August 5 - Crossing the Baltic Sea to Tallinn, Estonia

August 5 – Crossing the Baltic to Tallinn, Estonia
This is what I think of when I hear the Baltic Sea mentioned. Cold, overcast, 10-12ft waves with whitecaps from the wind. I awoke today to 38kn winds, 12 ft seas, and low gray skies with visibility of 5 to 6 miles. The prior cruise was full of sun and calm seas. Perhaps this is a sign that this cruise will gives us a taste of more typical weather. We should arrive in Tallinn in about an hour. We will be escorting tours in the morning – Claudia, a bus tour; me a walking tour. It helps that we were just here a few days ago.
I didn't get my usual morning walk today. The doors were roped off because of the high wind and rough seas. Not that I am really interested in walking during a gale on a pitching deck.
August 5 afternoon – Tallinn
We escorted separate tours, the first time we have ever done escort duty. And with evaluaqtion forms to fill out after we returned. Imagine walking in cold, driving rain with 20mph winds for a couple of hours, trying to make sure all 27 people in the tour stay somewhat close by, and converging on the sights at the same time as four other groups from three other ships. This is not my idea of fun, and I didn't get to see too much as I worried about those people that went into that store and haven't come out, or the ones that were tired of this and just wanted a taxi back to the ship. I just went with the flow, reminded of early November weather back home in Oregon. Claudia's tour was mostly by bus, and as a group voted to just return to the ship early. Gosh, we were here just a few days ago and it was beautiful, and not nearly as crowded. My guide said there were five cruise ships in at the same time. On our previous cruise, there were only two.
August 5 evening – back at sea
After our short stay, it's on to St Petersburg and another time zone change (lose an hour). We'll now be 11 hours ahead of home in Oregon. The rain is gone, but we still have 12 ft seas. Rock a bye baby...