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Leaving Helsingor and Denmark!

The Oresund is at its narrowest between Helsingor on the Danish side and confusingly Helsingborg on the Swedish side! It is also an incredibly busy ferry crossing, as one ferry leaves another arrives and they are new super quick hybrid electric ships so not only do you have to dodge between then but they are virtually silent as well! To make matters worse, there is a strictly enforced Traffic Separation System TSS which yachts cannot enter. Our plan was simple, sail down the Danish side to the island of Ven, crossing in front of it with plenty of space to avoid ships coming up or down in the Oresund. Little did we realise that that Ven split the shipping lanes with one on the far side of Ven going into Malmo and the near side one for ships passing directly into the Baltic. We now had two lanes to cross – so much for being clever!

Ven apparently in the 16th century was where the noseless astronomer (he lost it in a duel with his son-in-law (note to self…be nice!)) Tacho Brahe (the Patrick Moore of his day) had is observatory and castle – the Uranienborg. His claim to fame was that he showed that the earth rotated around the sun and not the other way round!

Dodging ships around Ven

As we reached Ven we started to cross on a broad reach but had to gybe away to avoid a large and very fast moving cargo ship moving down then again to avoid another coming up. By this time we were so far down on Ven that we had to put in a series of long sweeping gybes to clear the island. Just when we thought we had cleared the shipping lane when a large and very fast white passenger liner came down the inside channel on the Swedish side of the island!

Just when we thought we had cleared the shipping lane. Liner emerges on the far side of Ven!

Safely avoided we headed for our first port of call in Sweden, Landskrona. Landskrona is effectively the ferry terminal for Ven, which was rather handy as we were able to watch one follow the slightly confusing dogleg channel out of the river mouth. The yacht basin is in the old ferry dock and will be very nice when it is finished and surrounded by smart ‘execu-flats’ and luxury moorings. Confusingly about 100m before the entrance is the sailing club. They have lots of masts and it was very tempting to turn it there. Disaster would have resulted as the maximum depth in its entrance was less than 1.2m!

Holding my nerve and trusting the pilot book we went 100m further on and the entrance to the Nyhamn. This was only about 30 feet wide with a 3 knot cross current, so it took a good surge of power to squeak in. Only to put on full astern almost immediately to come to a halt as there was a footbridge across the way in! We tied up to the nearest thing which was a wooden wall running from the bridge piers and waited. And waited. And waited! Finally opening the big metal boxed bolted to the top of the wall. Inside was a lot of Swedish and a big green and a big red button. Pressing the green button lights flashed, buzzers sounded and if by magic the bridge opened! We sailed through and into what will be a very smart little marina! After motoring around inside for a bit, then getting wedged between two finger pontoons we eventually moored up alongside. We were so busy trying to find somewhere to park we did not notice that the bridge was still open or indeed all puzzled people calling to us from each-side of the bridge…..if only they had tried English! Then a man who had been jetwashing the pontoon told us that we were supposed to close it after we had used it but not to worry and without a moments delay had jumped off the bridge and shinned out along the wall to press the red ‘close’ button. Fantastic!

We felt less bad about bringing the traffic to a halt in the town while we left the bridge up after the retired harbour master popped down to say hello. He told us that everyone does it the first time. Also we were only the fifth English boat that had come into the harbour in 6 years…….not surprised really as you have to know your stuff (not us) or be prepared to muddle through totally oblivious to everything happening around you! (Us). As we left he leaned out of the window of his flat opposite and yelled ‘Bon voyage’ I think……

Grace in Landskrona, our first port of call in Sweden

Our final job, after sorting out bridges and moorings was to swap the Danish courtesy flag we had flown for almost 9 months for the Swedish one! Finally we had made it to Sweden.

Changing our courtesy flags!

Landskrona is what turns out to be a fairly typical medieval town in Scania (of which we have seen quite a few now!) with its corresponding castle, the Citadel. This was built by the Danish king, Christian 2 in the mid 1500s. Later, when Scania was ceded to the Swedes, the Swedes built on the other side of the channel, now hidden in the dunes, an equally large Bastion to provide even better protection for the port against marauding Danes. It failed and it fell to the Danes again in days! Apparent one of the reasons for moving the Swedish Navy base to Karlskrona!

