Kiel - Inkoo - part 1

Aridane at Kiel Sporthafen Durstenbrookissa

Ariadne arrived from Hamburg to Kiel on Thursday 4.5. evening and OIav packed his backpack and left for home. Personally, I was waiting for the crew to arrive on Friday morning, which were Aimo, Jari, Markku, Piccu and Aimonpoika Tuomas. The initial optimistic plan was to get off the harbour as early as Friday after the food stocks were full but especially the engine fuel problems had to be resolved before departure and it knew about additional purchases and work that took practically the whole Friday and Saturday morning.

Piccu: We had read in the Latest Bulletin about the boat Harri bought from Hamburg. I figured a crew was needed to bring her home and I had already thought about telling I was available. Namely, in 1989, Lumikki had to be sailed home from Kiel for one week, and then Humes came to the rescue. Now, of course, it would be my turn to help - besides, the gig could be interesting anyway. But I didn’t have time to do anything until Humes asked those interested to sign up. Of course, I did it right away and heard that I would then be the sixth man on the boat. However, everyone would reportedly find space in the boat and even a punk. A strong crew would certainly make it easier to drive the guards.

Humes went to Hamburg by car sometime in April to refurbish his boat. He suggested he could take some crew bags as he went. This was a great idea, because transporting life jackets on an airplane, for example, can be tricky. I was on the trip myself, but I asked my son Jyka to pack my bag, which he did according to my instructions. Sure, there was a little excitement about what really went into that bag.

Markku: At SMer’s annual meeting, Humes threw the need for a crew to bring his new Ariadne boat from Germany to Finland. That was worth grabbing. The time was gradually clarified to week 19, which I got pretty well cleaned up from work meetings and other activities. Instead, Friday 5 May, when the others (Aimo, Tuomas, Jari and Piccu) were leaving for Hamburg on a morning flight, was still a problem. I had to procrastinate on buying a ticket until I got a deputy to confirm a meeting, and during that time the price of the flight went up by a hundred. I still got on the flight.

To move from Hamburg to Kiel, I had booked a minibus taxi, which was the cheapest and basically the fastest option for a group of five. Now only the Autobahn had some crash, which made the whole road be closed at the airport. The talkative driver knew the detour where the traffic was moving, albeit slowly: the journey took an hour longer than normal. Fortunately, we were in no hurry.

Ariadne had arrived the day before in Sporthafen’s Düsternbrook, and when we got on the boat, Humes told us in more detail about the engine problems that had arisen on the Hamburg-Kiel transfer. Humes had already replaced the stuck seawater pump with an electric pump on the way, but the malfunctions caused by the dirty fuel tank were still unresolved. The admiration of the boat thus took on shades of gray according to the rainy weather.

Aimo:

Friday 05.05.2017

rain and wind, less than 5 degrees The crew arrives on board. In Hamburg on a morning flight, Jari, Markku, Pikku, Onni and Aimo. As preliminary information, it had come through the bus radio that the engine seawater pump was broken and the engine was having fuel problems.

The taxi started towards Kiel… the motorways are being repaired and when turning around the small roads everyone else had taken the same route and direction, they drove past many good-looking Gasthaus.

The skipper served welcome beers, Premium Pilsners and GDs, told of his maneuvers on the Kiel Canal and other coincidences with his German gast. I have reportedly never had any problems with the engine. On the way, though, the seawater pump at the end of the crankshaft had tripped and the engine coughed when it had to give more power in maneuvers in brackets. The seawater pump had now been replaced by a separate rear pocket accessory pump and its own operating switch. Outside, the rain continues.

Piccu: The actual voyage took place in early May, immediately after May Day. The five members of the transfer crew, Aimo, his son Tuomas, Jari, Markku and I met at the airport on Friday 05.05 at 0630. Finnair’s direct flight to Hamburg went normally. Although Markku’s arrival on that flight had been uncertain until the last minute, he had managed to arrange a cheap and convenient bus transfer from the airport directly to the boat. This was certainly the most comfortable, as it was raining and the air was not very warm either. Unfortunately not even inside that minibus taxi. But no regrets, because the rest of us got to be quiet even in the back section when Markku had to socialize with his talking driver during the long stretch due to traffic obstacles.

