Author: Dan

Lithuania Road Trip 2022

Lithuania is tucked between Latvia and the Russian province of Kaliningrad on the Baltic. Klaipeda is the only port city of any significance and became our base during our visit to Lithuania. Due to our size, we could not fit in the marina and were directed to a spot along the canalized river wall behind a naval destroyer. The following day we relocated to a quieter spot that also had power.

We were very fortunate to have a friend in Lithuania, Algimantas Bublys. Algimas was a neighbor of ours in Coconut Grove who summers in his native Lithuania. We kept in touch after he moved to Arizona and he offer to be our guide when we visited Lithuania.

After a couple of days of site seeing in Klaipeda, Algimas joined us for one night on the boat. We then set off for resort town of Palanga with its Amber Museum and great beaches. Then on to Kretinga, where we visited the local castle with it’s amazing greenhouse and had lunch in the restored village.

On route to Plunge where we stayed overnight, we stopped to visit Algimas’s friends restored mill house in Zemaitija National Park. Also in another part of the part was the Cold War museum with its extensive underground missile set up…spooky.

Plunge is a city of about 25,000 and hosts the beautiful Oginskio Rumai (Castle) and its grounds. In the winter, this town is a ski resort. On route the next day to Siaullai, we stopped at the Hill of Crosses. During the Russian occupation, locals would plant a cross on this hill, then more crosses would come, then the Russian bulldozers would come, then a new cross would come….resistance. In Siaullai we were able to visit one of the many arenas that Algimas designed over his architectural career, both in the US and the Baltics. This arena featured a very unusual glass that changed color depending on the angle of the sun.

We made one more stop in Kedainai on our route to Kaunas. The old town of Kedainai dates to the 17th century and is one of oldest in Lithuania. This town was in remarkably good condition with it’s beautiful cathedral.

Kaunas is one of those places few Americans will ever see as it is inland without a major airport, port or river cruise. Aside from being very charming it houses the larges Art Deco church in the world, an extremely ornate Basillica and spires that reflect it’s role as a Hanseatic City. Over the entire summer we tried to visit as many of the Hanseatic League (a trading block in the middle ages) as possible….we stopped at a least 25.

On route to Vilnius, we stopped at the ‎⁨Trakai Historical National Park⁩, home of the Island Fortress dating from the 14th century in Gothic style. Mostly restored, this was a half day visit to tour the half that remains today.

When we got to Vilnius, we could immediately sense this was Algimas’s home city. Fortresses, churches, museums, public sculptures, medical streets, fashion shopping districts and many restaurants. ‎⁨Gediminas Castle Tower being a favorite as one can tell from the pictures.

Leaving Algimas, we headed straight back to Klaipeda, naturally with a couple of stops along the way to see a castle, fort, church or have lunch. Arriving back in Klaipeda, we discovered all the roads into the city were closed off….another festival. After explaining our situation, we finally got back to the boat. We were now surrounded by an amusement park, concert set up, vendors tents lining both sides of the river and Fleet Week for the Baltic navies.

Dan ended up with three Polish sailors on the boat taking pictures with the flag and drinking a lot of beer. The following morning we were headed for Poland, having to skirt around the Russian province of Kaliningrad…by skirt I mean 25 miles off shore. Turns out our new sailor friends where on Polish warship 241 and returning to Poland also tomorrow…now we had an escort.⁩

The following day we sprinted around the Russian port of Kaliningrad and pulled into Gdansk, Poland. We did not need our Polish naval friends.

Click on photo to see album

Latvia 2022

Latvia is one of the former Soviet Baltic countries that got its freedom in 1991. With a population of about two million, it is about the size of New Jersey. Like Estonia, it also borders Russia. It’s capital is the lovely city of Riga, a port city on the Baltic on the north side of the country.

We walked our typical 10 miles a day in Riga thru it’s parks, into its churches and museums with a stop now an again for a beer or a meal. The Design Museum was very special.

In Riga we rented a car for a couple of day road trip. First stop was Cesis to view the castle, turns out it was the weekend of the music festival. Europeans LOVE festivals. Then on to Jelgava along the Lielupe River. Great new waterfront with athletic facilities and an amazing sculpture garden. The tourist office was in the former tower of the church, the only remains of the church after the war.

Next stop was Bauska with its medieval castle that has recently been restored at great expense, again. We learned that many of these castles and entire cities were raided, sieged, burned, rebuilt, burned……over and over. This one was built in the 1500’s for the Teutonic Knights. Nearby was Rundale Palace built 1736-68. This is on par with Versailles with its gardens and art works. Two more stops on this road trip took us to Durbes Pils and Turadia Castle. Before returning to Riga, we stopped at the resort area of Jermala and enjoyed a walk on the beach.

