final coffee in the sun before departing. It was still blowing the next day when we took the tram into the centre of Gothenburg, to met Alan Dundas at the station. On Friday 21 August, we woke to pouring rain so opted for a quiet morning. We left after lunch and had a lovely sail, even although there was very little wind and by 1800 our anchor was down in Tjuvsund (17 miles). This anchorage reminded us of Loch Drumbuy. The next day we were underway by mid morning and sailed again under jib only, doing 7 knots heading for Stora Korno, an old fishing village that Peter had visited last year on his way to Gothenburg. Returning back south, we then spent the last night of our cruise anchored in a beautiful small fiord near the entrance of the island of Orust, called Knarrevike Kile (23 miles), and Dinkie decided to have a final swim. The next day we had a leisurely sail, and tied up at Vindo Marin at 1445 (8.2 miles) where we planned to leave Pinocchio in the care of Mats Jonsson, the yard manager. The next morning 24 August, was very busy and all too soon we were on our way to the airport.
We had enjoyed an amazing summer and seen so many places and to our relief all our crew changes worked really well and we thoroughly enjoyed sailing with so many of our friends. The Baltic high had never really developed which resulted in mixed weather. Very often the mornings were sunny but it could become cloudy and by the evening the rain could pour down. That said we did have lots of fine days. We also had many calm days and several very blowy days, usually with the wind from ahead! Baltic cruising is very different from the West Coast of Scotland with no tide, but currents and level changes, and with thousands of reefs and rocks everywhere. Navigation needs close attention even with a chart plotter and good charts are essential. When in the heart of the Skerries, only limited daily mileages are achievable, as some of the passages have to be taken very slowly, especially with our 2.4 metre laden draft. The excellent anchorage reference books have hundreds of anchorages, but they only cover a percentage of what is on offer. On the downside, many of the recommended anchorages have restricted draft and, especially in Finland, many are owned either privately or by a yacht club and the Finns are very protective. In mid summer there are literally thousands
of yachts and motorboats around and apart from the local Swedish and Finnish boats the main visitors are German with the occasional Norwegian, Latvian and British. English is the second language and is spoken virtually everywhere. The scenery is appealing from the bare rocky islands of the western archipelago to the heavily wooded islands of the Finnish archipelago. Sea birds are very rare, as are seals. Living costs are very much the same as the UK with the very notable exception of spirits, which are a ridiculous price. It certainly was a very special once in a lifetime experience. Our total mileage was 1612.2 miles. Dinky Fairley
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