Yachting Monthly - April 2016

View from the tower of

Haapsalu castle to the city

centre and the old town

CRUISING GUIDE

M

y next guide was Jaano-Martin

Ots, editor of the Estonian

sailing magazine Paat &

Meremees, who I met at

Kalamaja Fish House in the ‘hipster’ part

of Tallinn where the houses, like the

traditional boats, are made of wood.

We drove west along the coast to visit

Lohusalu, a harbour sheltered from

all wind directions. It’s a scenic place

offering beautiful views over the bay,

peaceful walks under pine trees.

Next we dropped into Paldiski

North, a commercial port with 4m of

water which is not off limits to yachts

but not ideal, with a quay height of

2.8m above sea level.

It was here that Arthur Ransome

spent two summers and in his book

Racundra’s First Cruise he describes

local shipwrights using an upturned

mine, emptied of its explosives, to

boil water and steam timbers for the

construction of a fi shing boat, thereby

turning a weapon meant to sink vessels

into a crucible to help them fl oat. He

would not have been allowed to witness

such industry once the whole area became

a base for Soviet submarines.

Further west is the fi shing harbour

of Dirhami, where a Swedish-speaking

community lived from the 13th century,

until Soviet occupation forced them to

leave. Although leisure facilities are

limited, we saw a visiting Finnish yacht

taking aboard stores alongside the high

fi sh quay.

Jaano-Martin explained that anchoring

is rare in Estonia: ‘It is not a habit we

have got into,’ he said. ‘It is almost

always open sea and if you anchor you

must be prepared to change location at

a moment’s notice. The seas are shallow

beyond the dredged channels and the

Along the north-west coast

APRIL 2016 http://www.yachtingmonthly.com 63

waves are short and sharp.’

Certainly the charts show a

multitude of rocks, caused by

what’s known as the ‘erratic rock’

phenomenon, in which huge chunks

of granite, carried by a glacier until

it melted, were then dumped on

the limestone sea-bed. Finding

an anchorage requires careful

navigation and settled weather.

Haapsalu, the furthest point

west before the islands, has three

marinas and is popular for ice

yachting in the winter, when the sea

freezes. It was here, as he sat beside the

Kuursaal looking out across the silent,

fl at inlet with faraway pinewoods, that

Tchaikovsky was inspired to pen Swan

Lake. Whether he took a mud bath to

help with his fi nger joints we know not,

but yachtsmen can do so at Fra Mare

Thalasso Spa, set in the woods where

Tchaikovsky heard an Estonian peasant

girl singing and incorporated her song

into his Sixth Symphony.

Jaano-Martin Ots,

editor-in-chief of

Paat & Meremees

yachting journal

Paldiski North, formerly

known as Baltic Port

when Arthur Ransome

cruised here in Racundra

Tchaikovsky’s bench, Haapsalu; Swan Lake was composed nearby

PHOTO: ALAMY

PHOTO: TOURIST OFFICE OF ESTONIA