Back on the boat, our next stop was Ventspils on the east coast. This had been an important Russian Baltic Naval port city, now undergoing a complete rejuvenation. The waterfront area was beautiful, but still an emerging area. On to Liepaja, another major port city undergoing a rebirth.

We were struck time and again with the energy we felt in the Baltic countries and their fear of falling under the Russian influence once again. We were also impressed with the big fleets of Latvian built electric buses in most every city we visited.

Click on the photo to see the album

Leaving Helsinki it was a quick 35 mile run over to Tallin, the capital of Estonia, where we docked at their in city marina. Estonia is one of our favorite countries and Tallin a favorite city. The medival wall still surrounds the old city with its wonderful architecture. We could walk for days.

We took the train over to Narva on the Russian boarder to see it we could poke the bear in the nose. Here are fortresses on either bank of the Narva River with a single bridge across the border. One would never guess there was a war going in the region.

Next day, another train to Tartu in the center of the country. Here was the Museum of Estonia, one the very best museums we have ever visited, wonderful vignettes of people over time. Back on the boat, we headed to Dirhami on the eastern side of the country. While there was not much there, we were very pleasantly surprised by the marina facility. Next day it was on to Haapsula adjacent to the Estonian Baltic islands. The Bishops Castle restoration was a highlight of the city.

The Estonian Islands are very recreational oriented with great hikes, bike trails and beaches. As the island marinas are small and crowed, we decided to rent a car and explore the area. We worked our way down to Virtsu where the ferry crosses to the islands….except in the winter where they drive across the ice about 20 miles. We stumbled into lunch at the Padeste Yacht Club, smallest in the world and enjoyed a wonderful conversation with the manager. Then on to Kuressaare Castle in Arensburg , what an incredible amount of earth moving.

While we had hoped to get over to Parnu, the weather would not cooperative, so it was a straight run down to Riga.

Click on the photo to go to the album.

Sweden to Finland 2022

Having explored the Stockholm archipelago with Wes and Alexis, we decided to make a direct run to Marieholm, the capital of the Aland Islands. Following what we refer to as our ‘stumble in’ policy, we arrive in the Islands on the 100th anniversary of their independence, quite a celebration.

Arriving on the west side, after a night we decided to more around to the east side that was closer to the center of town and a friendlier marina. Before moving, we visited the wonderful Maritime Museum and four masted 1903 300’ four masted s/v Pommern built in 1903. Over 10% of the workforce on the island are skippers or crews on ships today.

Instead of trying to boat around the entire main island, we rented a car and did a full island tour including Kastelholm Castle dating from the 14th century. Returning to the marina, Marcia got word of the passing of her friend Carla’s husband, Don. It was important Marcia return to the states for the services and a good visit with Carla. The marina was most accommodating in extending our stay for a week.

Dockside we had met local residents and boaters Marie and Edgar. They had offered any assistance we might need, Dan took Edgar up on the offer and the two of them changed out the failed alternator that charged the engine batteries.

Marcia was back on board the evening of the 22nd after four flights from Valdosta, GA to Marieholm, Finland. The next morning we off the dock and headed thru the island toward Helsinki. By islands, I mean thousands of all sizes with many of the larger ones connected by ferries. At Degerby we met Merit and William who were kind enough to invite us for a glass of wine at their home under construction on nearby island. What a great set up they have and are wonderful hosts.

We also met Gustav who was swimming from Stockholm to Helsinki, 350 miles as a fundraiser to Baltic Swim. We would meet again the next day in Kokar where Gustav and his crew helped us get tied to the dock in very stiff winds. Imagine needing 6,000 calories a day to swim 10 miles in 50-60 degree water.

Weaving our way thru the rocks and islands, next stop was Borsto. Again, they would accommodate us dockside in the Guesthamen. Any boat over 15 meters, 49 feet is considered oversized. Borsto was a farming island with four families and a small guest house and restaurant.

Hanko was our first stop on the mainland. This is beautiful resort community with many homes built by Russians in the mid to late 1800’s. We enjoyed a few days of wandering the island and enjoying the restaurants.

Ekenas was a bit of a diversion up a river where the water actually got up into the 70’s. The harbormaster was nice enough to tie us up to the major restaurant dock for the night. Last stop before Helsinki was Porkkala where we anchored up in a small bay for the night and slept on the foredeck.

We found very accommodating dockage at Marina Bay in downtown Helsinki. Returning to the city, we were reminded of how much we enjoy this city. 

Click on the photo to see the album

Stockholm Archipelago 2022

Arriving back Wasa Yachts, we found True East floating at the dock as scheduled. After a few hours of checking all systems we headed to the marina at Södertälje were we could easily provision and get the boat ready for our first, and perhaps only, guests of the season. Wes and Alexis arrived right on schedule; however, their luggage was still in Zurich. The luggage was promised to be delivered by noon the following day.

