105 Rocks – Elisaari – guest harbour

Elisaari

This is a ridiculously sheltered harbour on an island owned by the City of Helsinki, up a stupidly narrow, reedy channel. It doesn’t look navigable, but is deep enough for large yachts. There’s a long pontoon with stern buoys and a winding wooden quay all round the north east shore, also with loads of stern buoys. It’s impossible to conceive of the sort of storms that you might even notice in here. It feels like you are at least a hundred miles from the nearest bit of sea.

Berthing is all along a rather ramshackle quayside and either side of a long pontoon.

Berthing is all along a rather ramshackle quayside and either side of a long pontoon.

There’s a wee café, showers, lecky etc and good walks over the heavily treed island where, in common with most islands in the Scandian archies, they seem to have given up entirely on farming. Probably the most ridiculous thing about the island is the ludicrous numbers of saunas, into which entire families disappear to get naked and sweaty together. It’s a mystery to me, I must say. Overnight on June 28th a large, flat bottomed work boat was just fixing some of the pontoons in place ready for the start of the season. It was already quite popular by then but there was plenty of room along the reedy shore.

The winding, reedy channels look shallow and don’t feel like the sea at all.

The winding, reedy channels look shallow and don’t feel like the sea at all.

But there’s actually plenty  of water depth

But there’s actually plenty
of water depth

Locate Elisaari on the map and find more adjacent harbours and marinas here.


More information on Elisaari can be found from: www.guestharbours.fi

Disclaimer: While Martin Edge and Sail in Finland have taken every precaution to ensure that the information in this post is correct, it is not a replacement for proper charts. Safe navigation is the responsibility of the skipper and Sail in Finland assumes no responsibility for accidents occurring while entering or leaving the harbour.