... try and find us

At sea. We were crossing the Baltic Sea, going from Helsinki to the Swedish archipelago. It was almost midnight and the sun had just taken a quick bow beneath the horizon. A ferry was passing us, under engine in the twilight. I took a picture of the ferry as it went by us and hailed the night watchperson on the VHF radio. “Your ship looks marvellous in this light. Would you mind taking a picture of us?” The next day, as we sail into mobile phone coverage, an email arrives. Sent via email from the Viking Ship Gabriella, from Watch Officer Ronja Åström Looks like he used his binoculars to get a closer picture. He said in the email, Here are all the pictures we managed to take, sorry we don’t have that good cameras here. No worries, Ronja.  Those pictures are perfect.

It never really gets dark this time of year. The sun traced its way diagonally across the sky, we had a lovely run of good winds pushing us towards Tallinn. Even though it was well past 11 pm local time, there was still enough ambient light to read a book. Our first views of the port of Tallinn We dropped our sails as we approached the port, fully aware that we would need to be maneuverable around the large ferries and cruise ships that were coming and going past us.  We radioed ahead to be granted permission to enter the harbour, then watched for the swinging pedestrian bridge that we would again have to call on the radio to ask that it be opened.  By 01:00 we were tied up in our berth.  None of us knew exactly what to expect from this former Soviet-Bloc country. A bit bleary from a night passage, but happy to be here. Prior to us arriving, Pat had found a walking tour and signed all three of us up.  Having that scheduled gave us a reason to put ou...