Baltic sailing Sweden to Russia

Bill Springer joins the ARC Baltic rally for some enjoyable Baltic sailing from Sweden to Russia, taking in the exotic magnificence of St Petersburg

It was hazy and hot. The air was still. Sticky even. The seas were calm. Certainly not the conditions we were expecting for Baltic sailing as we motored down the narrow channel towards St Petersburg on the eastern edge of the Baltic which so many of us had travelled so far to visit. But the uncharacteristically warm and sunny weather was only the first salvo of what proved to be a barrage of sensory overload.

The air smelled of diesel fuel. The calm seas were the colour of hot chocolate. Then the first of many ultra-high-speed hydrofoil ferries screeched by dangerously close in the perilously narrow channel at well over 40 knots.

By that point, we’d already experienced a uniquely Russian combination of bureaucracy and lawlessness when we cleared Customs at the stereotypical Soviet-era dock on the fortress-island of Kronstadt, which has been protecting St Petersburg from the west since Peter the Great took it from the Swedes in 1703. Being buzzed by a steady stream of 40-knot hydrofoils was just the icing on the cake.

Our 27-boat cruising armada had reached only the halfway point of the World Cruising Club’s first-ever ARC Baltic rally. It had begun three weeks before, 800 miles to the southeast in Kiel, Germany, but we’d already become quite accustomed to the pleasant combination of sailing, sightseeing, socialising, sunny skies and logistical support that makes taking part in a rally so worthwhile.

When you add in the fact that I was lucky enough to be teamed up with Tommy and Anita Edlund, …read more