The port of Kiel in Dusternbrook was reached at noon and Humes was at the pier. Ariadne was in the pool of big boats and it was well suited for really big and really nice wooden boats. The boat would not be believed to be steel. Its lines are as lofty as in the old Swan and the superstructure made of wood is really stunning. The wooden mast standing on the deck is the thickness of a skinny man. Ariadne’s general arrangement is interesting and one could almost say that in a way partly modern. The large and sheltered cockpit is divided into two parts so that the helmsman has his own poter behind the levang. By entering, you will first enter a deck lounge or “day room” with a large raised table with good views out of the large windows. On the left side of the table there is a corridor on the lower level, from the back of which there is access to the engine room, ie from the door! The pantry is placed against the side along the corridor in the day room and the standing height at this point is at least 2.5 meters! The hallway continues on to a space we used to call the “dark room” because its general light was broken. The space has bunks on the sides and a folding table in the middle, as well as plenty of closet space above the bunks. Continuing forward, we enter a corridor, along which the toilet can be separated quite large by means of two doors. Right at the bow is a bow spike with two bunks placed high. Considering that there is still a stern deck behind the pilot’s pottery, under which there is a storage space that has since proved to be surprisingly large, one can only wonder what can fit in a 12.5-meter boat. Lumikki is the same length, but not as spacious at all. It is clear, of course, that the underwater volume of the 11-ton Ariadne is more than double that of Lumikki, and the high sides add even more space.

So the Welcome GDs were enjoyed in style around the dayroom table, albeit with feezing fingers in the cold room. The weather was wet and chilly. The atmosphere was further cooled by Humes telling stories of how the engine had already tripped on the Kiel Canal on a transfer journey from Hamburg to Kiel. A normal skipper wouldn’t have gotten a boat to Kiel, but Humes had built an arrangement of the parts and cunning involved that allowed the engine to get its cooling water, even though the engine’s water pump was totally gone. Unfortunately, the pump used for the solution would have had another function, transferring fuel to the installed day tank. Namely, the boat has a huge flap tank, which is part of the hull, as in ships in general. It was built deep in the bilge, on top of the keel, and apparently it had never been emptied or cleaned since 1965. As a result, it also contained a lot of substance that even the Mercedes-Benz OM636 cannot burn.

Markku: The Ariadne is a magnificent boat, once carefully built without saving hours and money. Thanks to the dense curvature and the smaller plate thickness, the steel frame corresponds to wooden boats of that time, both in shape and probably in weight. The deck and decor are beautiful and sturdy woodwork. The rig also seemed at least solid and the bronze winches still working. Instead, other technology and installations proved to be quite mixed. The boat’s electricity had been refurbished a few years ago, but the refurbishment work was apparently limited to the shore power system and new batteries. The old free-hanging wires had been left in place, which added to the confusion. Water and fuel pipes are steel pipes like a ship, which is probably a good thing for a long time.

Maschinenraum

The boat’s Machinenraum has its own chapter. The engine can be accessed from both the door behind the cabin stairs and the large door under the cabin table. Mersu’s OM636 aircraft was reportedly originally designed in the 1940s as a starter motor for tanks. It has since been used as a car, boat and local engine. My father-in-law’s museum car (1960 MB 180) also has the same basic engine. Now there was no proper credit for the engine, as already when moving from Hamburg, the revs had occasionally dropped as the fuel filter became clogged. That was not the way to go.

Aimo: “Presumably the work will start immediately,” said also Elmeri Hautamäki. There was enough work all day. The old slap tank is full of some early life, that is, some “shit” and water, probably the oldest mass at the bottom of the tank is from the 60s, it does look like a coke when it was bottled. After a senseless twist, the day tank was installed in a temporary position, which is now filled with 4-5 liters at a time, the so-called dialysis treatment performed with an oil drain pump from which breastfeeding pots are poured into a funnel and through a hose into that new day tank. The new fine filters fray let air into the fuel hoses, so the vent screws on the new filter pack don’t hold? So we don’t have O-rings here now! Went out to eat a plate of asparagus, Jari took a pot and everyone took the big pilsners, dessert in the Ariadne salon with coffees and GDs.

