Peter the Great wanted a fortress on the sea, and in the first years of the eighteenth century he got one, built on a sandbank and a few small islets in the shallows off Kotlin Island. Fort Peter I belongs to the chain of forts that grew from that first idea over the next two centuries, strung along the channels like beads on a thread, each with its own gun batteries, barracks and harbours. Together they formed a barrier that no enemy fleet cared to test, and during the Crimean War, when British and French ships came to the gulf, they thought better of attacking.
The forts stand in the open water, and the one on this ride is among those near the island's edge. Some are still military, some are abandoned and some are open to boat trips in summer.
Kronstadt itself has a big presence on the island. It has over forty thousand people, with fuel stations and shops, and the old naval town is full of interest, from the great cathedral to the canals and docks. Lomonosov, on the mainland, with about forty-two thousand inhabitants, offers the same services and is a better place to start if you arrive from the south.
The ride here is mostly a matter of crossing the flood barrier, a long and windswept road, and then looking for a place to see the forts from the shore. The wind is the main hazard, and the surface of the road is rough in places. In winter the gulf freezes, and in the past people crossed the ice on foot or by sledge. Today the barrier road is open all year, though it is sometimes closed in severe storms.
White nights in June are a fine time to come. The water glows pink at midnight and the forts rise out of it like ships. In autumn the sea turns grey, the waves are short and steep, and the cold wind bites. A windproof jacket and a warm hat are essential, even in summer.