Jumbuck - Baltic Rally - Klintholm, Mon, Denmark

Klintholmm is a small pretty holiday village, resident population 210, set on the south coast of the island of Mon. The Baltic Rally team chose this as our final port of the event, closest to Copenhagen yet still on a route back to the North Sea, and last night we enjoyed a bus trip, lunch and tour of the big smoke, then a wind up dinner and party in a local restaurant in Klintholm.Only 16 boats were represented out of the original compliment of 28. The others had either pulled out earlier to get back to home ports influenced by recent adverse weather, or left their boats at Kalmar aiming to winter them there, and return for more baltic cruising next summer.The pilot books say Klintholm allows 24 hour access but I have to say, with these gales / near gales raging from the SW, the narrow. read more...

Jumbuck - ARC Baltic - Leg 10 Kalmar Sweden to Mon Denmark

I'm guessing it was the Nordic Gods either giving us a farewell display or warning us not to come back, but this time they all came out to show off. This last leg of the Baltic Rally was a leg that will be hard to forget.We had all ummed and ahhed Tuesday on Kamlars jetties, everyone asking everyone else what their route plans might be, as it was pretty obvious from all forecasts that along the way, we were going to have to deal with some heavy weather. It was simply each skippers choice of when and where.The rally team had allocated three days to make this 180 mile passage, but with even heavier weather due to arrive by the weekend, our decision was to complete the leg in one hop, as we wanted to be well tucked up in Mons before the really bad stuff arrived. So first question was, when. read more...

Jumbuck - Baltic Rally Leg 9 - Stockholm Sweden to Kalmar Sweden

It's taken us four days to cover the 200 odd miles down Swedens east coast to fetch up in Kalmar, set low down on the coast where the Kalmar Sound is at its narrowest, and the impressive Orland bridge joins Orland island to the mainland.The weathers now changing swiftly as the Baltics summer season is coming to an end. The mornings now have a real freshness about them, and we're seeing more than our fair share of thunderstorms, rain squalls, and bursts of high winds. In between, we've still enjoyed some super sunny spells, but you can understand why the local sailors are mostly heading home - and not just to get ready for their coming winter months.The night before we left Stockholm we got something special. I awoke at 5 am when the first spatters of rain hit, making me consider going on. read more...

Jumbuck - ARC Baltic Leg 8 - Arland Finland to Stockholm Sweden

We've had two days to cover this leg, and the Rally team provided a list of suggested anchorages we could make use of if we didn't fancy using one of the many guest marinas in the region.Brilliant sail from Mariehamn across the 30 miles of open Baltic from the Arland islands into Swedens eastern archipeligo. With a course heading WSS and a stiff SE breeze, Jumbuck creamed along before at times, 17 knots of breeze. The code 0 proved its worth yet again, but couldn't stop our new race mates, Capriai the Norwegians fast 45 footer. She came past us like we were standing still - and we weren't!Eventually wound our way into the Swedish archipeligo and early evening, dropped anchor in a paradise type bay on the small islet of Findhamn to break the journey. We were not alone. As well as half a. read more...

Jumbuck - Baltic Rally Leg 7 - Helsinki Finland to Arland, Finland

We really enjoyed our few day in Helsinki, wandering off to check out design museums along with some furniture shops. One can't help but be impressed with the volume of great styling that comes from this relatively lowly populated country. I thought it was all wonderful stuff.Not cheap, but them most things here appear built to last, and as the locals tell you in faultless English, quality has a cost.We then had a beautiful few days cruising our way westward through the thousands of islands, with the fleet dissipating as we all made differing choices on the anchorages chosen each night. Sailing or motoring after dark would not be recommended as very few of the channel marks are lit. It's hard enough keeping track of where you are and where your going during daylight hours, and you can't. read more...