Voyage around The Gulf of Bothnia

[Wlodek]

Hi again,
We have just come back from a voyage around the Gulf of Bothnia. We spent one month sailing along Finnish coast (including Kvarken Archipelago) and visited 29 harbors or/and anchorages (530 miles). We reached Kemi and then Swedish Haparanda and the most Northern harbor of the Baltic Sea – Töre. And High Coast of course. The Swedish part took us 1.5 month. (47 places, 670 miles) The atmosphere on the North is amazing. Wild nature, white nights, friendly and helpful people. We visited so many beautiful islands, both in Finland and in Sweden that it is really hard to say which is the most interesting. For this post we choose 5, but there were dozens of them. Kylmapihlaja in Finland with a nice hotel and restaurant in a lighthouse and hundreds of birds around, Ritgrund – very small and shallow harbor in Kvarken Archipelago, Malören and its 1.5 meters deep lagoon, nice people, old pilot station, tiny chapel and stunning landscape, Mjältön – the highest island in whole Sweden - 236 m over sea level or Kråkskär with a lovely fishing village. There were some nice towns as well. For example Uusikaupunki, Rauma, Luleå…, but we prefer wilder destinations. You can follow our route at this link: https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF& ... 854ad4eb0a
If you will have any question about sailing in Gulf of Bothnia generally or about any particular harbor, please do not hesitate and send us an e-mail.
There are some photos from Gulf of Bothnia in News (Aktualności) link at our site:
http://www.photovoyage.pl/?lang=pl&act= ... 217&page=1
We write a sailing photo blog - Żeglarstwo (on our website too) where we show the most beautiful destinations (mostly on the Baltic Sea) we have visited during our cruises and there are some and will be more about Gulf of Bothnia coming from time to time. About our meetings with the Nature of the North you can read and see pictures on our Nature photography (Fotografia przyrodnicza) photo blog. Welcome.
See you on the sea,
Agnieszka and Włodek, s/y Safran

[lynx]

Hi Agnieszka and Włodek,
Looks like an excellent trip. Congratulations!

What about the weather during your voyage? What temperatures and winds did you face? Did you see Northern Light?
Does it mean you started at the beginning of July?
Can you write a couple of words about your yacht and her equipment?

Thanks a lot,

Lynx

[Monty]

Hi,
interesting and nice trip. For me two times, because in the two years I want to sail to Norway for two to three months as the final exam for my next and long voyages.You could write in detail about the equipment of the ship, if possible according to priorities. And most importantly, what to watch out for and what is necessary for a similar voyage. How wrote Lynx, please describe your equipment ships. thank you

howk
Monty

[Wlodek]

hello Lynx,
we began our trip at 9th of June in Gdansk and after a week we were North of Aland Archipelago. We came back almost mid September. The temperatures were around 15-22 C. In the end of August during chilly nights it was 7 C. We were prepared for rather cool cruise so for us it was not so bad, we could even swim around our boat but local sailors complained and told us it was a cold summer. It was not very windy, we used our genaker pretty much and motored for 180 hours alltogether. Highest wind we met was 18m/s and it lasted only one night which we were safe on the buoy. We had to wait only 2 times for 2 days because it was blowing 8B. The winds in the end were from Southern directions and a bit stronger then in the begening, on Finnish side. The most incredible thing was that we could sail 24 hours during a day or a dusk only. The sun was not seen only for 1-2 hours (later longer of course) and even at midnight it was just a little dark, so we could navigate safely beteen red and green signs without lights on top. we didn not have too much rain. The weather was really fine.
Our boat is 25 years old self made by some Frenchman Trismus 37 - 11 meters long strange French construction with long keel and only 1 meter draft which was a bonus in shallow harbors, both in Finland and Sweden. The equipment is mostly old but still working. Solar panels, wind generator, autohelm, diesel heating, chartplotter, radar, Nothing really special, we do not have AIS so far, but in Gulf of Bothnia there are not many ships
We used C-map, and paper atlases for sailors, but there are 2 very useful books: Norrlandskust by Erik Nystrom for harbors on Swedish side and Kayntisatamat/Besokhamnar 2012 for Finland.
Greetings from Poland
Agnieszka and Wlodek

[Wlodek]

