Monday 11th August

Once most of the yard was back from their holidays things started to get a bit busier as questions arose and more things were underway at the one time. The boat started to look more like it should with things happening all over the massive hull.

On Wednesday I found out that twilight racing take’s place so I went to the sailing club after work and left my business card with a sailor who I spoke to before he rushed of to start the race. They ran two starts one for the Shark’s and one for the open boats. The Shark is a 1930’s designed keel boat which seems to be very much a gentleman’s type of boat. The open class is any of the keel boats at the club who turn up with a crew and race under handicap. I stuck around and watched the start from the location of the new Baltic Yachts Factory (the yard will move into the town harbour in late October).

On Thursday I got a call asking if I could crew in a race on Friday evening/Saturday. I agreed and after borrowing some wet weather gear from Baltic (which I though was overkill at the time but was later grateful for) on Friday at 5:30pm we left the dock on a 30' custom race boat (the smallest boat in a 10 boat fleet). The boat was nearly as old as I am, but surprisingly quick. The wind was light (about 8-10 knots) and it was a little overcast. We lead the race out of the harbour and were second for much of the following hour or two. I think it was as the when first boat overtook us that the first beers appeared on deck, for which there were many over the course of the night. The race took us from Pietarsaari harbour out the channel across to Sweden where we rounded an island to port and then returned to Pietarsaari. Due to the wind direction (roughly NW) we beat all the way across the Gulf of Bothnia tacking 3 times as we approached the Island we then sailed downwind around the island and gybed before dropping the spinnaker and heading back upwind to Pietarsaari as the wind had swung overnight and was now closer to NE. We crossed the line third under spinnaker at about 8pm on Saturday. When the results came through we had finished 2nd on handicap, beaten by 8 minutes on corrected time by a 33” boat. After sorting out the boat we utilised the clubrooms sauna (which was very nice after 27 hours on a boat and little sleep). After watching the long, long orange sunset we headed into town for some dinner and more beers. What goes for a Kebab in Finland are two quite different things, similar but different. The Meat is cooked the same way it comes with similar sort of salad (tomato, lettuce, something else) but it’s served differently. Where the kebab I know and love comes with a choice of sauce and wrapped in pita bread. The Finnish kebab comes in a polystyrene container with the meet heaped upon the salad and bread (or fries depending on your preference – I went with bread but it wasn’t the bread I was expecting, a McDonalds style hamburger bun) and then the whole thing has a ladle or two worth of gravy to drown everything in. I was hungry but I was grateful that I only ordered a half serve (which saved €1) as although I finished it (because I was hungry) I felt a little odd after, and If I’d tried to get through a whole one then I think I would have exploded. A drink or two at the pub and half the crew went back to the boat drink the skipper’s beer. I stayed out a little longer and then went home to bed for some well deserved sleep.