Piccu: Of course, I was prepared for the fact that there is work on the boat. However, this engine dilemma was so serious that it would have to be resolved before we could set off. However, first we went to eat asparagus and then were scattered to do our chores. I went to the harbor office to pay dock dues and inquire about the location of boat supply stores. Humes was already on his way to downtown, so I routed him to his destination. Markku and Jari went to a food store. Tuomas and I completed the installation of the mainsail. The engine-group had difficulty getting the new double filter in the day tank to be airtight, even though it had been purchased from the Karjaan Tractor Repair Shop. Markku naturally went to the mast to thread the spinnaker Fall into place. The day was so chilly that ice coveralls had to be pulled on, even though we were still in the harbor. The engine-group worked under the dayroom floor all evening, and dinner did not happen. Unfortunately, the problem was not solved either.

Markku: When he left Finland, Harri had already prepared for the fact that something had to be done for the tank and filters. The plan was to transfer the boat’s 300-liter integral tank stuff to the day tank through double filters. A filter package, a 40-liter plastic tank and a hose were included, but the Humes transfer pump had to be sacrificed as a new seawater pump. There did not seem to be a new suitable pump in Kiel. So the idea of ​​day tank was abandoned and a filter package was installed between the main tank and the machine. This just didn’t succeed. There was always air left in the filters or hoses and we didn’t figure out how to get it out of there. The engine was started many times, but there were always new air bubbles somewhere - if not right away, then at least when the engine was shut down. When more advisory beers and GD didn’t help either, we went to sleep.

On Saturday morning, it was decided to still try to find a transfer pump and return to the day tank plan. Humes and Piccu went to a shop advised by Hafenmeister, and found a hand pump with a 4-liter tank for oil change. It was now solved, and because of its shape it was named a teapot. The fuel transfer operation, which Aimo and Tuomas christened as dialysis, was quite a big job: opening the fur hatch, going to the bottom of the bilge, opening the cap of the integral tank, threading the suction hose of the hand pump into the tank just enough to suck clean diesel just below the surface, diesel begins to flow, monitoring fuel brightness; when the teapot is sufficiently full, open the cabin bench door, take out the funnel through which the slowly poured diesel from the teapot flows into the day tank, and clean the drained diesel drops from the teapot, hoses and the floor. And repeat the whole thing until the day tank is full again.

Proviant

The tasks on Friday afternoon were divided so that I went to the store with Jari to get food and some other stuff. When none of us actually seemed to be an avid or accustomed cook, it was a little difficult to think about meal packages and quantities. The next opportunity for replenishment would be planned in Bornholm. The trip there would take at least a day and a half. The inventory on the boat showed that Humes had already made a large part of the purchases: Pasta, canned food, cheese and other basic food were already in stock. Both harsher weather (foods and breads from a single pot) and easier conditions (baking steaks) also had to be taken into account. The boat does not have an oven, but a two-burner gas stove. The refrigerator was not in use either, but at temperatures in early May, this was certainly not a problem even in the southern Baltic Sea. On these grounds, some sort of shopping list was obtained.

Aimo: The pier has large handsome sailboats S / Y Germania VI and Flica II, as well as much smaller sailboats. A suitable small boat was also found for Jari, which was agreed to be picked up at the end of October. Submarines flock to the bay! We came back to install and fasten the day tank in place with straps, the batteries had to be removed before installing the tank, i.e. behind the batteries. The skipper again spent the rest of the day under the fur plates next to the engine. A piece of bread with a couple of beers as night falls, 01 to sleep.

Saturday May 6, 2017

cloudy, maybe up to 8 degrees Installation continues after breakfast. The filter coil apparently still lets air into the hoses. Dialysis treatment continues, the tank is filled, the entire fuel filter was bypassed and directly to the day tank via a canister. The return hose was fixedly mounted in the hopper to fill the tank, secured with a hose clamp and thus secured with some tape. The wonderful scent of old MB hovers around the boat. Let’s go to eat when it was found that the engine is running and now gets a clean fuel from the day tank. Quick pizzas, beers, coffees and back to the boat.

Humes: Even the installation of the day tank took up a large part of Friday due to strange fuel system air problems and the work continued on Saturday morning. To install the tank, two leisure batteries had to be taken out of the way. After that, a 40l tank fit in place, almost as if it was made to measure. The place was so cramped that the filling of it had to be done through a hose and luckily I had bought an electronic sensor and a fuel gauge, otherwise it would be almost impossible to get information about the amount of contents in the day tank. That gauge was installed in the corner of the cabin to hang from its wires. For dialysis, the filling tube was taped to the funnel and a return tube was implanted in the same funnel with a tape. The fuel filter had to be left out as air was generated from some mysterious place and the fuel hose was pulled from the day tank directly to the engine. Fortunately, there was still the original washable filter in the fuel line and it was decided that it was in good condition.

