A long hard day

Moorglade's Voyage
Ted Wilson
Sun 4 Sep 2016 08:01

Our position is 57:23.624N 21:32.042E

Distance covered 66.7 Nm

We were still waiting for some winds from a Northerly sector but wanted to shorten the distance for the long passage south, so we decided to bite the bullet and head out through the Irbinski Strait, leaving the Gulf of Riga and making Ventspils in Latvia our jumping off port. Also strong winds and rain were expected for the following two days and delightful as Kuressaare was it offered little to occupy us for a prolonged layover. The forecast was not ideal but we were hoping for a much larger westerly component than actually materialised.

We left at first light and it was cold and still as we made our way down the shallow channel, past the unlit buoys. The sea state was slight while we had the shelter provided by the Sorve peninsula and there was no other shipping about. As we lost the shelter the sea state got rougher and our speed dropped as we headed into the wind. The motion was very uncomfortable and once through the Irbinski Strait it became a case of gritting our teeth and hoping the hull could withstand the shock of banging down off the waves. We debated turning back but in the end it seemed to risk compromising the future passage back to Fehmarn in favourable conditions so we gritted out teeth and ploughed on.

It was a very long, hard, cold day. We finally made it into Ventspils over 13 hours after leaving Kuressaare to be faced by an unexpected and challenging mooring system to deal with. The stern buoys were attached to the shore with long tight lines, which had insufficient slack to put round our cleats. There was a strong crosswind blowing so the risk of fouling the prop on the line on the other side was high. The harbourmaster tried to be helpful but his English was limited. It might have been easier if we had picked up the buoy with our own warp in the normal way but in the heat of the moment you try to deal with what you find. Later we looped our warp round the lines provided to control the sideways movement but it was still tricky to manage fore and aft position. After the horrible day neither of us was firing on all cylinders.

Finally tied up but the sky is very threatening. There were many fishing boats in the larger harbour area.

The following day was very wet and windy but the day after we cycled into the town. There had obviously been much work done to improve the infrastructure and a there was new block paving everywhere, including the roads. (EU money and I guess it provided plenty of jobs) There were also many models of cows as a result of an earlier project, which brightened up the town.

Around the yacht pontoon the scenery is a bit bleak

Rough seas outside

Market operating the following day even though it was Sunday

 

Clock in the market square

The church

Views around the town

 

    

  Features in the park and the famous flower clock

  There were several beautiful public parks and gardens

travelling

 engineer

vain

 illuminated

police

 stone

on the harbour wall

international

And of course the cows!