Life in Ice

Overwintering on board the sailing ship Arktika in Helsinki, Finland.

We are planning to overwinter in ice in Helsinki, Finland. We are staying in Halkolaituri, which is a place where ships and boats have successfully overwintered for decades – it is quite sheltered, the shape of the pier is protecting the ships from pack ice and it is easy access to make sure the ship is safe.

What we obviously need is a bit of electricity to keep the pump for the heating going. It is important that this stays on - otherwise the pipes and tanks inside the ship could freeze and crack. It is of course possible to “deep freeze” the ship, but for that all the tanks and pipes inside should be empty – the temperatures in harsh winters could be lower than -20 degrees celcius, even here in the coastal Helsinki.

We are considering to have a tent over the deck, to avoid some of the snow shoveling, protect the wooden parts of the deck and perhaps help a bit with the heat loss. The sails have been already taken off and stored to a dry space.

“The temperatures in harsh winters could be lower than -20 degrees celcius”

We are of course made of steel, which is a bit simpler – The wooden boats must have copper plates on the sides so that the sharp ice edge does not carve into the wood. Before we freeze solid, we need to also ensure that the ship is not laying against the pier, so that the ice cannot push us against it and cause some damage. As long as we freeze into the ice, we should just sit there nicely until the spring.

Of course the ice conditions lately have been a bit off – there has been already a couple of recent winters, when the Gulf of Finland simply did not freeze. You can never know how these things go: A long, calm high pressure period could freeze us in quite fast.

We are quite excited to experience this winter in Finland!