Report of 2-6 July 2021.
The Around the World crew of the Tomsk branch of RGS Russian Ocean Way walked all night to Finland after the start from Kronstadt on July 1. The crew stopped in the town of Kotka, where they were to be quarantined for 3 days in accordance with Finnish law.
During the crossing from Russia to Finland, Evgeny Kovalevsky and Stanislav Berezkin took shifts every 3 hours. The men later commented that fatigue had built up, but this was a natural reaction of the body to entering work mode.
“I wore thermal underwear in a fleece suit, a full storm suit on top, a cap and a cap, but it was still very cold, wind was blowing hard, but the cold was dragging from the water. Stas was also cold, chilled. Besides, it is not easy to fall asleep in such conditions”, – from Evgenij Kovalevskij’s diary notes from 02.07.21
By midday the team had crossed the Russian-Finnish border, passing the coast guard. The team was greeted kindly by local border guards, advised how to proceed and handed out souvenirs. The team thanked the border guards with sweets from expedition partner NL International.
Towards 2.30 pm the ship reached the port of Kotka and docked at the Kotka Yacht Store guest marina (harbour). From there, Evgeny and Stanislav rushed to take a PCR test for coronavirus.
“The Russian embassy and Rossotrudnichestvo had agreed in advance to have a Covid test taken at a local clinic, as the country’s regulations do not allow foreigners to take a single step without this procedure,” Kovalevsky added.
Станислав Берёзкин 
Евгений Ковалевский
During the sanitation stay, the crew dismantled and sorted their belongings, did some repairs on the trimaran and prepared to meet the local population. After receiving negative tests for Covid, the crew was able to walk around the town.
“Finns and Finns drink, a lot of young people are tipsy. The Finns are mostly blonde and not at all thin. The National Urban Park is next to us. A mountain, on the slopes there are strange-looking blue hares. The mountain is steeply sloping towards the sea. There are giant ants (sculptured) crawling up the slopes.
The crew of the Russian sailing trimaran RussianOceanWay met with local people at the Vellamo Maritime Centre in Kotka on 5 July.
On 6 July, the crew left the harbour for their next destination, Sweden.
The round-the-world expedition team would like to thank Cursor for help in coordinating the entry into Finland and personally Ksenia Shishkova, Kotka Yacht Store for temporary shelter and personally Habr Master Anna, as well as the Russian Embassy in Finland and personally Natalia Kuznetsova.
