The early sailor gets the wind. Well, we were not that early since we didn’t castoff till 0630 (0330 UTC). It looked pretty good from the start, appr. 10-12 kn of wind, steady SW.

The wind continued, we even had to take in the first reef. In our case it pays off at around 12 kn of wind. Speed and comfort increase. For a long time the wind stayed above 16 kn, reaching 20 in gusts. Even though the wind “died”, dropping down below 10 kn, we had a great 35 NM trip. We average speed of 5,2 kn from start to finish with a high of 8,8 and most of the time over 6. Lovely speed.

What always bothers a sailor without radar and AIS is fog. And we found the fog about an hour after we started. Luckily it wasn’t a very busy day and we only saw two ghosts silently speeding our way. The second one actually changed its course slightly so that we could pass in front, something I try to avoid. Something about avoiding bigger and stronger……

After crossing the GOGREP centerline we didn’t see anyone or anything. But crossing into Estonian waters also brought the sun, along with the dying wind. So the last few miles we “crawled” forward, in a beautiful sunshine.

Just before entering Viinistu harbour, another sailboat exited (one way traffic, will post more pictures) and the contrast in clothing couldn’t be greater. We still had all our gear on and they were dressed in shorts and t-shirts. We started peeling our layers off before continuing.

And what a warm beautiful welcome Viinistu gave us! The dogs have had a walk and we’ve had lunch, it’s time for an afternoon nap.