Hi,
You could write in detail about the equipment of the ship, if possible according to priorities. And most importantly, what to watch out for and what is necessary for a similar voyage. How wrote Lynx, please describe your equipment ships. thank you

howk
Monty

OK, a little more about equipment. In our opinion the most important is chartplotter with good maps. That allows us to sail more or less safely even on shallow waters where you choose deeper parts, what cannot be seen by eyes. It is also useful when going back exactly the same way you entered a difficult anchorage or harbor (track function).For the last 6 years we use big Seiwa plotter. Radar (small Furuno) is important in the fog, but mostly in open waters. Among small islands there are too many echoes, so it is safer to believe chartplotter and your eyes and ears If you plan to sail in busy waters in Western Europe (including Baltic) buy AIS so you will know what big ships are doing. We will probably buy AIS receiver for next season. Autohelm is important when you sail with not many people. We use it all the time but we also have wind pilot used only for long legs - like 100 miles. Anyway electricity is essential. On our boat we have 400 Ah batteries loaded by 3x 50 wat solar panels and 50 Wat wind generator (it gives max at 5 B so it is not really good here, better in Caribbeans. This allows us to stay out of shore power for most of the time, even our fridge is on all the time and we have Navtex, VHF and many other smaller pieces of equipmnet. Heating gives some comfort, One of the most important things is weather forecast. We have it from Navtex and VHF but this year we used Internet mostly. We installed an external antenna which could be moved around horizon and bought a modem without any blocade so we could use SIM cards from Poland Finland or Sweden... We bought prepaid SIM cards SAUNALAHTI in Finland and HALEBOP in Sweden and even for one day we did not miss connection, even on the most remote islands. Exept open Sea ofcourse. the cost is around 20€ per month. It was not so easy for dinosaurs like us to activate connection, write in a correct place all these numbers and PINS, but it was worth it. If you have more questions - ask
AW

[Monty]

Thank you for your answer. My boat (16m, steel, long keel, draft 160 cm) is energy self-sufficient. I have a 520 Ah batteries, solar panel 240W at 40V with MPPT regulator and built-in diesel generator 3.5kW. I will buy heating diesel WallasMarin 3kW. AIS intend to buy it too, but do not know if radar. It is necessary, or could sail without him? I have Autohelm hydraulic, windvane not install. Nautical charts across the C-MAX, Garmin and Navionics hope will be sufficient. What website did you use for the weather forecast? Local or global, for example WeatherOnline, Winffinder, Windguru? I'd like to know what is paid for the marina to the north and the possibilities of anchoring. They are more expensive than in the Mediterranean? I assume that the water there will be no problem. thanks

howk
Monty

[Wlodek]

Big boat! Many of the harbors in Bay of Bothnia will be to small for you;-)
About radar. Before AIS was invented I would say that radar is essential. It makes really a big difference to sail in the fog with or without radar. Today AIS gives you more info about big ships but you have to remeber that smaller vessels including steel fishing boats which can be dangerous for yachts do not have to use AIS and you would know nothing about them, while on Radar you would see them and also buoys on marked routes. On the other hand we use radar 3-5 times a season in really bad fog or misty nights. Radar is pretty expensive so the answer is: if you can afford this buy radar, you will feel safer. The marinas on Baltic are rather cheaper than on Med. About 20€ a night, but boats of your size perhaps more. Best harbors, like Visby on Gotland are more expensive - 30€ for 12 meters long yacht. In Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia is a bit cheaper than in Demark or Sweden. Norway is pretty expensive. Gulf of Bothnia is cheap. From 0 when you drop an anchor from the back and moor with the bow to a jetty on a small island where there is nothing exept dry toilet and wild nature, 6€ in small village harbors to 15-20 € in town marinas with electricity, water, toilet sauna and shower. About weather forcast. We use grib - http://www.zygrib.org/ because their files are not big - important when the speed of internet is low. We also use Polish meteo site
http://www.meteo.pl/ (model UM) which is quite good. Sometimes tried some German or local sites, but mostly these two and they worked OK during last 3 month cruise. In marinas water is not a problem. Anchoring is very popular in Scandinavian archipelagos - in quiet , well sheltered small bays but not outside the harbors. But it is not forbidden. The most popular way of mooring in Stockholm archipelago nature harbors ( bays) is anchor from the back and bow to the rock. Like on Polish Mazury Lake District.
AW

[Monty]

Uff, I am unpleasantly surprised size of the ship. About Norway spoke here one GermanSailor. He told that it is possible to stand at the small fishing mol free or for a small fee. Anchoring there is reportedly problematic, because at a fjords is deep water. Probably I will consider buying radar. So far I did not need radar, but I never sailed in extremely busy water routes. ZGrib use a long time. Thanks for the information and I hope that if in future I want specific info, not will be problem ask again too.
Good wind

howk
Monty

[Wlodek]

Sure, feel free to ask
AW