Korpo runt

 

I've continued to learn to sail and this time I went on a 72 NM weekend trip around Korpo.

There has been some day sailing in different conditions to learn to know the boat, once even in fairly hard wind, which was quite interesting. I've intended to take a vacation day and go on a long weekend sailing, but it hasn't been possible. For some reason this time of the year is always very busy at work, which is a bit of a shame, since the most interesting part of the summer is in my opinion up to midsummer. I did however manage to get out for one weekend.

I started from the home harbour a little over ten in the morning. The wind was at this point quite optimal, some 6-8 m/s, which gives hull speed with the main sail and genoa if the sails are adjusted correctly, though not necessarily when going close-hauled.

There was quite a bit of traffic on Airisto.

The beating (sounds strange, but that seems to be the English word for it) section.

Just before turning more to west there was a strange zone without any wind, which seemingly the others knew about but not I. I moved with less than one knot speed and ultimately decided to push myself out of it with the motor. A few minutes by engine was enough.

After that I sailed close reached and soon had to take in one reef, going pretty much six knots for several hours.

Sailing in the big lane.

I continued past Korpo and the turned towards SE, and after a while took down the sails and started the engine. The wind came directly from my intended direction and it was a bit narrow for beating, and it was also getting a bit late. Going by engine isn't the most fun, the speed is about 4.5 knots, and the engine sound is annoying. I think the propeller isn't a perfect match for the boat, since there is engine power left, it just doesn't translate to much more speed. That is in my opinion acceptable, this is a sailing boat anyway.

The well known nature harbours in the area were mostly occupied in this beautiful summer evening, but I found a place at Birsskär, next to Konungskär where I've been by kayak a number of times. There were three other boats at the island, but there was still plenty of space. I managed to land without any problems at all, which isn't necessarily easy when going single-handed. With almost no wind it was of course quite easy. The distance of the day was 41 NM.

Dinner and a beer followed.

The evening was quite nice.

I did a bit of reading before going to sleep a little over eleven.

I had slept for less than one hour when I woke up to voices outside. Another sail boat was trying to land next to me around midnight. It doesn't get dark at this time of the year, so there shouldn't have been any problems. The wind had now increased and came from another direction and I was a bit worried for the anchor, since I really should have had a bit more anchor rope out. I looked out for a while to see that the anchor was still set. The other boat tried a few places, but ultimately continued to somewhere else and I slept until six in the morning.

The night had been warm, but I still ran the heater for 20 minutes or so to get the moisture out of the boat. The morning was nice, as was to be expected.

I left at around eight in the morning, going by engine for a little under one hour, until I came to an area with both wind and room to maneuver. At this point the wind came directly from behind and I tried sailing with only the genoa, which worked quite well, going north between Korpo and Nagu.

After the northward section I raised the main sail as well, but the wind died out pretty soon. I used the situation to make coffee.

After a while I took down the sails and started the engine and ran it for a half hour until there was wind again.

There is obviously something I don't know about the wind patterns in the area, since I was know pretty much going yesterday's route in the opposite direction and there were a number of areas with very weak wind, even though the wind direction was the same as yesterday, the wind was just a tad weaker. I switched between sails and engine for several times.

It was just in the final downwind section up Airisto that the wind again was good. This beautiful old boat pulled up a spinnaker and soon disappeared out of sight.

I again went only with the genoa and had quite good speed. The head sail in a butterfly setup would probably have given a bit more speed, but the risk for an uncontrolled jibe due to an evasive maneouver would be quite big, since there were a number of other sailboats out as well. A preventer guy would take the drama out of that, but I hadn't yet looked at how to set up one.

While there is always more to learn even for an experienced sailor, I'm still in the beginning stage where I learn a lot of new stuff all the time and this is really fun. I was back home in the home harbour in the afternoon after 31 NM.

More sailing will follow, as well as more kayaking. The mountain biking is pretty much on hold now, I'm more into riding during the winter, but I still do gravel riding, which is great fun.