The Citadel, apparently was used up until the 1960s as a woman’s hard labour prison!

The beach!

The love the Danes now and even vote for them in the Eurovision Song Contest!

After the drama of the broken leg of the night before, we were very keen to leave Odden at the earliest possible opportunity next morning. We had a much easier exit than arrival and we were soon out into Odde Bay. We had been sailing for no more than about 10 minutes when a message came over the VHF, “All Ships, All Ships, NATO live firing exercise in area RF19, clear the area immediately until 1600”. This was repeated every 30 minutes. Oh no! RF19 was exactly where we needed to go! We really did not want to go back so the morning passed as we tacked in and out of the restricted area as the sound of gunfire and smell of cordite filled the air. We expected at any moment to be chased away. About lunchtime, the 4 warships got in a row and fired everything they had in some form of ‘grand finale’, before dashing off over the horizon for tea and biscuits!

Dodging in and out of the firing range!

We continued to tack our way across the 10 nm of the Hesselo Bugt before approaching the entrance of the Isefjord to starboard and Hundested to port. Then motoring up the long 5 nm channel toward Lynaes at the mouth of the Roskilde Fjord. This is an ancient route which the Vikings would have taken a 1000 years ago and been familiar with! The whole area is covered by shallow reefs and narrow buoyed channels. We were keen to go to Lynaes as it had a good chandlery as we needed new charts for our next leg down the Oresund.

Kite surfers are never a good sign if you don’t want strong winds and there were plenty outside Lynaes harbour! The guest berths are in the old fishing dock, it is a slightly down at heel place but we found a space on the the harbour wall next to an abandoned yacht. It was only later that evening that the significance of the kitesurfing became apparent as the wind rose and we realised our mistake, the strong westerly wind drove a fierce swell through the harbour mouth and that pinned us firmly against the wall. We seemed to have arrived in Denmark’s windiest place and the wind did not let up for a moment for three whole days!

The north cardinal at the start of Isjelfjord

Being stuck on the wall, we saw a lot of the Danes (literally). At the end of the harbour there was a magnificent sea bathing hut and from early morning to late at night, a steady stream of Danes in dressing gowns wondered along for a naked dip!

Stuck on the wall and seeing a lot of Danes going bathing!

I was tempted to go swimming but the water was very cold!

Our trip to the chandler was only partially successful, we bought a new cabin light fitting but as for charts we were out of luck! We had no option but to go to Copenhagen and the famous chartmaker of Weilbachs. They have been making some of the world’s most beautiful charts since the 1750s. The large format chart of the Oresund we bought is truly a work of art!

Weilbach the chart maker

Our beautiful new chart of the Oresund!

The New Harbour, Copenhagen

To get to Copenhagen we borrowed two bikes to get to the station from a huge pile from behind a shed. Out of the 30 bike quietly rusting away we found one bike that worked and then mine! Mine steered permanently 5 degrees to port…’weather helm’- not really a problem as that is normal for Grace! No brakes – not a problem as the bike was so small I could put my feet on the floor. One incredibly low gear – less good as the ride to the station was going to be like running a marathon only sat down. More of a problem was the bike saddle, bits fell off it as I cycled until I was left with two sharp spikes to sit on!

Not surprisingly, when we returned to the station our trusty bikes were just where we had left them that morning and we gingerly cycled back to the boat laden down with a full set of charts to take us all the way to Stockholm.

Lethal bikes!

There comes a time when you just have to go for it. Having exhausted the delights of Lynaes and naked bathing, we had to escape the harbour wall and continue our journey. Grace does not like to leave walls from alongside, no bow thruster, a wide beam and high freeboard and with a wind ‘beam on’ means she will stick to a wall like glue. The practical option to get away is to ‘spring’ her off stern first. This involves putting fenders on the bow and putting a bowline to a shore cleat mid-way along the hull. Then by motoring forward the boat pivots around the bows pushing the stern out, hopefully far enough to clear the boat behind as you engage astern and slip smartly out. It never usually works that well but this time it was perfect……we were so surprised that we both stopped to admire what was going on…..it was real text book stuff, only to have Grace slip back to the wall! Back on the power and we were finally away from Lynaes!

