In three days, Hagen Jerzynski, Jan Gerstenberg and Michael Franke wanted to circumnavigate the Baltic Sea in a 7-metre racing boat and combine this challenge with social commitment. But the trip turned out differently than planned. A borderline experience in more ways than one.
Hagen Jerzynski from Neu-Venedig near Lake Müggelsee has made a name for himself nationwide as a "charity racer". Together with his like-minded buddy and neighbour Jan Gerstenberg, he has been combining his unbridled enjoyment of motorboating and his pursuit of new records with a good cause for years. Their project "1000in1day" stands for donation marathons on the water.
In 2011, the two boat enthusiasts rocked the Rhine in a 19-foot Marshan, powered by a 175 hp Yamaha. It took them 17 hours to cover the 1000 kilometres. Their achievement was honoured by companies and many individual donors with almost 27,000 euros, which went to the "KinderLeben" children's hospice in Hamburg.
A year later, the two Berliners set the bar higher: 1000 miles (around 1600 kilometres) on the Elbe within 24 hours - for the route from Dessau upstream to the Czech border and back again, then downstream to the mouth of the Elbe in the North Sea, around Helgoland and back to Dessau (BOOTE 8/2012).
This time they race against the clock in a former Ring 21 Extreme offshore racing boat. They make it again! Their reward: around 13,000 euros for the Berlin children's hospice "Sonnenhof". While the plans for their biggest challenge yet - circumnavigating the Baltic Sea in 3 days! - the 39-year-old arborist (Hagen) and the 34-year-old mechatronics engineer (Jan) travelled from one water sports event to the next in 2013.
They offer rides in their speedboat everywhere - for a donation, of course. The proceeds go to local children's and youth organisations. At the end of the season, an impressive 8,000 euros are on the bottom line. The two boat enthusiasts from the capital always pay the petrol for their fun out of their own pockets.
Even though such extreme and high-speed trips naturally involve risks, Hagen Jerzynski wants to minimise them as far as possible - especially when it comes to the (safety) equipment on his boat - and leave nothing to chance.
Hagen is well aware that the Baltic Sea demands much more from his 7-metre powerboat, which is powered by a Mercury 250 Optimax, than the Rhine or Elbe. That is why he is giving the Ring a comprehensive refit, accompanied by master boat builder Kai Arendholz from M.u.H. von der Linden. The offshore racer is completely gutted and rebuilt and reinforced with modern boatbuilding materials.
The skipper also pays particular attention to the two differently sized fuel tanks: 120 litres in the bow and 350 litres in the stern. They not only supply the 250 hp outboard motor with fuel, but also serve as ballast. The highlight: fuel can be pumped from tank to tank during the journey to optimise the boat's trim according to the wind and wave conditions.
The on-board electronics also leave nothing to be desired: including a 12-inch chart plotter, a radar reflector from Echomax, AIS, VHF radio and the Inmarsat-supported tracking system "DMR 800 D" from SatPro, which is used in commercial shipping worldwide. This allows fans and interested parties to follow the "1000in1day" crew digitally live.
Of course, the "frenzied fundraisers" will not embark on the Baltic Sea adventure with their upgraded Ring 21 without first testing its robustness under realistic conditions. For their own sake (to arrive safely!), and because the "Stendal Ark" should benefit from the kilometres travelled. It supports children from socially disadvantaged families with leisure activities, school support and free lunches.
It is 26 April 2014: the Baltic Tour crew puts the boat through a merciless endurance test on two training laps around Fehmarn in choppy seas and winds of up to 6 knots. The chart plotter fails after a short time due to the heavy blows and the lightweight seat for the driver, co-pilot and navigator made by Hagen is broken at the end of the session.
So we get another plotter (10-inch Garmin with autorouting and a complete set of Baltic Sea charts in SD form) and commission Hagen's friend "Sturzi" (Sturzbecher boatyard on the outskirts of Berlin) to build an indestructible bench: made of plywood, twice as heavy, with 20 cm thick foam padding, which during the tour - what wise foresight! - will be reinforced with equally thick cushions during the tour.
Hagen and Jan also had to unexpectedly replace their navigator, who had been planned for the 1000in1day Baltic Tour.
The experienced sailing instructor cancels his trip to Fehmarn due to a cracked vertebra in his neck. While the two Berliners therefore deliberately opted for a new plotter with an autorouting function - although you can never rely on this alone, as will become clear - a third man was found for the cockpit of the Ring: Michael Franke (48), boat mechanic at Fichtner Marine in Deetz an der Havel. He knows Hagen from the Verado Days 2013 in Schwerin and learnt about the navigator's failure via Facebook. In addition to technical expertise and his "diagnostic laptop" for reading out the engine data, he has plenty of Baltic Sea experience. Having grown up in Geltinger Bay, he has been travelling on boats since the age of 6 and is storm-tested.
