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My friend Sami Uotila and I decided to cross the Gulf of Finland bywindsurfing from Helsinki, Finland to Tallinn, Estonia. The distance is about85kin. It's been tried and done couple of times before. At least Gustaf Salmelin,ex-windsurfer, and some Estonians made it quite a while ago. Both times, as faras I know, it took 11 or more hours to complete.
We waited a couple weeks for the wind to be from the right direction andof a suitable strength and during that time we consulted constantly with ourexclusive meteorologist, and windsurfing friend, Petri Takala, the weathermanfrom the TV channel MTV3. We had a safety boat with Jussi Honka, the bassplayer from the band Cosmos as captain, his gMfriend Mape as crew, and Laineas photographer and video recorder.
For such a long trip you must have100％ confidence in the equipment youchoose.We all had suunto GPSs to take care of navigation and Mr.Eljas fromSuunto had loaded our planned route on them ready for us.
The bards to be used were Formula windsurfing boards.The sails werechosen depending on the wind.
On the day,Mr.Takala predicted the wind to be the lightest in the middle ofthe Gulf of Finland and strongest near both coasts.In the worst-case scenario,the wind might die out altogether in the middle of the gulf.As we were about to start from Helsinki I was a bit hesitant.
The wind seemed to be really light. We had to take our biggestsails. I was nervous because if the wind dropped just a bit, wewouldn't be able to carry out our plan and I knew that if the windpicked up to +12 knots those sails would really be a handfuI. Iwished for a bit stronger wind, to have more margin for the windto either drop or rise and still be able to finish the trip. Sami (asalways) was full on and raring to go, so we started.
At first we could barely plane9, and we had to go upwind. Atthat point I didn't believe we could make the trip. But as we gota bit further out from the pier, the wind picked up nicely and wecould point effectively upwind. When we headed downwind tothe open sea I started to think that we could make the trip and Ialso clicked on the GPS. Now our cruise was really a treat, blueskies, a nice breeze and cruising fast past the sailing boats comingand going. The huge passenger ferries were also there, with decksfull of people waving to us.
Afterwards my fellow windsurfer and competitor JuhaBlinnikka, who was on one of the ferries told me that we lookedlike couple of fighter planes flying in tight formation through thesailboats. After a while we started hearing a low and loud enginenoise, at first 1 tried to look at the sky to see if it was a coastguardor charter helicopter, but I soon discovered it to be a car ferry, afast catamaran. We had to point really hard downwind to get outof the way of it, and as it passed us, its wake was like a swell.From then on, from time to time, it felt like we were driving near a bus-lane, as the ferry traffic is quite something between Helsinkiand Tallinn.
Luckily, however, there was also something I was lookingforward to; those nice calm moments of cruising on the silentopen sea, when there was nobody but us and the empty horizon.I cruised with Sami, playing catch and passing each other asclosely as possible. It was alsoreally funny to see the surprisedfaces of the sailors that we metin the middle of nowhere. Theyprobably thought that we werethere on our own, our safety boatbeing a bit further back.
Navigating was really easy all the way, with my Suunto pointing the way andshowing our speed and headings. Then the wind started to go down, as our forecasterhad predicted. After a while we started to really struggle to stay on plane. We had totake a couple of breaks as our muscles felt the pain of forcing the board to go as deepdownwind as possible, and to stay on plane at the same time. That's a really hardcombination to do in light winds! As we got closer to the Estonian coast the windpicked up quite a bit, getting stronger the closer we got. We were so exhausted thatit wasn't possible just to relax and go, so we had to use all our strength to control theboards and sails. Because the light wind had earlier made it impossible to go deepenough downwind, we ended up quite a bit east of our desired route.
The planned route was to go west from the island of Aegna to Pirita harborpassport-control. Sami suggested that we pass Aegna from the east, which would havebeen a nice shortcut for us. I had previously been racing at the Aegna windsurfingmarathon Baltic cup finals in Tallinn, and recalled that it was too shallow betwee.Aegnaand the Estonian coast on the east side. Our fins were 70cm deep, so I really didn't wantto take the risk. So we decided to take a look at the sea Chart at Aegna's beach We got tothe nice sandy beach of Aegna, took a breath, checked the chart an confirmedhad to go by the western route. As we were about to get going again two men from theEstonian "Piirivalve" (the border guard) arrived. They asked very nicely What We weredoing and where we came from. After they heard our stow, they made it very clear thatwe shouldn't have come ashore before Pirita harbor and passport-control.
Anyway, they told us to pack our windsurfing-gear on our safety boar and gostraight to the passport-control. We then went by boat to the passport control and theyasked about our crossing. As everything else was really ok,they just gave us an officialwritten "don't do that again!" note. So, to our great relief, we did't go to jail or haveto pay any fine. The route my Suunto recorded was 84km, starting some 10 km offthe coast. My average speed, including all breaks, was 19.4km/h whih a top speed of35.4km/h. So this is a new wmdsurfing record for crossing the Gulf of Finland.
