The Varistaipale and Taivallahti canals form the final two lock systems in the famed Heinavesi route and provide boat access to the monastary at Valamo. The Varistaipale Canal is notable in having a flight of four locks, the most of any Finnish canal. The maximum draft for vessels to pass through is 1.8m, too shallow…
Tag Archives | Nordhavn
The Heinavesi Route
The Heinavesi route is a historic system of canals and locks built in the early 1900s in Finland’s Saimaa Lakes region. The waterway initially carried significant commercial traffic, but today is mainly used by pleasure craft and tour boats and is one of 27 “National Landscapes of Finland” selected for their great symbolic value and…
Linnansaari
Linnansaari National Park on Lake Haukivesi encompasses 15 sq miles (38 sq km) of beautiful Saimaa Lakes scenery. Established in 1956 to protect the natural landscape of the Finnish lakeland, the park also is a habitat for the critically endangered Saimaa Ringed Seal. After a 68-mile run from Puumala through fabulous lake scenery, we anchored…
Puumala
Puumala sits on a chokepoint in the Saimaa Lakes region—all vessel traffic must pass through the 1000ft (300m) Puumalansalmi channel to reach the towns and cities to the north. Spanning the gap is the 2,562ft (781m) Puumalansalmi Bridge, one of the largest highway bridges in Finland. And built into the bridge is the Saimaanmajakka observation…
Irony –
In more ways than one —
— Good satire
Nordhavn 57-26 Istaboa
Lappeenranta
Lappeenranta lies on the south end of Lake Saimaa, about 3 nautical miles from the Saimaa Canal and about 16 from the Russian border. The town was charted in 1649, when it was part of Sweden and an important port for tar. The Swedes built a fortress there in stages in the 18th century, but…
Saimaa Canal
The Saimaa Canal, connecting Lake Saimaa to the Baltic Sea, has long been an important commercial transportation route. The canal was completed in 1856 while Finland was a Duchy in the Russian Empire and was wholly within Finland after the country became independent in 1917. As part of the reparations for World War II, Finland…
Peep Show 2019
Marina Cam at Herrington Harbour South Marina. One of the many cams the good folks at HHS had onSpot install.The babies are getting big – soon to fly away.Thanks Herrington Harbour – Very Cool Link to other onSpot wifi Marina Cams&nbs…
Dirona In Russia
We’ve been to a lot of places over the years and seen many countries, but taking Dirona through Russia was never on our list of expected or planned trips. When we learned about Finland’s Saimaa Lake region, however, we had to go. The Great Saimaa lake system is 1,690 sq mi (4,377 sq km) and…
ENVOY CRUISING IN THE IONIAN SEA
Before leaving the marina we enjoy one day away from Envoy, hiring a car to tour around this great island of Lefkada with its small sandy coves, picturesque villages and inland mountains soaring to about 3,000 feet. Traffic is negligible and I don’t think there’s any traffic lights at all on the island.
Greece seems to be a very honest country with little crime evident beyond copious amounts of graffiti in the cities. Shopkeepers often leave items outside overnight and people leave their keys in cars and scooters. So it was a surprise when a 46ft Bavaria yacht was stolen from Lefkada’s quayside during our stay and hasn’t been seen since. Locals speculate that it will have been sailed across to Italy.
While in Lefkada we also meet our Kiwi friend Bruce from sailing cat Midi. This year his wife Leslie decided to stay home, so Bruce is cruising with two friends Gavin and David. Anybody thinking about sailing in the Med couldn’t do better than to buy the superbly equipped and lovingly maintained Midi.
Envoy was re-launched on Tuesday 4 June and everything was fine when we did a short sea trial before going to our berth. It’s certainly much nicer staying aboard in tn the water than on the hard.
Overall our cruise preparations went well. The only surprise issue was the sea water leak to the bilge and even that wasn’t a total surprise given past history. Without that we’d have been cruising within 12 days of our arrival, but this turned out to be 16.
Overall our cruise preparations went well. The only surprise issue was the sea water leak to the bilge and even that wasn’t a total surprise given past history. Without that we’d have been cruising within 12 days of our arrival, but this turned out to be 16.
Chris and I spent a bit of time adjusting the Lugger’s prop shaft stuffing box. When Sailand checked the sealings last year they tightened the bolts on the stuffing box too much so that the forward section of the stuffing box wouldn’t loosen up as the adjusting bolts were slackened. We used a puller and some levers to get it moving again and now have a nice regular drip – we find that one drip about every 10-20 seconds is about right.
The RHIB maintenance turned into a bit of a saga. After the Yamaha was serviced I took it for a test run and noticed the tachometer (tacho) was no longer working. Spiros came back and did some work on it, telling me he’d put in a new tacho that still didn’t work “so it must be the regulator” (that provides an electronic signal to the tacho). A few days later a new regulator arrives and is installed but still the tacho doesn’t work. Spiros tries to convince me “you don’t need a tacho anyway … just go and enjoy your cruise”. But I tell Spiros I want it fixed. A few minutes after that discussion he calls me to say its all fixed. He explains that when he initially checked the fault by putting in a different tacho, it was an old used one he had laying around his workshop and that one must have been faulty too. When he put in a new tacho it worked fine.
So all was finally ready – jobs done, stores loaded, documentation completed and we set off from Lefkada Marina on the Weds as planned (plan 2!)
Just before we leave our Italian friend Fabricius comes to say farewell. Fabricius had been aboard his yacht next to us on the hard stand. He gives us some valuable advice about places to see in the Italian region we’re heading to – Puglia at the northern end of the “Boot”. In fact he surprises us by saying this si one of the most visited areas of Italy. In particular he recommends Lecce – known as the Florence of the south with its Baroque architecture.
We cruise just a couple of hours north to anchor off Preveza. Di has some favorite shops here and there’s also a couple of guitar shops I want to check out, ending up buying a cheap Soundsation (Fender strat style)so I don’t get too much out of practice while we’re away.
Laurie doing first BBQ of the season
Laurie doing first BBQ of the season
Here’s an unusual large cat in the Polynesian style noticed at Preveza
Then we cruise up to Parga – one of the nicest village on the mainland coast overlooked by its 14th century Venetian castle.