16 June: On the day before the start, it looks like an expedition camp at the Boltenhagen Marina shipyard - now renamed "YachtWelt Weiße Wiek": the Ring 21 Extreme, which has been refitted once again, is lying on its Ohlmeier trailer waiting to be loaded ready for the trip. The equipment includes 33 reserve canisters with 220 litres of petrol and 62 litres of two-stroke oil, fuel hoses, various boxes of tools, screws and spare parts, an electrical case, repair kits for the hull (fibreglass, Sikaflex etc.) and steering, not forgetting two replacement propellers (a second 23 Mercury Trophy Plus four-blade and a 25 three-blade Mirage, which "whirled" the waters of the Elbe for 1000 miles in 2012) and a 5 hp Mercury as an auxiliary engine.
But that's not all: life raft, six automatic life jackets (one for each in reserve), three full-face helmets, distress signal rockets, floating anchor, double-stroke manual bilge pump (in addition to the built-in electric bilge pump), fire extinguisher, first-aid kit and a well-stocked first-aid kit, handheld GPS, 50000-lumen lamp, harbour manual, duffel bags with the "1000in1day" trio's personal clothes and food for a whole week: countless bottles of drinking water and cans of caffeinated drinks, muesli bars, high-calorie ready meals suitable for the outdoors. In fact, there is room for all of this in the slip cabin and behind the bench seat of the 7-metre boat. Hagen & Co. have "only" forgotten one thing: the complete set of Baltic Sea sports boat charts on paper. Would it have saved them from making a crucial mistake on the trip?
17 June, shortly after half past four in the morning: the countdown for the "Around the Baltic Sea in three days" enterprise begins at the jetty in the fishing port of Boltenhagen. Via Gdansk, Riga, Tallinn, Helsinki, Stockholm, Kalmar and Copenhagen back to Boltenhagen, more than 3000 kilometres - that's the plan. The three-man "1000in1day" crew looks tense, determined and at the same time full of anticipation. Final checks, "boarding", at 4.51 a.m. Jan starts the 250 hp Mercury Optimax, three minutes later the Ring 21 Extreme casts off. As the trio chugs towards the marina exit, a fireball spirals up over the harbour pier and bathes the mirror-smooth bay in golden light. Six arms shoot up with the Victory sign. "Towards the sun," I hear Jan shout. Then he pushes the throttle forwards and the speedboat disappears into the sunrise.
From now on, the boat's course can only be followed via the SatPro tracking system. As a red line with a ship symbol at the top. Among other things, the speed just travelled is displayed - around 100 km/h is no exception on the first leg. By 9 a.m., the Ring has already passed Rügen. Shortly after 2 p.m., Hagen calls me on his mobile phone with an initial status report: "We're just before Gdansk," I hear, and there's a sense of euphoria. "Until now, the Baltic Sea has been a bit like the Elbe," comments Jan, who is anything but unhappy that the Baltic Sea off the Polish harbour city is now getting rougher: "Finally some action - offshore!" Even if the waves are still going well here, the first small duel with the Baltic Sea over the last 50 kilometres is really time-consuming, especially as there are still several kilometres of river to cover before reaching the city centre. Shortly before 5 p.m., the "1000in1day" reaches the petrol station in front of Gdansk Marina after almost 600 kilometres.
On a normal trip, the first leg would have ended here. But for this trio, the clock is ticking. So after a quick refreshment and airing out their wet clothes, they set off again into the Bay of Gdansk with full tanks and want to make as much distance as possible towards Tallinn, especially as it is still light for a long time just before midsummer night. But the conditions are getting worse and worse. Now they are going against the waves, and the Baltic Sea shows the speedboat "for the first time who's boss here," recalls Jan,
who, as the biggest and heaviest on this trip, often has to take the helm when things get rough - for trim reasons. He shows off all his driving skills, playing with the throttle until he feels like he has rubber arms. Full throttle, jump, throttle out, when diving in, full throttle, jump, throttle out - always so that the boat remains optimally trimmed when jumping over the waves. Murderously exhausting! And every tenth wave crashes so hard that "our ancestors still felt the pain in our backs" (Jan). During offshore races lasting around an hour, you can cope with such exertion. But on an extreme trip lasting several days, neither the equipment nor the people can cope with it in the long term. However, if the trio sails significantly slower, the next stage destination can no longer be reached before nightfall. Under no circumstances does the crew want to continue in the dark in this weather.
So Hagen, Jan and Michael "consult" their plotter, and it shows the only harbour for miles around: Baltiysk! Even if the alarm bells of many a skipper familiar with the Baltic Sea would ring immediately, the name means nothing to the three of them. Zooming in, they discover tourist signs next to the graphically depicted harbour basin: crossed cutlery and a bed. What the inserted map set conceals: Baltiysk belongs to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad and is a restricted military area! Unsuspecting, the exhausted "1000in1day" crew looks forward to a warm meal and a soft bed, switches to autorouting and races towards the Russian military harbour at top speed in an increasingly slippery Baltic Sea. At first, they think the guns at the harbour entrance are "historical decorations" from the Second World War, until Michael discovers the plastic covers on their barrels.
