Cartagena

Had the chance to visit Cartagena and see the sights there. In the center are great monuments of Roman heritage as well as on the waterfront there is the naval shipyard of Navantia and a Naval museum with displays of the Spanish highlights as well as their first submarine. Very recommendable city to visit. Just outside the city is an informal settlement on naval land where people have erected "summer houses". The Navy tolerates them as long as they're not built further or any more land is occupied.

Cartagena center onwards

Vacation in Philippines p2

 As we had returned from Malaysia the traffic and people got really heave so were kind of confined to Calatagan and only scootered around to beaches etc.

Calatagan market lighting

Trip to Malaysia

As I was in Philippines for a short time I decided to go visit my Malaysian friends in Lumut area. The trip started a bit roughly with us spending a day in Singapore and in evening taking the overnight bus to Sitiawan. It was not bad but the AC in the bus was freezing and I hadn't packed any long-sleeved clothes so ended up huddling all night whilst dog-napping. Whilst in Lumut we got taken around all the nice restaurants serving different Chinese cuisine as well other ethnic groups. Always nice to visit Malaysia for food. Below are some pictures from the few days spent there.

911 MB, not Porsche ;)

Vacation in Philippines p1

Helsinki-Vantaa airport, getting out just in time

Vacation in Finland

Last look down the valley before heading to Nice and my flight to Finland

M/t Tobias - the greatest tanker in the world

Many times in the beginning of my career the old hands talked about the American (“Yankee-tank”) supertanker “Tobias”, the world’s largest tanker. It was carrying elephant-snot from India…

M/t Tobias

Seafaring culture

An old colleague of mine, Lauri Vuorinen, published his musings in Finnish that I have freely translated into English. On the subject, the pictures are all courtesy from another colleague Hannu Vartiainen from 70's-80's.

Delivery Djibouti to Cyprus

Having been awhile at home I was contacted by my ex Ch Mate to do a short delivery of m/y Kalizma from Djibouti to Turkey and as I thought I have time I agreed on it readily and as I had been on her several years ago, last time back in 2012, I knew the yacht and her flaws. She had since 2012 been refitted and undergone survey to become a commercial yacht under Cook Island and successfully chartered in Indian Ocean the past years.

Planned voyage Djibouti to Turkey, possibly Bodrum

Fanny revisited

21.03.2022 - 07.07.2022

Captain

s/y Fanny

Fanny in Marina degli Aregai

Lilibet

20.11.2022 - 16.05.2023
Captain
fpv Lilibet

Singapore roads, taking bunkers, photo by Capt Thye Hock

Sail training ship Fennia

Having visited Falklands I came over the information by accident in a pub that a Finnish sailing vessel, FENNIA, had in early 1900's limped into Port Stanley jury rigged after having been partly demasted in a severe storm. 

Poster of shipwrecks around Falklands

Falklands Islands

Never having visited Falklands before it was an exciting prospect having only wondered about it as a kid watching the World chart on top of my bed that was gifted by my uncle. It used to be my pastime to look at funny foreign names on foreign continents before falling asleep. Well, now looking at Falklands map closer it was all English names interspersed with an occasional Spanish name.

Article from local newspaper about us

South Atlantic sojourn

As we had left Tristan da Cunha we set course for South Georgia with an aim to go do some PR for the locals there as well as to see the grave of Ernest Shackleton. 

Some humour along the trip was required, orginal Asterix album cover modified

Captain Arthur A Soderlund

As I was visiting Tristan da Cunha a colleague of mine had told me there is a Finn buried over there. Before the port was the local cemetery so I requested to stop there to have a look.

Eventually I found the grave after some walking about the graves and the stone said Arthur A Soderlund had been buried there after an accident working on the South African fishing vessel Frances Repetto.