Piccu: Saturday morning came in a cool boat a little wetter than Friday and later the air just cleared. The shower at the harbor office had hot water and breakfast was enjoyed from a table that was still half full of tools, engine parts and supplies. A solution to the engine problem was still being sought with a new filter, but in the end it was decided to use the dialysis method developed the night before. It sucks the clearest possible substance from the surface of the bilge storage tank under reduced pressure into an oil change tank and then it is poured directly into the day tank by means of a funnel, i.e. without a filter. The job wasn’t very easy even in harbor conditions and required the focused effort of at least two men. The fuel return line was directed to the same funnel but quite soon we found that the 1960s MB did not return much material. The machine was started at 12 and it was celebrated in a half-hour test run at sipping beers. There was still a lot of other work to do and I and Jari installed the stern anchor equipment with the cloth reels in good condition.

Markku: Our minibus driver had advised us on the way to the Famila supermarket a couple of miles away, where we loaded bread, vegetables, meat, beer, and a frying pan into a shopping cart. The taxi had to wait in the drizzle for a surprisingly long time. It was wondered if so much food was really needed, and where it would all fit. However, by rearranging the other stuff a bit and putting all the drinks in the bilge, the space was good enough.

Aimo: at 1715 off the pier and pilsner serving; From the “organ flock,” the designation derives from the fact that the helmsman sits in his own compartment behind the cockpit, and is seen only as an upper body, even though his hands are full of work with the helmsman -> looks like an organist.

Towards the north, wind in the nose, fog. Lots of boats sailing outside, int. The 12 G-2, 12 men on deck also sailed toward us.

The wind spins against, the engine works. Even the day tank’s gauge is also plugged in place. Ships sail around, some in the same direction as us and some somewhere. The sun casts light lines from the cracks of the cloud, outdoors in cockpit everyone has overalls and vests on, it was agreed that no one would fall into the sea, the cold north wind blows our faces. The sea gets a strange greasy look.

Humes: The departure from Kiel ​​finally went smoothly on Saturday afternoon. We used the engine to get northeast of Kiel Bay and because of light wind we continued using the engine and installed AIS, though I did not make the transmission-side settings so that AIS would act merely as a receiver. AIS’s two antennas, VHF and GPS, hung on the deck until Piccu later attached them to the bearing antenna. The fixed VHF was still in its purchase package and remained there until June. In addition to the fixed new VHF, I had included a small handheld VHF phone for safety. That VHF had been for years in Johanna. It worked with batteries, so no need to install anything. It would come handy.

Piccu: Kiel is the center of German sailing life and on a sunny afternoon the bay was filled with sailboats competing on their tracks among the busy shipping. We still went ashore for pizza before the ropes were untied at 5pm. The wind had already ended for that day, so engine got to push Ariadne out of Kiel Bay. Ariadne is steered by a smaller rudder, which is placed quite down. It works rigidly and if the helmsman’s attention is distracted for a moment from the compass, for example to view the plotter, the boat immediately escapes its course. Restoring it to the right direction must be done carefully or else the direction will never be stabilized. It’s as if the boat has a rudder engine, but it doesn’t. The arrangement results in the helmsman sitting upright, his hands down and his gaze usually facing down - as if playing a keyboard instrument in focus!

Markku: The quay was left on Saturday afternoon around five. The wind was from behind, but so weak that it was not worth raising the sails yet. Engine reliably pushed us forward, albeit surprisingly slowly compared to the revolutions of the machine (less than 6 kn). Would the propeller be too small?

Aimo: The evening darkens and the sun sinks into the sea, the cold feels and the moisture condenses, the colors of the sea and the sky are amazing. In the saloon, the smell of roasting stakes hovering in the helmsman’s nose. Meals in shifts and guards immediately available, at least two are outside at night. Sails were also tried, but progress was poor. Dialysis treatment continues inside. At the narrowest point between Denmark and Germany, there are ships everywhere, fortunately there are Traffic Lights and AIS shows the situation. There are really a lot of ships and we are really small here in the dark among them.