They are still in operation! Large Cyrillic letters on a building dispel any last doubts: "We are in a Russian harbour!" While they are mooring their colourfully branded speedboat with the campaign and boat name www.1000in1day.de and numerous supporters at a quay wall, a Russian navy ship approaches with incomprehensible loudspeaker announcements. While Hagen and Michael help the Russian military to moor as a "confidence-building measure" and because it is good seamanship, Jan manages to send a call for help via mobile phone to their webmaster Carsten Czech, who updates the 1000in1day Facebook page and app with Baltic Tour news several times a day: "If you don't hear from us, you know ..." and Carsten knows what to do: That very night, he alerts the German Consulate General in Kaliningrad, which immediately gets involved in the case despite the late hour.
Meanwhile, the "stray travellers" have to endure one interrogation after another on board the military ship. Individually - all night long - by ever new interrogators with different uniforms and ranks, but also in civilian clothes. The Russians are suspicious - above all because of the boat, which is equipped with lavish communication electronics and numerous cameras, but also because of the unusual background of this Baltic Tour. Countless protocols are drawn up and all three have to write down their statements themselves in German.
When the completely exhausted trio have almost given up on the trip, things suddenly turn round. Hagen, Jan and Michael get all their confiscated belongings back and on the morning of 18 July they are escorted from the military ship out onto the now even more turbulent Baltic Sea. The interrogation is followed by a real-life "horror trip" to Klaipėda. The 7-metre boat becomes the plaything of huge waves, but after 38 hours without sleep, the crew makes it safely to the Lithuanian port city, where they find a berth in the fort harbour. The three are welcome here, but they are being watched.
Apparently, one of the men from Baltiysk has followed them overland. But the shadow eventually disappears and the adventurers meet the six-man sailing crew of the "Goding" from Maasholm by chance in a pizzeria, who are planning the same trip - only skipper Karl-Otto Sporleder has planned six weeks for it. The meticulously navigating sailors listen in disbelief to the still adrenalin-fuelled stories from Baltiysk - they retrace the digital nautical chart on the paper chart every half hour. The encounter between two boat worlds becomes an unforgettable evening.
Even though the original schedule of the "1000in1day" crew has long since been ruined, they want to keep going. But the toll that Hagen, Jan and Michael have to pay to the Baltic Sea is not diminishing. Not least because the weather forecasts that they receive daily from their experienced Baltic Sea "weatherman" Jörg Techam (researched by the DWD, Windfinder, etc.) repeatedly deviate from reality. This was also the case on 20 June, when they set off from Klaipėda towards Helsinki after a day of regeneration, but only made it a good 100 km to Liepāja (Latvia), with a stopover in Šventoji, a Lithuanian coastal town named after the river of the same name.
Especially at the start of the leg, they are brutally battered by the Baltic Sea and have to change the ignition coil after engine problems on the open sea. Despite the drift anchor, the boat rolls so much that Hagen and Jan get seasick for the first time in their lives. But as much as they have to put up with, they are also given a helping hand. The friendly harbour keeper from Liepāja drives to the motorway petrol station twice to get 500 litres of fuel for the Mercury Optimax. The often unfavourable speed range drives up consumption.
21 June: The Ring races across the Baltic Sea like never before since the first day of sailing. From Liepāja, they sail through the Gulf of Riga to Tallinn, from there in the slipstream and stern sea of the "Superstar" (one of the fastest passenger ferries in the world at 55 km/h) to Helsinki (sinfully expensive refuelling stop on the island of Lauttasaari, €2 per litre) and onwards in an island slalom through the Gulf of Finland to the island of Träskön, where they discover a log cabin, knock on the door and experience a magical evening around the campfire with Hanno and Pia. They also heat up the sauna, where the trio are even allowed to spend the night.
22 June: The Baltic Tour ends unexpectedly after around 1650 km in Hanko, Finland. On the way there, the crew of the Ring suddenly notice a strong smell of petrol. The front fuel tank has burst due to the constant knocks! Continuing the journey without the second ballast tank seemed too risky in view of the extremely rough conditions. The rest falls into place within two hours, as if it had never been planned otherwise: the operator of the harbour café, which the three head for after mooring in Hanko, works full-time as a dispatcher in a shipping company. While the Ring is picked up - high and dry - for the sea voyage to Rostock, Hagen, Jan and Michael take a taxi to Helsinki Airport, from where they fly back to Berlin that same evening, rich in experience. Even though they "only" completed half of the Baltic Sea round trip, the "Stendal Ark" is delighted to have received more than 9,000 euros in donations!
