Lost My Baltic Virginity

[Dockhead]

And now the rest of the story:

I got lifted today in Cowes and finally got a look at the keel.

The only damage is a flat spot about 1" in diameter (25mm) at the front of the keel bulb. No signs of any stress at the keel joint or anywhere else -- the paint isn't even cracked.

Hurra! I guess 8 tons of lead will absorb more punishment than we imagine -- hurra for lead keels.

Surprisingly, my anodes were in good shape after 6 months -- longest I've ever had my boat in the water without a lift. I don't understand why if I was on shore power for much of the summer. Maybe they just don't work in the brackish water and instead everything else was getting eaten up?

And we removed at least 100 kg of barnacles. A huge effect on speed and especially on upwind performance, something which really bothered me this summer. When I went over to Cowes I was using 2500RPM for 6 knots of boat speed. Going back 2000 RPM for 7.5 -- I was dragging those f***** barnacles around for 3000 miles! Mostly upwind!!!

The moral of the story is that on a long trip you have to have some way to get your bottom clean no matter what. So I am now definitely going to get my dive training this winter in order not to repeat this heinous mistake.

[Grigory]

Everyone can find his own stone in Finnish skerries! there are so many...
I did such "geographical discovery" in 2012 at Bothian Gulf. Since all my boat masse is 1,5 tonn only :-) some later I have to spent some time, epoxy etc. (small cracks near keel)...
Dockhead, I was near Hanko some days before You, 26 july saw Russian|Swedish Gangut battle reconstruction (and made video - http://youtu.be/7yGkzmkHRnw )
Can You give GPS position of "Your's" Rock, or maybe chart screenshot?

[mf70]

Hee hee... On the Connecticut coast, "bump and tack" is a standard system for lead keeled boats. The flattened nose gets hammered back into shape at haulout.

Sent from my GT-P3113 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Grigory

Everyone can find his own stone in Finnish skerries! there are so many...
I did such "geographical discovery" in 2012 at Bothian Gulf. Since all my boat masse is 1,5 tonn only :-) some later I have to spent some time, epoxy etc. (small cracks near keel)...
Dockhead, I was near Hanko some days before You, 26 july saw Russian|Swedish Gangut battle reconstruction (and made video - http://youtu.be/7yGkzmkHRnw )
Can You give GPS position of "Your's" Rock, or maybe chart screenshot?

"My" rock

N 59 57.436 E 24 29.162

[Grigory]

I know this place! It is located closer to Helsinki, at Porkkala. Will try add picture (dont sure, how I can do it). At south side of small bay there is private berth with buoys. Probable, owned by some club. North side is known as common usage naturharbour Jarvo. Some rings on rocks, depth 1-1,2m in best case. Further into the forest restricted area. There are two my photos in Panoramio/GoogleEarth.
Beautiful archipelago...
Good Luck!

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Grigory

I know this place! It is located closer to Helsinki, at Porkkala. Will try add picture (dont sure, how I can do it). At south side of small bay there is private berth with buoys. Probable, owned by some club. North side is known as common usage naturharbour Jarvo. Some rings on rocks, depth 1-1,2m in best case. Further into the forest restricted area. There are two my photos in Panoramio/GoogleEarth.
Beautiful archipelago...
Good Luck!

Absolutely gorgeous place -- before sailing in the Baltic, I hardly imagined that such beautiful places exist.

[captnandy]

Hi Dockhead! Glad to hear you enjoyed your Baltic cruise - I think possibly you were tied up near us one night at Marienhamn south harbour? I have a black Wharram catamaran. I don't know the exact spot you found "your" rock, but of course you can always be lucky! We keep our boat in Espoo (near Helsinki) and I managed to touch a rock coming back from a day sail - a route I have taken countless times! (of course, outside the marked channels ;-) ) Those marked channels are generally pretty safe, they are really highways for boats, but with care you can navigate outside these. As was pointed out earlier in this thread, sometimes it takes a bit of detective work to decide which side IS the safe side - it's not always how it seems to the casual eye.

There are good charts and guides published in Finland too. The Big Harbour Book is great, and the national paper chart folios are essential IMO, available from most chandlers and bookshops in costal towns. Sorry I don't find the page in English, but the maps show the folio letter (A, B, C etc) quite clearly. For those of you unfamiliar with the Finnish archipelego you can easily get an idea of just how many islands there are!