The next few days took us first to Gilleleje, a rather smart weekend retreat for Danes from Copenhagen and our furthest point east so far! It was also the site where in 1943 over a 1000 Danish Jews were smuggled across the Oresund to neutral Sweden by local fishermen.

Passing the furthest point east sailed last year!

Our first sight of Sweden!

Gilleleje, a rather smart weekend retreat

We then sailed on to Helsingor, our last stopping point in Denmark and the Kronborg, the setting for Hamlet’s Elsinore Castle. The marina, in the shadow of the castle was full and we had to slip into a ‘red’ space – expecting to have to move at any time when the owner returned.

The Kronborg

The Kronborg is a fantastic place, it was built to charge taxes from shipping passing by in the Oresund. A tax that the Danes continued to charge until the 1850’s when they were paid 68 billion kronor by a ‘world agreement’ to stop it! The castle now is rather like a ‘Hamlet theme park’ with hammy English actors popping up all over the place to overact various scenes from the play that can’t be mentioned……all rather good fun!

Hamlet theme park!

To encourage payment of shipping tax

There is also a very good maritime museum, actually hidden in the old dry dock behind the Kronborg. It has a superb explanation of navigation and using a sextant but like every Danish maritime museum it has the obligatory Maersk container…..apparently the inventor of the ‘box’!

No Danish museum is complete without a container!

The next leg took us from Samso to Sejero. This involved crossing the busy traffic separation zone for the Great Belt Bridge. Switching the VHF to channel 72 is mandatory to monitor the Bridge Control.

The not quite so busy Great Belt approach!

It is interesting to hear the ships report in, request pilots and anchorages.

“This is Silver Star for Great Belt Control over”

“40 persons onboard over”

“Last port Shanghai over”

“Bunkerage 7,750 tonnes of heavy oil and 1500 litres of lube oil over”

“No dangerous cargo, 47,000 tonnes of steel products for Kiel over”

“Following Route T over”

And in return from the Control Centre, always the same……….

“Thank you Captain, we wish you a safe watch……”.

It reminds me a little of John Masefield’s ‘Cargoes’ which we learnt at school.

“Dirty British coaster with a salt caked smoke stack, butting through the Channel in the mad March days.

With a cargo of Tyne coal, road rail, pig lead, firewood, iron ware, and cheap tin trays.”

We then had a warship who was much more curt……

“NATO warship Zulu Tango Foxtrot 46”

“Control you have our passage plan”

“All ships, all ships, all ships do not approach closer than 1 nautical miles”

And from Bridge Control the familiar…..

“Thank you Captain we wish you a safe watch”.

A favourable wind meant we sailed almost in a straight line, directly the 17 miles into Sejero from Ballen. We were moored up by 1515 but being Saturday everywhere was closed until Monday!

A peaceful Sejero

Sunday we explored the island, renting bikes from Soeren, the harbour master, who also sold you the gas for cooking, ran the fishing trips and was a general fixer upper of things! We cycled out to the lighthouse for a picnic on one of the islands only two roads and then back on the other one for a change! Our both phones went crazy as we past the islands only phone mast! Humming, buzzing, bleeping and ringing as we cycled by!

A picnic at the lighthouse

This is where you rent bikes!

And even a golf course in a wheat field and even a 19th hole

We had moored next to a lovely couple who had been cruising the Danish islands for 40 years. (Hopefully they will find their way home soon!) They were slightly horrified at our plan to sail east through the reef passage at Sjaellands Odde…..we would surely be wrecked! And then even more so at our plan to sail across the bay to Hundested through the military target range……we would surely be sunk! And as for our plan to sail to Sweden……we would surely be eaten! In my angst I went to check with Soeren, the harbour master and the source of all local knowledge. He just smiled enigmatically, saying sagely ‘Well bigger ships have made it’ which I took to mean that it will be no problem as there will be plenty of space to get through, rather than on reflection that a bigger boat might find it easier! Leaving he wished us ‘Held og lykke’. Later I learnt this means ‘good luck’ in Danish!

