nice villages. This is really a place to spend a holiday. The island itself has many litlle villages and the largest city is Rønne. We stayed in Rønne 2 days and visited other side of the island taking local bus route. We visited a middle age centre near Gudhjem and tried viking helmets, hunting with old fashioned archies and had interesting discussions with a local guide.

On Wednesday the 13^th of June we headed to Kalmar in Sweden.

Kiel's canal

The Kiel's canal has been passed. The route goes from Cuxhaven to Kiel. The length of the canal is ca 60 nm. The area is beautiful and impressive. We stopped in Rendsburg for one night. It is a beautiful old city with small downtown. 

The manouvering in the canal was easy. The AIS system gave good indication about the coming boats early enough. The entrance and exit from the canal worked perfectly with the crew.

After exiting the canal we stopped in a nice quest harbour in Strande. There we had really good and delicious fish food dinner with good service. The next day we sailed to Denmark.

The North Sea by sailing

The North Sea sailing is now behind. The crew and the boat has now been tested. We arrived to Cuxhaven yesterday evening. The sailing experience was great.

The North Sea Sailing started at 31^st of May from Vlieland. The tide effect was calculated and we started in the early morning. The wind was calm and there was only old waves. The morning was engine sailing towards Lauwersoog.

During the evening the wind started to blow harder and in the end of the day it was blowing 10 - 15 m/s. We arrived to the empty harbour after 10 hours sailing. The next day we decided to stay in the Lauwersoog due to the high winds. In the morning we took a bus to the nearest village Dokkum to explore the countryside of Netherlands.

From Lauwersoog the next stop was planned to be in Norderney. The predicted wind was 8 to 12 m/s from the North – West. Again we started among tide calculations and we got fairly good flow giving 1 – 2 extra knots. As it was blowing couple days from the same direction the waves were quite high. In the shallow waters the waves were at least 2.5 - 3 m; quite a rough experience. Out at the sea it was more steady as the waves were in the height of 2 m. We were able to sail almost the whole day with the good wind. We arrived to the destination at 10 PM and it was getting darker already.

In the morning we changed the courtecity flag to German colours. This was forgotten as we arrived that late. Norderney is also a beautiful island. It is a popular German holiday resort and has a lot of hotels. We got fast snapshot about the atmosphere by biking around. There would be a lot of things to see and it would be easy to spend there one week at least.

From Norderney we started 4^th of June at 9 AM. The expectation was that this will give a good flow towards Cuxhaven. The winds were perfect. We sailed almost the whole day with good back wind with the speed of 10 – 12 m/s. The boat behaved nicely and we gained a lot of good sailing experience. The main surprice was the Elbe's stream during the afternoon. We were sailing with the speed of 7 - 8 knots but the true speed was only 4 - 5 knots. Finally we arrived to Cuxhaven after 12 hours sailing.

Tuesday 5^th of June was our day to visit Cuxhaven centre. There were bikes for free use in the harbour so it was convenient to arrive in the city centre. Weather was ok with some short showers but mostly sunshine. Cuxhaven Castle Garden was worth seeing. Tomorrow we are intended to enter the Kiel´s Canal.