Noon arrived with no luggage, so we set out with new instructions to deliver the luggage to our first stop at Mariefred on Lake Maleren, home of the marvelous Grisholm Castle. Great visit there, still no luggage. Ok, we will head into Stockholm as scheduled and perhaps will be able to take a quick side trip to the airport for the luggage. This time we knew enough to make dockage reservations at the Glashuest in downtown Stockholm. Luggage was secured as Wes was smart enough to put Air tag’s in each piece and found them at the airport.

A day of sightseeing in Stockholm took us to the Wasa Museum and the Princ Eugens Museum together with a long walk along the park. This turned out to be National Day in Sweden with a Marathon, Auto and Boat Show, Military exhibits and the Nato Fleet for maneuvers led by an American Assault Carrier, the city was crazy.

We then headed out to Vaxholm with its Fortress. Sure glad we were docked before the season really got underway, it was the 5th of June. Dan and Marcia really wanted to sea trial a new boat built in Sweden, the Candela C8. This is an electric foiling boat. Alexander from Candela picked us up the dock in a C7 and after a 15 minute ride, we toured the factory and inspected the C8s under construction. No C8 available, will have to wait for Ft Lauderdale boat show.

Later that day we headed north up the Archipelago to the resort at Marholmen. We enjoyed a wonder dinner, hikes around the property and a round of miniature golf. One more stop on this trip was the inland of Grinda to the east, primarily a natural preserve. Again, we enjoyed off season dockage. The ‘high’ season here is July 1 – Aug 15….how in the world do you make a living or get a return on investment in 45 days?

Wes and Alexis had to leave us on the 9th to travel to Scotland and Dan had some concern over the engine batteries so we returned to Stockholm for another day of great food and sightseeing. Having slow cruised the Archipelago, we all got a taste for life in this area of thousands of island. We also got a chance to introduce Wes and Alexis to our cruising life and hope they will join us again for another adventure.

Click on the photo to access the slide show.

TE Return to Sodertalje

Leaving Marstrand we headed for Varberg and fueled up there. Most of the boaters in the Nordic countries are sailors, no wonder with diesel costing as much as $10/gallon. With a forecast for a calm day on The Sound, we decided to run the 100 miles down to Copenhagen so we could enjoy the Danish food. Dan is convinced that the school for chefs in Sweden is only four days – hamburger, pizza, klucking salad and shrimp with mayo on toast (HPK&S), with this you are trained to run any restaurant kitchen in Sweden. The locals say that since Covid the quality is the restaurants has really fallen. 

We managed to return to our exact spot on the Nyhaven Canal and spend an afternoon at Trivoli Gardens, one of the oldest amusement parks in the world. We love Copenhagen and consider Denmark to be the best of the Nordic countries.

Leaving Copenhagn, we continued south, then east along the coast which is pretty barren. In the end we were bucking 4-6’ seas as we pulled in the Simrishamns. The boating season is over in the part of the world in mid August, so by the end of the month the Guesthamns are pretty empty. Every town has a Guesthamn or Guest Harbor some with nearly as many moorings as the residents, in season a reservation is mandatory.

As we rounded the corner and started up the east coast we started again to get into the coastal island that provided both interest and shelter. Karlskrona was our next stop and a major naval port since the 12th century. The naval museum was a gem. After a visit of several days we moved onto Kalmar, one of Swedens larger cities.

On entering the harbor, the Swedish Coast guard approached and ask to board us. No check of safety equipment but a thorough check of our paperwork including the VAT temporary import document we went all the way to Norway to secure. They also performed a breathalyzer on the Captain who was drinking 2.8% beer in Sweden. The highlight of Kalmar is the magnificent castle/fortress dating from the 12th century and site of the Kalmar Union that united the Nordic countries for several centuries. It really is amazing how many war there were between these Nordic neighbors.

At Kalmar we rented a car and toured the north end of Oland Island highlighted by the summer Royal Residence and an enormous 12th century fort that suffered a fire in the 19th century.

Having discovered that there was a good harbor on the north end of Oland, we make Byzelkrona (we are now up to about 200 places in Europe we can not pronounce) our next stop on route to Gotland Island.

Visby is the capital of Gotland Island and was a very important trading center between the late 12th and and early 15th centuries during the Hanseatic League. This walled city is filled with period buildings and has a great museum. We again rented a car and over two days visited most of the island, including the small island of Faro. Today this is very much a holiday island with some beaches and lots of campgrounds.

From Visby it was back to the mainland of Sweden at Nynasham that happens to be a major port for ferry’s to Estonia and Poland. Looking at a map, this makes sense as the overland route would be very long and pass thru Russia. Our final leg was back to Sodertalje where the boat will be stored for the winter. Five weeks and a little over 1,000 miles….do not ask about the fuel!

Leaving the boat, we rented a car to take a tour of the Stately Homes (castles perhaps) around Lake Malaren.

click on a photo to see the album