Dick with Tallinn
skyline and cruise
ship terminal in
the background60 http://www.yachtingmonthly.com APRIL 2016CRUISING GUIDE
Estonia is creating a chain of yacht harbours along its coast,
no more than a daysail apart. Dick Durham goes exploring
Welcome to Estonia
0 50nmSWEDENFINLANDRUSSIALATVIAESTONIAStockholmSaaremaaHiiumaaGotlandVormsiMuhuÅland Is.
Helsinki
St PetersburgTurkuTallinnPärnuRigaHaapsaluGulf of FinlandBALTIC
SEAESTONIAN CRUISING GUIDE 2015
By Hillar Kukk, Tõnis Lepp and Meeli Paldrok. Published by Estonian Small
Harbour Development Centre, €59. http://www.evak.ee
This small, soft-covered guide includes everything you need to know
about sailing in Estonia, from general information about the country to
sailing conditions, charts, pilotage, ports of entry regulations and Customs
information. During the summer of 2015 the authors visited all fi fty-two
ports mentioned in the book. Two pages across a spread are dedicated to each harbour
and include a colour aerial photograph, harbour plan with approach, locator map and
navigation/harbour information. The book’s design is clear, the port information is concise
and, being spiral-bound, it’s easy to use. All charter yachts in Estonia carry a copy on board.
If you are considering sailing around Estonia it should be at the top of your ‘to buy’ list. MHY
achtsmen visiting Estonia will
fi nd themselves sailing into a
lost world of forest, miniature
harbours and a myriad islands
peopled by friendly seafarers
who have salt water in their DNA.
Estonians have always had a deep and
strong connection with the sea, with
seafaring and shipbuilding traditions
going back to prehistoric times. Estonian
Vikings were skilled and notorious
seafarers. In the Middle Ages, Estonian
Hanseatic ports like Tallinn and Pärnu
were busy trading places, and the famous
explorer Fabian von Bellingshausen, who
discovered Antarctica, was born in 1778 on
the biggest of Estonia’s islands, Saaremaa.
In 1918, a Royal Navy detachment
defended Estonia’s shores during the
nation’s War of Independence against
Russia. But during the 50 years of Soviet
occupation that followed World War II,
Estonia’s 1,520 islands were off
limits, even Estonians needed visas
to visit them. Fearing that the Nordic
country’s seafaring population would
vote with their keels, hundreds of
vessels including yachts were cut up
and an underwater ‘iron curtain’ of
chains was erected across harbours to
stop anyone sailing away to Sweden or
Finland. That era ended a quarter of a
century ago and events have moved on.
And yet, because of the Soviet deep freeze,
there exists now a cruising paradise,
which is gradually being developed.
There are 157 virtually untouched
harbours dotted along the heavilyoccupation that followed World War II,country’s seafaring population would
vote with their keels, hundreds of
vessels including yachts were cut up
and an underwater ‘iron curtain’ of
chains was erected across harbours to
stop anyone sailing away to Sweden or
Finland. That era ended a quarter of aCHART: MAXINE HEATH