Destination Paradise II

So we crossed the pond; The Blake Sea that is. Not much traffic out there. At least not this time. No sailboats. Didn't see a single warship either. Sometimes there's all kinds of air traffic. It seems to be a popular sport to round the Fastnet Rock in a jet. Here's the first land we saw on the other side.

At the other side

Gotta be around Blake Shore. It doesn't excactly look friendly. Winds were easy, so we had time to look around, and heres' a shot in the opposite direction. Looks a bit old-timerish, except maybe for the helicopter hovering above those classic tallships.

Tallships

These are probably those dreaded pirate waters, so we better trim for optimum speed and get out of here. Incidentally, that's one of the beauties of the Flying Fizz, and the shot above shows it quite well. The main has an open foot. The sailshape itself can be trimmed, and the change is visible. Need more power? Do as you would do in a real boat. Make the sailshape more rounded.

In safe waters

Unsafe waters to the south, so we raced on, on an easterly course. No kite. Made it without seeing any pirates. Too bad really; I was kinda looking forward to meeting Jack Sparrow alias one certain Johnny Depp. Hmm... The good thing was, that more and more palms appeared on the horizon; Maybe this was the right course after all...

Norse surroundings

Sadly, the palms disappeared again. However, we found ourselves sailing a quite nice archipelago not unlike the Swedish or even the Norwegian one. Lotsa spruce and birch trees. Tons of little islands with small reefs and rocks everywhere. No detailed charts. Better stay in the middle. Look out for sudden changes of colour in the water. Marin had the best view for that; From the trapez.

Looking Finnish

This might even look kinda Finnish. There's no way to tell. In some areas people are very busy flying their country flag from a pole. Strangely we didn't see many flags on this journey. We saw quite a few lovely islands and even more houses. Some pretty nice lighthouses too.

A lighthouse

After passing at least twenty islands the chart indicated it was time to bear away and go a bit more south. We just needed to find our way out of the maze of islands. This next shot gives an impression of how virtual inshore sailing can look like.

Looking for an exit

Quite a nice and safe sail between these islands; Except you cannot enjoy the view for more than half a minute or you'll hit either a reef or an island. Well, there are ways to slow down. As we both realized that this was a real journey, not just a five minute sail, we flattened the sails and ran for coffee.

Kite time again

Then we finally found some open space with room for some kiting. Not much wind though. Even with the kite up and maximum power in the sails, Marin had to sit to leeward, when I was to windward. I guess I better loose some weight. This is around Sugar Reef, I think. Palms and sandy beaches ahead. Again. Weeeee... Hopefully they won't go away this time.

To be continued...
(Continued from Destination Paradise)

Continue to Destination Paradise III.