Sailing away from Sejero

The last part of our trip, took us to Odden on Sjaelland, the final Danish island we had to cross before we reached the Oresund. We sailed the northerly route round the top side of Sejero, soon leaving the west cardinal buoy marking the edge of the reef and the Gniben lighthouse well astern. For next three hours we tacked across the Sejero Bucht until we approached the green and red buoys that marked the passage through the Snekkelob reef and into Sjaellands Odde bay and Odden, our destination for the night. Before us, the water became glassy calm in the lee of the reef that stretched for miles on either side. Seeing the red refuge tower did not inspire confidence and rather belatedly I reflected on the meaning Soeren’s wise words!

Calm water in the lee of the reef

Ahead we saw the waves breaking in great white crests on the other side of the reef. So with sails well reefed and engine surging forward, we went almost head to wind towards the gap of clear water that marked our safe passage through. As we hit the gap, the depth fell sharply first to 3.5 m and then 2.4 m as Grace pitched nose first in the short and nasty swell. Powering up the throttle we edged our way back into deeper water, 5 m, 9 m and then 12 m as the waves eased. We were now in the Odde Bay. The wind had built to a F4 gusting F5 easterly with a brisk swell as we grateful made our way towards Odden and its harbour. Odden harbour has a difficult entrance in an easterly with the swell funnelling between the moles and the two channel markers at the entrance.

Moored up in Odden

Odden is a busy tuna fishing port

Once in the calm of the harbour we struggled to find a berth with sufficient depth, Grace only draws 1.5 m but much of the moorings were in 1.4 m or less and we shuddered on a couple of occasions as the keel caught the mud. We had to slip into a berth at the far outer end of the main pontoon next to a rather tired and abandoned looking yacht! Just when you think you’ve beaten it, the wind, waves or life has a nasty habit of reminding you it has not finished with you yet! The wind caught our bows and spun us round and we were stranded against the posts. No panic! We secured ourselves and had a conference on the foredeck! Taking a long line from the bows I stepped off the stern onto the neighbouring boat, then off its bows and on to the pontoon where I looped the line round a cleat and gently pulled Grace straight in the box – easy, if a bit inelegant! Grace all secured we could relax and brew some tea…….

Slow it down!

However it was about then that I started to appreciate the true meaning of the “slow it down” labels I had been made to put over the steering binnacle and side decks by Anne and Ellie, when my only response to every difficulty was to open the throttle to the max; as just then a large German yacht made its approach between the moles and came in, they were clearly pleased to be in. After a couple of thwarted attempts to moor in several boxes, rather than moor along side the wall, in clearly deeper water the skipper attempted to moor ‘stern too’ on the end of our pontoon. It was all happening very quickly, the wind was now gusting 20 knots, the bow lines had not been reset up from the previous attempts to moor and the two people on the bow were clearly not comfortable with what they should be doing. I got off Grace to see if I could help with taking a line. As the bows moved past the posts at the head of the box, everyone was shouting to put the lines over the posts. As they did this, the skipper realised that he was getting stuck again and confusion reigned as everyone shouted to take the lines off! Mooring lines were piled deep on the foredeck, and as the boat went astern to the now wide open throttle, the most dreadful event happen, the still attached port side line started to tighten, the tangle on deck rose up around the lower leg of the elderly woman helper on the foredeck (the line had been run over the top of pulpit railings at the bow and not under them!), and slowly and irresistibly they closed around her leg as the full weight of the boat motoring astern came to bear on her leg. The sickening crunch that followed said everything. We helped secure the boat alongside, although nearly losing the sternline as this had not been secured to the boat! We were able to help with a tourniquet from our first aid kit but it was a long 45 minutes before the ambulance arrived to take her to Copenhagen, some 100 km away.

