Kizhi Island to and through the canals - going up 11.7.2011
Minka of Southampton - Cruising Log
Edmund Wigan
Sun 17 Jul 2011 12:49
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Position N62 52.52 E34 51.30 Entrance to the
Canals
We finally left Kitzi Island just before 1200
on the 10th July and it is now 1730 on the 11 July. From Kitzi it was another
50nm to the Canal
across Lake Onega.We managed to sail some of this
in very light winds and met up with the rest of the Regatta at 0100
today.
The only event on the way was meeting up with some
locals who came and had a chat.
 It looked like a complete family with at least two
children. You can see how flat and calm it was. By the time we got to the canal
it was as dark as it gets.
 and then we went into the first lock
 You can see the lead boat and Pursey another
Russian boat are rafted together. We had 14 pairs of locks to climb up with one
odd one. We paired up the boats and they kept rafted together between locks.
This speeded things up and it took about four hours to get through. A few lock
pictures.
 I hope this shows the power of the water swirling
in to fill the lock.
 Travelling in pairs. We were rafted to the German
boat Seeadler who did the driving.
 Between the locks there were some small
settlements. We only met one large cruise ship going through this canal. Between
some locks there are small lakes about the size of Windermere.
 but there are also narrow bits like this. In the
morning whilst Michael was asleep our friends on Seeadler cooked an English
breakfast, well at least bacon eggs and bread.
 We have now started going down again and been
through two sets of downhill locks but there are 50 nm to the next set. In total
we climb 70mts up and 120 mts down by lock. It is now 1800 and we don't expect
to stop until we are out of the canal in about 24 hrs. We did stop at noon for a
swim which was great. The water temperature is 26C so it is no hardship diving
in off the boat. After that I decided to do some washing as it was a very
warm day until a black cloud came over complete with a terrific thunderstorm. My
washing is now well rinsed.
There is still some security around as since
daylight each lock has had an armed guard. One was not amused when I took this
photo whilst he was watching me.......
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