Piccu: The evening began to dim and the traffic around us decreased. It was quite calm and the water was somehow looking particularly heavy. All in all, great looking. Tuomas was seeing something he thought might be a porpoise. Head chef Markku had come to the conclusion that the steaks had to be eaten as early as the first night. The frying pan did not fit between the hoods, so I fry the steaks at the corner of the pan a few at a time. However, they came good and later we figured out how to get the rest of the iron off the top of the stove. Humes installed or actually tuned into the operation of AIS. He slammed the device’s VHF antenna into the brackets of the rear rail lifebuoy and its cable meandered along the deck. However, the device worked just fine and was necessary when we crossed the busy Rödby-Puttgarten shipping route at midnight.

Baltic sea

Markku: There was no definite information on fuel consumption, it was estimated that a maximum of two and a half liters of diesel would be consumed per hour. Sometimes in the morning, the first dialysis was performed to replenish the day tank. The mainsail was raised at some point to bring a little extra speed to the going. Before that, of course, we had become acquainted with the working principle of Ariadne’s fall winches: how to get the brake of the wire winch on and off, and how to still tie the handle.

As expected, there was a lot of shipping. Rödby-Puttgarten route, of course, we hit the wrong side of night time darkness. However, the AIS just installed by Humes made it easy to track the ships, which greatly calmed my mind.

Aimo:

Sunday 07.05.2017

clear, humid and cold The moonlight gave a bit of its light in the dark night, the ships passing by everywhere. In the morning, the cold penetrates the bones and cores, the sun begins to rise and dawn does not begin until half past five. The sea is still strangely calm, small tensions can be seen on the sea surface. We are somewhere south of Lolland. Piccu and Aimo are outside, the others are sleeping.

Refueling from the bulk canister again on the move and immediately afterwards Dialysis treatment for the day tank, Tuomas and Skipper took care of the job, Tuomas went back to sleep.

Piccu: The night before Sunday, the guard had tried to sail, but when I came to the morning watch, engine was busy again. The air was hazy and over-humid but the sun made its rise and shone from low to straight at five o’clock. There were large wind farms south of Lolland in some area and when at the end of the island, near Gedser, I saw the ship disappearing into the fog, I thought another one was coming from there. The most amazing thing was that I saw passengers on the deck even though it wasn’t six o’clock. Half an hour later I was alone in cockpit when I got the feeling that something was approaching from behind. Sure enough, a flock of porpoises passed Ariadne maybe a couple of meters away! Miraculously, I caught a hasty video showing another animal spinning on the surface. Usually, the phone’s camera never has time for any situation. A couple of porpoises showed up later and at least I got Markku alerted to watch them.

Markku: In the morning, the wind gradually turned to the side and intensified enough that the engine could be shut down and allowed to sail. Ariadne’s 11 tons set off in a surprisingly light wind. Piccu also alerted me at some point out to look at the porpoises he spotted. I also had time to see a glimpse of them, and Piccu got a video clip of them. The wind turned against him, which of course slowed down the journey and made the already cold air feel even colder. However, the guards were spinning, the steaks were being fried, the Möns Klint and the large wind farm were marveled at. Bornholm approached slowly but surely.

Aimo: In the morning watch, Piccu saw porpoises right next to the boat and had a video of the encounter, the others still sleeping. The fog swells and there is low visibility, heading east. Ships erupt from the fog at times to appear.

The sun is slowly starting to warm up and the wind is blowing, the fog is dissipating, there are ships everywhere and we are in the middle of it here and we are avoiding them all. The day begins to dawn and a group of people sit down to admire the bright morning. This may be fine in principle, but we are being driven “in the wrong direction and on the wrong side of this highway of ships”. A forbidden route was crossed, i.e. over the shipping highway that goes towards Bornholm, to the right. The sea breakfast tasted again, smörrebröd, coffee and GD appropriately, Dialysis again. A large windmill park erupted in the middle of the sea.

I went for a nap, day guard mates began to sail wherein the windward bunk sleeping becomes a challenge, despite the high flanks. Sailing, yes but north ?! The limestone cliff at the eastern end of Mönklinte, the island of Funen in Denmark, is handsomely visible on that left, and the bow towards Trelleborg, although the destination is Rönne. The monk is then still visible when I get up from the punk in a couple of hours as the wind has turned and a beat has been made to the north and then to the south again. The monks will then be visible for the next 4 hours when the tacks are almost in same place, progress is still poor. Fortunately, the food supply plays admirably the same as coffee serving, spiced with raisin balls and GD.

