We made it to Töre!

Yesterday morning, after 9 days, 20 hours, and 17 minutes we arrived in Töre, the most northern point you can sail to in the Baltic Sea. It took us 950.5 nautical miles through Danish, Finnish and Swedish waters. What a journey!

Arriving in the small harbor with the other boats and sailors there, applauding for new arrivals, felt great. And the first few steps back on land, the Anleger Bier, that first warm shower, taking a looong afternoon nap - so good!

I already wrote about the first four days where we had a mixture of north wind and no wind at all. Luckily, the winds turned and got stronger for the remainder of the regatta, so we sailed both faster and (mostly) smoother.

The last 2 days of the regatta we had strong winds from the south, up to 35 knots and up to 3 meter waves that we sailed with shortened sails (dt. gerefften Segeln). A fun part about sailing in the direction the wind is coming from (dt. Raumwind), is surfing down larger ones, reaching speeds that exceed the normal hull speed of your boat. In our case, while the hull speed is a little over 7 knots, and we surfed with 10 knots on some of the bigger waves.

While the trip was in big parts relaxed sailing, we had a few situations that got very intense. In one case, the wind went from under 20 knots that we sailed with the 64 square meter Gennaker for hours, a big sail made for lighter winds, to 35 knots in gusts of winds just minutes after we pulled in the Gennaker. With the strong gusts, and the wind direction turning 90°, the boat pulled into the wind and we did a Patenthalse. We had fixed the boom with a preventer/Bullenstander, so the situation wasn't as dangerous as it could have become, but bringing the boat back under control, steering strongly against the wind until we reached an angle at which we could shorten sails and getting back on course took us a while. I learned a lot from moments like this and talking through them afterwards I learned a lot from the experience of Peter, Wolfgang, and Steffen. Those moments made me realize how powerful the forces at play really are and how important it is to develop a robust understanding of the mechanics and which things to pay attention to to stay in control.

We will stay in the harbor until Tuesday now. There was a big barbeque with all the sailors yesterday, and we will probably do one today again. It's super interesting to talk with others about their Midsummer Sail experience, other past sailing adventures and plans for the future. And of course it's very inspiring. The Mediterranean Sea, the Caribbean, the South Sea - the world is so vast!

I guess this wasn't my last sailing trip... ⛵