Sailing in Bay of Parnu; these
yachts all sailed from Parnu
APRIL 2016 http://www.yachtingmonthly.com 65
CRUISING GUIDE
E
gon Elstein, 56, is president of
the Estonian Yachting Union,
counterpart to Britain’s RYA. He
sails an XC 38, Tuulekaja, based
in Estonia’s summer capital, Pärnu, and
invited me aboard for a daysail. Egon
bought his boat in western France and
sailed her home to Pärnu Yacht Club,
which is set among parks and woodland.
The city, established in 1251, is known
for its beach culture and has been a
resort for centuries.
We sailed out into the Bay of Riga with
a light westerly for the 21-mile passage to
Kihnu Island. Egon used a tablet running
Navionics to navigate in the cockpit. At
one stage he switched to iSailor software
and suddenly we were swamped with
detail. ‘It was gathered by the Soviets who
were always spying,’ said Egon, whose
father, now 87, was given 10 years’ hard
labour in Siberia as an 18-year-old for
making remarks about Stalin. During
the ‘Soviet time’ there were no charts
available to the common mariner as they
contained ‘strategic information’.
Kihnu is a UNESCO site because
it is run by women. This stems from
the days when men were away at sea
fi shing, leaving the womenfolk to raise
the children, harvest the fi elds and
produce the food. Many of them still use
Into the
Gulf
of Riga
motorcycles with sidecars to load boxes of
herring from the returning boats.
We moored in Kihnu’s yacht harbour
and hired bicycles for a tour of the island.
We saw only one woman, dressed in the
traditional woollen striped skirt. She was
working, running the central museum,
while many men were sitting around
drinking. To be fair, it was a Saturday.
The wind died during our passage back
to Pärnu, where we arrived just in time for
a memorable feast at the art nouveau Villa
Ammende. A NATO jet and two USAF A10
tank-buster planes fl ew overhead as we
sailed into port, but their soaring rush was
soon replaced by the clap-clap and melody
of ladies in Estonian national costume
whirling in the dust of a local fair. W
Egon Elstein, president of the Estonian Yachting Union, entering Pärnu Harbour at the helm of his XC 38
I swapped the helm for handlebars to inspect the
facilities available at Kihnu Island, a UNESCO site
Estonian dancing ladies in traditional costume can
be seen throughout the country at summer fairs
The art deco Ranna
Hotel is a good
daymark for yachtsmen
sailing to Parnu