Piccu: The South Baltic Sea has a busy shipping traffic that follows a route allocation system. This is nicely reflected on the Marine Traffic page, for example. We were in an awkward place after passing Gedser, as our route was met by a stream of oncoming ships. It is not allowed to do that, but the lanes are wide and the crossing of the whole “street” was quite an accomplishment, as ships came in line so that there was no time to catch up. Eventually it was successful and we got to the allowed sea area where we started sailing after the wind refreshed.

Aimo: The evening is starting to darken again, now we are south of the giant windmill park, probably 100 mills are running slowly on a quieter evening. The sun sets behind the horizon and the darkness descends. The sea settles greasy again. The moon peeps in between, the night is dark, the flashing red lights of passing ships and the windmill park are the only lights that are now visible.

Now it’s evening and the night watchmen, Markku, Piccu, Tuomas and Aimo are on the driving shift. The windmill park is left behind, a hundred or so propellers with flashing red lights at a steady pace. Ariadne crawls east at night. Jari and Skipper are sleeping. The wind lurks, but the direction is towards Rönne. Helluva cold. A tack will wait as soon as we get closer.

Piccu: Möns Klint dominated the landscape all rainy day and in the evening we arrived at the edge of a huge wind farm. It had to go around and, of course, succeeded effortlessly as there was a ship guarding the park. I later found out that this is a German EnBW Baltic 2 field with 80 columns, all with 120-meter diameter pallets. We suspected that half of the electricity generated by the turbines was consumed by their own warning lights, so powerful and abundant they were.

Windpower

Aimo:

Monday 08.05.2017

Jari and Skip crank into the watch, the wind rises at night and Ariadne sails east. We are put to sleep after a night soup made by Markku, the food supply works regularly and excellently. Humes: The watch with Jari started after the night soup. The ships were going in almost all directions and in the dark their progress was difficult to follow. Fortunately, AIS announced their movements early enough, its short VHF antenna managed to pick up the signal at a distance of about 9 miles. A few rain showers in the cold of the night seemed like an exaggeration. A few times I managed to look / see / interpret the Ship’s Lights a little wrong, as the red and green got mixed up at times and thus the ship’s heading threw 180 degrees. However, AIS kept up with the situation, as did Jari. After the watch, sleep came right away.

Aimo: Waking up to a senselessly tilting crouch, the goods are looking for a place in the salon, they have reefed Genoa, the main sail can no longer be reefed. I get into the cockpit and we change the guard. The wind accelerates and the rain begins. Ariadne is heading at about 7 knots to the east. There are a lot of ships everywhere again. One even gave us space, crunches on the bumpy back of the sea, the Rabbits bounce, meaning the wind is briskly over 10 ms and the crunch is forced to bend. An insecure engine now does not start to run. The helmsman is changed at appropriate intervals, Tuomas can no longer eat anything, the stomach rotates, the others do. The young man was put at the helm, where he was just over 2.5 hours, it was no longer a bad feeling when there was more than enough to do. Rönne is visible, but we do not go there but to Hasle’s guest harbor. It means a crunch for the next 3 hours with more unbridled winds only Genoa reefed. The young man at the helm continues. Rain from the north completely wipes out the island from view, large lumps of hail and rain. You can watch fish from the cabin window as the boat tilts. Tack angle is strange, always in front is Rönne. Inside, we study the wind forecasts and sit under the cabin table, so the boat tilts moderately.

Sailing before Bornholm

Markku: Hasle The last twenty miles to Bornholm were full of beat in the intensifying winds and sharp waves. It felt like we took every tack in the wrong place, i.e. the descending shift, and Ariadne’s ascent angle isn’t particularly good anyway. The shape of the old sails has already suffered and the chainplates are also wide. Steering also required getting used to it due to rigid steering and ship-like slow response.

Hasle on the west coast, which I had visited in 2001, had been preliminarily chosen as the port in Bornholm. As Hasle approached, the wind turned so evenly against it that Rønne, further south, began to feel attractive. However, it was stated that it is further away from Finland so we continued towards Hasle.

Piccu: During the night the wind turned against us and by morning it had intensified. Genoa was reefed but the journey went laborious as we approached Bornholm. The port chosen was Hasle, which is the best of the ports on the west coast of the island. However, my own experience is from 1992 and even then I went there by car. Ariadne didn’t mean to get there at all: the whole morning was scribbled on the corner of Bornholm, but after every tack, the bow pointed to Rönne. Handling Ariadne’s big genoa in a high wind tack is tedious, so you dont want to do any extra.