 

Lawhill print by robertcarter.com

Tristan da Cunha

Having left Cape Town we planned to go East until we reached Tristan da Cunha before turning on a southerly heading in order to avoid the low pressures feeding up from Cape Horn and Pacific ocean. I had already been in contact with local fisheries officer there and he asked us to keep an eye out for anyone in their EEZ. As we were plodding on the weather was rather good and we eventually made good way. For those that do not know, TDC, is the remotest piece of land inhabited by people on earth, the territory is British under the St Helena administration, the Island was discovered by a Portuguese sailor back in 1506 and since then the name stuck. In 1961 the volcano erupted and the population was evacuated to Calshot, UK but eventually everyone returned in 1963 because of homesickness.

Tristan da Cunha, coat of arms

Seafaring life

This article was originally published by the Finnish seamen's mission in Finnish, below is a translation of it:

A Sailors life is full of surprises!

21st March 2023

Jan Rautawaara and Juha Pokka in front of "Anny"

Newbuild delivery Vietnam

After some 3 weeks of R&R following the disaster after m/y Trident I saw myself joining ship again. This time in Da Nang,  Vietnam to commission and deliver a newbuild from Damen.  I flew in via Ho Chi Minh city where I was to collect my business visa and then fly onwards to Da Nang. 

HCM, or Saigon, was packed with tourists and I queued up the best I could,  locals were not very good in it. After reporting to the booth I was told to go to "landing visa" queue for getting visa.  

Oh well,  luckily there were no people but was told by a surly clerk that I am one day early as per my letter of invitation, come back after midnight,  they said.   

I went to the airline desk to rebook my flight as I was going to miss my connection but the guy there was of the opinion I would be able to get my visa and join the flight.

Visa scrum

Visit to Philippines

Having told my previous employ to keep their show I left for the Philippines for some R&R. Flew from Singapore to Manila and spent a few days there to renew my medical, it was tough, took me 2 days of tests but finally I got 2 years. Really need to lose some weight in order to avoid this in future. After Manila went south to Calatagan and visited places nearby, Balayan town, Taal volcano lake, Batangas balisong shops and so on. Below are pictures of some highlights of the trip until I had to fly to Vietnam for my next job.

Handover completed to Capt Sean

Trident

21.07.2022 - 31.10.2022
Captain
m/y Trident

Trident (courtesy of Boat international magazine)

S(h)aving the nature

Having seen on old westerns and black and white movies men shaving with straight razors I was always fascinated about it. I even faintly recall that my dad used to have one, I think I was told off having a touchy-feely look at it. I don't wonder knowing now how sharp they are. I guess he moved onto disposable ones as soon as they made their advent because I don't recall seeing it in years. 

1930's German made Solingen blade and the old broken handle

Singapore pilot exemption

As I joined my most recent command it was also requested that I do the pilot exemption for Singapore in order to save on pilotage fees going in and out of the marina as we are 499GT, in Singapore pilotage is compulsory for any vessel over 300GT. 

At the centre with the course done and dusted

Seiko 5 review

Been for a while an avid Seiko fan and have collected a few as they are mostly quite affordable and the watches don't lose value over time, in some cases they could become more valuable as fans snap them up and they become popular for one reason or the other. 

Daylight in shade

Seiko has been in business since 1881 and in the early years they cleaned the floor with all the European watch manufacturers in many exhibitions and accuracy tests taking first prizes. They still produce today a multitude of various watches ranging from about 100EUR to thousands of EUR with the same time accuracy as from the beginning. 

Short summer in Italy

Montalto

Having gotten a few days in Montalto I had to go to La Spezia to seatrial a 37' Axopar crosscabin, wonderful boat. Then I rushed off to do the sojourn to Spain and as I arrived back I was called by Burgess to join a yacht in Singapore. After a bit of thinking I accepted as I needed the income so I only had a few days to enjoy, pack my bag and off to Nice again. No rest for the wicked. 

Quick visit to Spain

The main street of La Union 

Having finished the project with s/y Fanny I had to take a quick tour to Spain to conclude an errand that had been pending for a while with my friend D.