Lost My Baltic Virginity

[savoir]

I found a few pics of these sticks around the net. They follow the same pattern as the black and yellow cardinal marks but will be colored in " something " and white. So far I have seen black, red, green and pink. The sticks don't have shapes or cones, apparently because shapes get destroyed by the ice. Some pose interesting questions like these two.





Say what ?

[bigpuff]

there's three types of sailors 1 those that have hit a brick 2 those that are waiting to hit a brick 3 those that say they haven't hit a brick. I once rode up on a submerged container 30 miles of the coast,3 am ,slight sea ,motor sailing, a most strange sensation, the barnacles did more damage then anything else to the gel coat(and of course my pride)as id just relieved the watch.

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by savoir

Some pose interesting questions like these two.

Say what ?

Stay SW?

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by poiu

Rotten luck.

If you hit the bow then hopefully it will have slid up and not done anything worse than scratch.

I thought your boat had the Echopilot forward looking sonar?

I am pretty sure that I didn't hit anything but the keel. Depth still showing about 2 meters of water when I hit.

My keel is made of 8 tons of lead/antinomy and has a flattened bulb. I am guessing that the bulb now has some gashes in the forward end and bottom. I suppose lead is not that hard to repair -- you probably melt more lead into it the way car bodies used to be repaired (anyone know?). I'll have a look at it when I haul out in Cowes in September.

In any case, it hasn't made any difference in performance -- did 55 miles the next day at 8.3 knots average for the part under sail -- a nice close reach then beat through a thunderstorm.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by bigpuff

there's three types of sailors 1 those that have hit a brick 2 those that are waiting to hit a brick 3 those that say they haven't hit a brick. I once rode up on a submerged container 30 miles of the coast,3 am ,slight sea ,motor sailing, a most strange sensation, the barnacles did more damage then anything else to the gel coat(and of course my pride)as id just relieved the watch.

Wow, are you lucky!! Hitting a semi-submerged container is the worst nightmare of many sailors.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by skipmac

By the way, what were you using for charts?

Navionics, the last absolutely up-to-the-minute Gold electronic chart.

Which shows exactly what the CM93 chart does -- i.e., bugger-all. Three or four soundings in the whole bay, no indication of bottom type, no rocks marked, nothing

On the trip yesterday, I saw two big rocks awash in a spot where the chart showed nothing. In fact, this was in the white "safe water" zone!! And right next to a marked channel!!

The moral of the story is that, in this part of the world, the charts are an approximation.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by poiu

I thought your boat had the Echopilot forward looking sonar?

I do, but it's not working -- cable damaged when I pulled all the N2K cables to my helm. Haven't gotten around to repairing it, and was really sick and tired of messing around with all that cabling after all the work of installing the new network.

This device is really needed in these waters.

[ullar]

Sorry for your mishap. Quite fortunately, there are many rather well marked small boat routes in Finnish and Swedish archipelagos. The only more or less safe way is to stay on these routes and go to bays and natural harbors only when those are documented in your pilot book. Local knowledge gathered from friendly neighbor at the pier helps too.

Have you had the chance to compare your Navionics map to local paper chart? I would like to do that just for curiosity if you'll send me the coordinates of that bay/rock.

For those who are interested: you don't need any cruising permit for Baltics. So no cost for that. Food, however, tends to cost a bit more then in many other parts of the world.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by ullar

Sorry for your mishap. Quite fortunately, there are many rather well marked small boat routes in Finnish and Swedish archipelagos. The only more or less safe way is to stay on these routes and go to bays and natural harbors only when those are documented in your pilot book. Local knowledge gathered from friendly neighbor at the pier helps too.

Have you had the chance to compare your Navionics map to local paper chart? I would like to do that just for curiosity if you'll send me the coordinates of that bay/rock.

For those who are interested: you don't need any cruising permit for Baltics. So no cost for that. Food, however, tends to cost a bit more then in many other parts of the world.

Yes, I forgot to answer that question:

Cruising in the Baltic is the best cruising I've ever experienced, and I've cruised in a lot of different parts of the world. Yes, it's better (in my opinion) than the Aegean, even.

There is no cruising fee or tax, dockage is the cheapest I have ever seen (as little as 13 euros for a 54' sailboat in peak season), and rarely more than 35 euros (making the most expensive berth cheaper than the cheapest berth on the South Coast of the UK). Many free docks. Literally millions of places to anchor.

The only thing which is expensive is food and alcohol, which is probably double what it costs at say Tesco in the UK. And boat repairs.

I started a thread on it, here: http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ic-127807.html

I'm going to add some more information to it.


To Ullar: The hideous rock is precisely at N 59 57.436 E 24 29.162

I will also be very curious to see what local charts show.

[ontherocks83]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

My keel is made of 8 tons of lead/antinomy and has a flattened bulb. I am guessing that the bulb now has some gashes in the forward end and bottom. I suppose lead is not that hard to repair -- you probably melt more lead into it the way car bodies used to be repaired (anyone know?). I'll have a look at it when I haul out in Cowes in September.

Lets just say its a lot easier then doing a fiberglass repair. Have you dove on it yet? It may just be a small gouge that can go until your next haul out. I've seen some pretty big hits on lead keels that equated to minimal physical damage which is why I'll never own anything but a lead keel.

[IdoraKeeper]

Well, that's a shame but your still my hero. I am heading north next week. This is a good reminder to enter unknown coves dead, dead slow. I think I will make a better lead line to look for hazards once on the hook.

[carstenb]

Dockhead - I'm going to add some verbage to our "impressions of the Baltic" thread, but you are not the only one to lose your virginity on a rock this month.
My wife was at the helm, when we were motoring (very slowly thank god) into a cove. The cove and channel were indicated on the Swedish Sportbåtskort, and showed 3 meters.

Well we hit an hit square, soing aobut 2-2 1/2 knots and we stopped dead inthe water. Fortunately we didn't hit hard enought to get seepage around the keel bolts. I dove and looked and while it doesn't look very nice, there appears to be no real damage.

good paper charts are a necessaity when sailing here, as are the best pilot books money can buy

[fst415]

Cormorant, that would be hard to come by. More likely Finnish women as Dockhead was in Finland when he had his encounter with the submerged rock, not Sweden.

[carstenb]

Originally Posted by fst415

Cormorant, that would be hard to come by. More likely Finnish women as Dockhead was in Finland when he had his encounter with the submerged rock, not Sweden.

Well wel could always indulge ourselves with a little thread drift and discuss the virtues of swedish women, versus finnish women or danish women.

But that would be useless - They are all great!

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by carstenb

Well wel could always indulge ourselves with a little thread drift and discuss the virtues of swedish women, versus finnish women or danish women.

But that would be useless - They are all great!

Well -- Baltic women are all great, but some are greater than others

If I had to rank them (twist my arm), I'd say:

No. 1 Russian women (of course!)
No. 2 Swedish women
No. 3 Estonian women
No. 4 Polish women
No. 5 German women

unranked: Danish, Latvian, Lithuanian -- due to no experience