[my.eyes,your.land]

The Baltic is modest: it is rather shallow for a sea, it is so brackish that the northern reaches are barely salty and has no noticeable tides. Sounds easy enough but when the wind is up and in the wrong direction, the Baltic can be a bitch: uncompromising, erratic and violent. Then in no time, with a turn and drop of the wind it is your best friend, speeding you along. I talked to the Baltic and the wind, too much for my own sanity: I cursed them and praised them, threatened them and started to believe that if I just asked politely, they would help us out.