Sailing in darkness through the Finnish archipelago
We followed one of the Finnish traditional sailing ships on a late autumn expedition through the silent, dark, hibernating archipelago.
Napaland ship sailing through the night. Photo by Ville Vappula
“The archipelago is a maze of shallows, rocks and narrow passages”
Last weekend we took our ship out to the sea and joined the Finnish sailing ship Svanhild on their Arctic expedition. This is a late-season sailing holiday in the Finnish archipelago, at a time when practically all the other boats and ships, apart from the commercial cargo operators have been lifted up on dry land to wait for the winter.
We started sailing our ship from Inkoo towards east in the morning, and in the nice southernly breeze we could make almost the whole way by sail. In the afternoon we continued past Helsinki, the capital of Finland, further towards the east. The darkness falls early in the Finnish archipelago at this time of the year, so for the last two hours we were navigating in darkness.
The archipelago is a maze of shallows, rocks and narrow passages, but the fairways are really well made for assisting ships to navigate in darkness and reduced visibility. We crossed the big ships fairway going to the Port of Helsinki, and it was surprisingly busy. There was a dredging operation, with work boats on constant move, plus the cargo vessels going in and out of the commercial port.
“What a fantastic view it was, to have this three masted topsail schooner sail past us, with their decklights glowing an eerie light in the darkness and the crew on board gathering the canvas”
What an exciting voyage, moving through the silhouettes of the wooded islands and the few bright lights in the night from the other ships, from navigational buoys and the port of Helsinki. One of the big work vessels called us on the radio, to let us know that they see we are underway by sail, and that they will give us the right of way even though they do not have to do that on the narrow fairways of Finland. It felt like the few ships in the night found comfort in seeing each other on the move at this peculiar time of the year and made their best effort to help each other to navigate safe and easy through the darkness.
We got to our destination and waited for Svanhild at anchor by the island Fagerö. What a fantastic view it was, to have this three masted topsail schooner sail past us, with their decklights glowing an eerie light in the darkness and the crew on board gathering the canvas. It was a great ending for the long sailing day to tie our ship side by side with Svanhild and get invited to their wood-burning sauna!