We waited a couple weeks for the wind to be from the right direction andof a suitable strength and during that time we consulted constantly with ourexclusive meteorologist, and windsurfing friend, Petri Takala, the weathermanfrom the TV channel MTV3. We had a safety boat with Jussi Honka, the bassplayer from the band Cosmos as captain, his gMfriend Mape as crew, and Laineas photographer and video recorder.
For such a long trip you must have100％ confidence in the equipment youchoose.We all had suunto GPSs to take care of navigation and Mr.Eljas fromSuunto had loaded our planned route on them ready for us.
The bards to be used were Formula windsurfing boards.The sails werechosen depending on the wind.
On the day,Mr.Takala predicted the wind to be the lightest in the middle ofthe Gulf of Finland and strongest near both coasts.In the worst-case scenario,the wind might die out altogether in the middle of the gulf.As we were about to start from Helsinki I was a bit hesitant.
The wind seemed to be really light. We had to take our biggestsails. I was nervous because if the wind dropped just a bit, wewouldn't be able to carry out our plan and I knew that if the windpicked up to +12 knots those sails would really be a handfuI. Iwished for a bit stronger wind, to have more margin for the windto either drop or rise and still be able to finish the trip. Sami (asalways) was full on and raring to go, so we started.
At first we could barely plane9, and we had to go upwind. Atthat point I didn't believe we could make the trip. But as we gota bit further out from the pier, the wind picked up nicely and wecould point effectively upwind. When we headed downwind tothe open sea I started to think that we could make the trip and Ialso clicked on the GPS. Now our cruise was really a treat, blueskies, a nice breeze and cruising fast past the sailing boats comingand going. The huge passenger ferries were also there, with decksfull of people waving to us.
Afterwards my fellow windsurfer and competitor JuhaBlinnikka, who was on one of the ferries told me that we lookedlike couple of fighter planes flying in tight formation through thesailboats. After a while we started hearing a low and loud enginenoise, at first 1 tried to look at the sky to see if it was a coastguardor charter helicopter, but I soon discovered it to be a car ferry, afast catamaran. We had to point really hard downwind to get outof the way of it, and as it passed us, its wake was like a swell.From then on, from time to time, it felt like we were driving near a bus-lane, as the ferry traffic is quite something between Helsinkiand Tallinn.
Luckily, however, there was also something I was lookingforward to; those nice calm moments of cruising on the silentopen sea, when there was nobody but us and the empty horizon.I cruised with Sami, playing catch and passing each other asclosely as possible. It was alsoreally funny to see the surprisedfaces of the sailors that we metin the middle of nowhere. Theyprobably thought that we werethere on our own, our safety boatbeing a bit further back.
Navigating was really easy all the way, with my Suunto pointing the way andshowing our speed and headings. Then the wind started to go down, as our forecasterhad predicted. After a while we started to really struggle to stay on plane. We had totake a couple of breaks as our muscles felt the pain of forcing the board to go as deepdownwind as possible, and to stay on plane at the same time. That's a really hardcombination to do in light winds! As we got closer to the Estonian coast the windpicked up quite a bit, getting stronger the closer we got. We were so exhausted thatit wasn't possible just to relax and go, so we had to use all our strength to control theboards and sails. Because the light wind had earlier made it impossible to go deepenough downwind, we ended up quite a bit east of our desired route.
The planned route was to go west from the island of Aegna to Pirita harborpassport-control. Sami suggested that we pass Aegna from the east, which would havebeen a nice shortcut for us. I had previously been racing at the Aegna windsurfingmarathon Baltic cup finals in Tallinn, and recalled that it was too shallow betwee.Aegnaand the Estonian coast on the east side. Our fins were 70cm deep, so I really didn't wantto take the risk. So we decided to take a look at the sea Chart at Aegna's beach We got tothe nice sandy beach of Aegna, took a breath, checked the chart an confirmedhad to go by the western route. As we were about to get going again two men from theEstonian "Piirivalve" (the border guard) arrived. They asked very nicely What We weredoing and where we came from. After they heard our stow, they made it very clear thatwe shouldn't have come ashore before Pirita harbor and passport-control.
Anyway, they told us to pack our windsurfing-gear on our safety boar and gostraight to the passport-control. We then went by boat to the passport control and theyasked about our crossing. As everything else was really ok,they just gave us an officialwritten "don't do that again!" note. So, to our great relief, we did't go to jail or haveto pay any fine. The route my Suunto recorded was 84km, starting some 10 km offthe coast. My average speed, including all breaks, was 19.4km/h whih a top speed of35.4km/h. So this is a new wmdsurfing record for crossing the Gulf of Finland.