Humes: I woke up on Monday morning to the rush and the difficulty of staying on the punk. I even thought about sleeping in the salon floor, as it would have had a narrow gap between the legs of the table and the bench. It was just a thought, as the going was so fast that sleeping became nothing. Scrambling with an old stretched genoa in a brisk breeze is not a good combination, and the sailing angle was quite shocking as well.

Aimo: Taking a tack one after the other and finally get us towards Hasle harbor. Sails down and engine set in. There is space in the harbor pool and you can settle in the side park. GDs and many beers, and again. 43 hours from Kiel, no one can count the miles when the wire log apparently broke down already at night, the pointer on the meter rotates in a circle.

Humes: However, Hasle approached, and I asked Markku what kind of port it was. We researched the port guide page from Markku’s tablet, and just before the harbor we dropped the sails and started the engine. It started and ran humbly because now there was nothing extra among the fuel. A brisk crunch would most certainly have lifted the old tank bottom garbage into the diesel fuel line and probably shut down the engine at the most critical moment. Accompanied by a brisk wind, we drove into the harbor and my nervousness grew as it was only my third time to berth Ariadne. We continued deeper in the harbor in the direction of the guest places and ended up in the side park, successfully. It was time to enjoy GD and the premium Pilsner. The sun was shining and I even imagined it was warming.

Piccu: Eventually, a course towards the port was obtained and, based on the nautical chart of the tablet, an entrance opening was also found. There was one pleasure boat in the harbor so the side mooring was easily found. It had been 43 hours since Kiel departure. It rained only lightly, so a few beers and GD easily drifted in the cockpit.

Bornholm and Hasle, the sun almost warms

Markku: We arrived to a almost empty harbor on Monday at noon. The sun was shining almost warmly, and a couple of hours passed to enjoy it and the beer. After going to the shower (where I forgot my shell jacket that someone had already stolen by evening - two Polish fishing boats were going to the harbor…) Humes, Aimo, Tuomas and Jari went looking for a food store when Piccu and I stayed to unload the old heater under the seat box. Old Eberspächer was a respectable-looking, meter-long dude, but its restoration had already previously been found by Humes to be a hopeless chore. So there was a new Webasto on the way that needed nothing more than fixing, electrical installation, arranging fuel supply and installing an exhaust pipe.

Piccu: The harbor has a nice service building and a harbor guard’s office at its corner. When I visited there, there was a guard on site, even though the harbor was quite deserted. I received instructions on how to make the port payment using a vending machine on the wall as well as a loan for an electrical adapter. A large part of the crew went to the food store, where they even brought a basket of bottled beer. I wondered about the purchase because the bow was still full of cylinders acquired from Kiel, but these were reportedly a souvenir. Markku was worried that the boat did not have a heater and, by his nature, took action to correct the matter.

Aimo: But we are here now and we put the clothes to dry. There is little wind at this point and it is almost warm what fatigue now weighs on. We tried the fur hats acquired by the skipper, they are good.

The sun began to shine and the air turned to spring, but did not warm up.

We set out for the city in search of shopping and dining. All the restaurants are still closed, the season starts in the spring… We walked in a quiet town and took photos. More beer and important supplies were bought from the store. Piccu and Markku unloaded the old Ebersprächer heater on the pier since it had to be given freedom, it had stopped working, but it was taken back on board for later use. It can even be sold to Russians as a modern torpedo. The whole cockpit was upside down and full of stuff. Some of the crew took a shower and the evening begins to darken again. Evening beers therefore and from going straight to sleep, no need to wait for sleep.

Humes: After a Beer and GD, crew was divided, where Jari, Aimo, Tuomas and I went to the store to replenish food and beverage stocks and Markku and Piccu remained with Ariadne.

We walked pretty deserted streets of Hasle and finally found a grocery store. The supplies to be purchased filled several shopping carts. I was a little worried as I was looking at the shelf range looking for a GD but saw none. Eventually, the shelf was found right next to the checkout, and Bornholms Bitter grabbed, which is very close to GD. A few beer packs also came along in addition to groceries.

Arriving at Ariadne, a confusing sight awaited since Markku had begun to install the heater by removing a few cubic meter of stuff from the storage space on the starboard side of the cockpit and had moved old Ebersprächer to the pier.

The rest of the journey in the next Bule.

Next -> Kiel - Inkoo - part 2 , previous -> To Kiel