Cutty Sark Tall Ships' Races -- 1992

S/Y Orion

In 1992 I took part in the Cutty Sark Tall Ships' Races on board of S/Y Orion. It was just a couple of months after I got my helmsman's licence and I was very keen to log some practice hours on the high sea. Although I had sailed for nearly a decade at that point, all of my experience came from lakes and rivers, mostly in the Mazurian Lakeland.

This trip was a rather tough introduction to the "real" sailing. Less than 24 hours after we set out from Gdynia on our way to Karlskrona, a storm broke out. Our boat turned into a real roller-coaster. Very soon I found myself wishing I had stayed home. But given that there were only two of us at each of the three shifts, everybody had to keep working. Most of the time, two people were not enough to change or adjust the sails so we all had to be out on the deck every few hours. Night and day.

Our journey: Gdynia - Karlskrona - Kotka - Tallin - Gdynia

The storm lasted until we got to Karslkrona nearly two days later. Because of the bad weather (and because we did not have a GPS or any other electronic positioning system), we ended up accumulating some rather large errors in our estimates of our position so when we finally saw the shore, it turned out that we were some good 40 miles East of where we wanted to be. Gven that we were sailing against the wind, it took us a long time before we finally could enjoy a warm shower in the harbor of Karlskrona.

The part from Karlskrona to Kotka was quite easy, if I remember correctly. We sailed with the wind, and that time we navigated reasonably well. Also because after entering the Bay of Finland, we could see lighthouses most of the time.

After a week in Kotka we set out for Tallin. It was supposed to last half a day but we got into another storm and got delayed for a few hours. We actually ended up going through the eye of a low-pressure area: we were struggling with a really strong gale for a long time and then, suddenly, all became extremely calm. Well, a minute or so later, the gale came back from the opposite direction. Fortunatelly, our skipper was quick enough to make us move the sails to the other side as soon as it the gale initially subsided so that when it came back, we were already prepared for it.

The last leg from Tallin to Gdynia was mostly uneventful if you do not count the fact that we got really off in our estimates. At some point our calculations showed that we should be 10 miles... inland! But we could not even see the land until 24 hours later.

Below are just a few of my pictures from that trip. Some of my best ones seem to be lost...

1992 picture by Krzysztof Gajos Departing from Karlskrona, Sweden	1992 Our boat "Orion" and the crew in Kotka, Finland
1992 picture by Krzysztof Gajos View of the harbour in Kotka, Finland	1992 picture by Krzysztof Gajos In a park in Kotka, Finland
1992 Before the (Finnish) water-ski race (In Kotka, Finland)	1992 On (Finnish) water-skis (In Kotka, Finland)
1992 picture by Krzysztof Gajos Actors on the streets of Tallin, Estonia	1992 On of the very few sunny days
1992 Me at the helm