Chapter 22

Well, Wendy and I found out that it is possible to sail ... or motor ... from Kiuruvesi north of Kupio to Savonlinna.

Savonlinna is the home of Olavinlinna, a 15th-century three-tower castle located in on an island in the lake. It is the northernmost medieval stone fortress still standing.

All together, we spent more than three weeks making the voyage from Kupio to the town of Savonlinna.

I will not enumerate nor bore you with the major excursions into dead ends and shallows we were directed to by all manner of jokers, cards and malicious state and national bureaucrats and their minions.

I shall restrain myself and refrain from recording the high cost of provisions at nearby groceries or the outrageous cost of diesel fuel at marina pumps.

A simple walk of two or three city blocks cut the cost of food in half. And the vegetables were fresher and cheaper at the many farmers markets.

A friendly discussion with a service station employee would have us directed to a ramshackle dock of some absent fisherman where we would be met by a tanker truck and bought fuel at reasonable prices. We learned to dock at municipal docks rather than marina or yacht club and walk to spend the night at a guest house where we used the hot shower to our mutual satisfaction.

Neither of us could understand the single handed voyages ... first to England and then the interminable voyages to the Americas. Gods ... such boredom!

Savonlinna to just east of Lappeenranta was accomplished mostly by beating against the westerly wind. Eventually, we switched on and motored. We discovered the power of the engine to be deficient.

We went on to the east side of Lappeenranta and by river and Finnish and Russian canals to Vyborg.

We had an English speaking Russian river pilot with us from the Sumoi/Russian border to Vysotsk. And we very glad of it. His name, being unpronounceable, became Ivan.

Ivan had our particulars for the boat and our passports for the various busybodies that flock to any petty bureaucratic office.

He recruited officers and men from the Czars Imperial Navy to help us lower the mast the three times that the bridges were too low.

Re-rigging is a pain in the ass. Enough said.

We wished to explore Vyborg but something military was afoot and Ivan the pilot rushed us through.

Vysotsk was flocked with Russian battleships. Ivan left us and we were escorted over the border by an armed and ready to fire cruiser. The barrel of an eight inch gun is awesome.

Once we were out of Russian waters we set sail for Helsinki. Our intention and final destination? Jyväskylä.

In this far northern part of the world, summer is one hundred days. In the middle of the hundred days is a two month period when the sun never sets. 86 thousand four hundred minutes of continuous sunshine. Even down south ... it is to laugh ... near St. Pietersbourg ... the night was very light.

In Savonlinna we had a canvas shop sew up a set of blackout curtains so we could sleep. This necessitated the installation of grommets and snaps to hold the curtains fast.

Winter came before we raised Helsinki. We had the kind folks at Syväsatama haul the boat and arranged for inside heated storage. While we were making arrangements for the boat, the ships chandler in Helsinki sent a surveyor out on his yearly rounds checking the fishing fleet.