The first day at sea: from Porvoo to Helsinki

Due to the genoa reparation a day before the planned departure, all my other plans were trashed. I also found out that I would need to drive back and forth to Helsinki – our first sailing destination – in order to buy some accessories to assemble the new VHF. As a matter of fact, the whole assembly was planned to be done earlier…

It took us a long time to get everything ready. In fact, at one point I considered staying at Porvoo one more night, and starting (too) early next morning directly towards Tallinn. The distance would be roughly the hypotenuse of the triangle Porvoo-Helsinki-Tallinn, i.e. about 62 NM, whereas the distance between Helsinki and Tallinn would be about 43 NM. The distance between Porvoo and Helsinki is about 32 NM. We finally left Porvoo around 17 o’clock. The wind was very weak and against us so we, Aino Saga, Jaakko and me, decided to motor to Helsinki.

We arrived at Helsinki Katajanokka guest harbour around 22.30 o’clock. The Harbour master’s office was already closed. No services like toilets or showers for us as we couldn’t open the doors. And the electricity supply way too far for our 20 m cable. There were a number of crowded restaurants next to the pier, but serving only beer and other beverages. The Finns eat very early and all the restaurant kitchens were already closed. We were tired and hungry, and returned somewhat disappointed to the boat.

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Despite the noisy restaurants and our neighbouring boat with somebody shouting (many times) for Marko onboard, we slept nicely till the next morning.

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