Welcome again sometime!

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by captnandy

Hi Dockhead! Glad to hear you enjoyed your Baltic cruise - I think possibly you were tied up near us one night at Marienhamn south harbour? I have a black Wharram catamaran. I don't know the exact spot you found "your" rock, but of course you can always be lucky! We keep our boat in Espoo (near Helsinki) and I managed to touch a rock coming back from a day sail - a route I have taken countless times! (of course, outside the marked channels ;-) ) Those marked channels are generally pretty safe, they are really highways for boats, but with care you can navigate outside these. As was pointed out earlier in this thread, sometimes it takes a bit of detective work to decide which side IS the safe side - it's not always how it seems to the casual eye.

There are good charts and guides published in Finland too. The Big Harbour Book is great, and the national paper chart folios are essential IMO, available from most chandlers and bookshops in costal towns. Sorry I don't find the page in English, but the maps show the folio letter (A, B, C etc) quite clearly. For those of you unfamiliar with the Finnish archipelego you can easily get an idea of just how many islands there are!

Welcome again sometime!

Thanks!

Yes, I liked it so much I'll be back next year! Plan to start 1 May and arrive in Finland by the end of the month, God willing and if the weather serves.

And yes, it was hard for me to understand that there is no such thing as "safe water" except in the marked channels! I saw a huge rock awash just outside of one of the channels, where the charts (all of them!) showed 10 meter depth!

You need sharp eyes and a strong keel to sail in Finnish waters!

[carstenb]

Welcome aboard Captnandy

[Kalinka1]

Originally Posted by 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.


Attachment 85921


Say what ?

We found something similar to this entering Svolvaer in the Lofoten Islands. A red mark and about 20 feet to the right of it another mark So we went out and passed both to keep them on our Port side and that was the second rock we hit in Norway! Lead Keel now has another gouge and will have to tighten the keel bolts in the spring!

[HappyMdRSailor]

Glad this all worked out DH...

Originally Posted by ontherocks83

Ah you lost your cherry. Welcome to the club. I've been sailing since I was a small child and hit my first rock 2 years ago. Needless to say my friends and family haven't let me forget about it at all.

As you can see they ever so kindly signed my name to the keel when I wasn't around so that there was no question who did it. They even included the name I gave the bay at the time of the incident.

Lovely friends and family I have, really freakin lovely

OTR... I think I may have the same humor gene as your friends/family...

Originally Posted by Ann T. Cate

Yes, where the black on cardinal marks is represents where the tips would be if it were triangle-appearing cones. Thus saving the cost of cone/triangles and confusing us all!

Ann

Ann.... Imma fairly calm skipper... However coming across more than one cardinal mark at a time gives me more anxiety than anything I can think of...

Originally Posted by savoir

Does anyone know of a website that explains this type of marker ?

long wait for the request, but for the inquiring remainder... wiki says...
Cardinal mark - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

Yes. On my I can add a mark and change the symbol to something like a crossbone. I have added 1 to my local area for a gas buoy that isn't on the chart

I got lotsa extra skulls n crossbones on my plotters...

[Dockhead]

Now what a hoot:

Tom Cunliffe podcast January 2015 - Yachting Monthly

The celebrated yachtsman Tom Cunliffe, in this month's YM, telling the story about HIS encounter with uncharted Finnish rocks. And his story tops mine ten times over! Now I'm in good company indeed.

[Claude_Marie]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Surprisingly, my anodes were in good shape after 6 months -- longest I've ever had my boat in the water without a lift. I don't understand why if I was on shore power for much of the summer. Maybe they just don't work in the brackish water and instead everything else was getting eaten up?
.

Not even brackish, nearly freshwater.

Wiki :
The Baltic Sea's salinity is much lower than that of ocean water (which averages 3.5%), as a result of abundant freshwater runoff from the surrounding land, combined with the shallowness of the sea itself; indeed, runoff contributes roughly one-fortieth its total volume per year, as the volume of the basin is about 21,000 km³ and yearly runoff is about 500 km³. The open surface waters of the central basin have salinity of 0.5% to 0.8%, which makes the basin border-line or, nearly Freshwater.