A Week on Lake Saimaa – cruises in the 1970s, as commemorated by former deckhands Jyri Koponen and Topi Vesteri
It was early on a Monday morning, the ship was already cleaned and polished in the Port of Kuopio to an excellent standard. As we remember it, the brasses shone and the Finnish flag at the stern of the ship, as well as the pennants on the masts, fluttered gently in the beautiful summer breeze, the steam hung in the air and we were prepared to receive our new guests for the week. The weather was always beautiful and the summers warm! At least this is how we remember the times in our memories.
When the new passengers arrived on-board, they were all strangers to one another, as well as to us, the ship’s crew. However, as the week-long cruise passed by, new acquaintances and friendships were formed – titles were thrown overboard and the beautiful scenery was enjoyed, as well as the quiet and relaxed ride of the steamer, the good Finnish food and the excellent company. One just couldn’t stare away at a smartphone in those days. Once the beautiful scenery became more familiar, time could be spent reading books, playing cards, and chatting with one’s fellow travellers and the guides. Some even took photos or silent film with their film cameras. We enjoyed the Finnish summer and the passage of the slowly pounding steamer. It was as if time had actually stopped during the early decades of the 20th century, when the ship had begun ploughing the waves and backwaters of the Saimaa waterways as a route ship between the towns of Savonlinna and Kuopio.
We, the entire crew, received our new passengers with the officers dressed in their well pressed uniforms and the waitress girls in their beautiful national costumes. We, the deckhands, carried the passengers’ luggage to their cabins briskly and, thus, gave a good image of our ship and our entire crew from the very beginning. Three quarters of the passengers on the A Week on Lake Saimaa cruises were foreigners: British, German, Swiss, Dutch, Swedish, American Finnish and American. For us deckhands, the ship was not only a place of work, but also a wonderful spot in which to practice our language skills all through the summer.
The journey began, with three whistles of the steam whistle, from the port of Kuopio across the beautiful Kallavesi lake to the canals and bottlenecks of the Heinävesi route. The numerous sluices and downright breathtaking scenery on this route were surely remembered by many and still remain the most beautiful waterway in the world in the opinion of the signatories here. For the deckhands, in particular, Mondays were long and physically demanding days. The sluices had to be opened and closed manually: Karvio, Kerma, Vihovuonne and Pilppa, to name but a few. There was, however, a welcome moment to catch one’s breath at the pier of Heinävesi village, when the most energetic travellers aboard took off up the highest hill in the village in order to admire Heinävesi Church.
The food on Monday was Kallavesi vendace- fried in the tradition of both Kuopio and Kallavesi. For the night, we moored at the idyllic dairy pier of Enonkoski, where the clinking of the milk churns awoke us and the passengers for a new day and a trip towards Joensuu early in the morning.
The route to Joensuu was completely different, compared to the previous day’s Heinävesi route. Our passage took us over the large lakes of Paasivesi and Pyhäselkä, between which we stopped to swim at the Voiniemi pier. Apart from having sinks in which one could wash their hands and face, there were no other washing facilities aboard our ship. Therefore, such swimming breaks were, understandably, very popular.
We enjoyed lunch before arriving in Joensuu, as passengers would then have the opportunity to take a charter bus through Koli to explore our breathtaking national landscape during the afternoon. The lunch that was enjoyed before the Koli trip was a delicious Karelian hot pot that was appropriate for the capital of North Karelia!