Ill-fated yacht

This was a terrible and also avoidable accident. To apply ‘Slow it down’ might have made a difference. Very shaken to have witnessed this disastrous event we resolved to leave Odden at the first opportunity.

After 7 months, it was great to be sailing again. We left Augustenborg at 0830, motored out of the buoyed channel and by 0915 we had the engine off, the sails up and on to a run. We goosewinged the sails using our new whisker pole. (Or Grace’s Christmas present!)

Grace “goosewinged” and flying!

It was not long before we had passed Dyvig and were flying up the Little Belt at 7 knots. It’s amazing what a clean weed free bottom does for your speed! (Yet another of Grace’s Christmas presents!) By 1400 we were already off Aro, a small island at the bottom of the Little Belt. After a quick circular tour of the harbour, dodging the ferry and the lifeboat it became apparent the place was full. All the Danes were out sailing for their bank holiday weekend!

Grace keeping pace in the Als Sund

A short hop across the Sund to AroSund and we were into the marina opposite, moored up and engine off all by 1500! We clearly had not lost the old magic! Our early arrival meant that I had time to search out the local delicacy – the AroSund Waffle, about a kilogram of mint chocolate and liquorice ice cream, in a cone, covered with pink marshmallow with the Danish equivalent of a Tunnock’s Teacake plonked on top! All in all a thoroughly stomach churning experience which I vowed never to repeat! (The Danes really do love liquorice, I’m eating liquorice covered dates as I write this!)

The old magic is back! Moored up by 1500! Fee paid!

Aro Sund

The brisk easterly winds meant that our progress north up the Little Belt has been quite swift. The next day we set off for the unfortunately sounding Middelfart and the Ny Havn marina which lies just before the Little Belt Bridge. The strong current and my rather optimistic course plotting took us on a route between Faeno and the smaller island (almost a rock really) of Faeno Kalv. The channel curved round rapidly into the wind, the depth was also falling rapidly and we had to drop the sails quickly and get the engine on to get us through. The everyone else was staying to port in the nice wide and well marked, although slightly longer route! Clearly an example of going with the flow was the right thing to do!

Cutting the corner was really not a good idea! The black route was the one to take!

As we passed under the railway bridge and rounded the channel towards the Little Belt bridge, the strength of the current in the approach to Ny Havn was an unpleasant 3 to 4 knots across the mouth of the marina so going under the bridge we went to our alternative base at Frederica. Although in the shadow of the oil terminal it was a very welcome place to stop for the night after 28 miles of good sailing.

Sailing under the Little Belt Bridge

We were much less certain about where our next destination was going to be. We were about to enter the Kattegat for the start of our long leg across the Great Belt and into the Oresund. However the wind was now determinedly from the east, the direction we needed to go. Not ideal in a sailing boat! Over the next few weeks we were going to have to do some serious tacking to work our way to towards Sweden! We set off for the Island of Endeleve but after 6 hours sailing and some 27 miles later we were actually in Juelsminde, a large marina and very busy sailing club, just 10 miles in a direct line from Frederica and well short of our original target of Endeleve! Tacking to clear the cardinal buoy marking the end southern end of Bjornskunde reef and with the wind shifting to the north east we realised that we would not make Endeleve today!

Entering Juelsminde with a strong breeze blowing on the bows that my finely honed kamikaze berthing techniques came back to me – ideally if you see an empty box mooring between two other boats then go for it! Wedge yourself between then and keep shoving forward until you are in and making full use of Grace’s other Christmas present, her new blue Bumperline (yes they are really called that! They are thick blue woven ropes that run along the side of the boat allowing you to rub gently along things like posts and boats without harm) that now adorn Grace’s sides and make her look very ‘Baltic’! Alternatively find a berth with a boat to leeward and in you go nice and tight and the Bumperline taking the strain! Which is exactly what we did! There is nothing you can do to the gelcoat which a bit of polish won’t sort out at the end of the season!

Safely in Juelsminde

Juelsminde’s only claim to fame is that it has a museum with the largest collection of Massey Ferguson tractors in Denmark? Europe? The World? And of course the Juelsminde Waffle……which seems very familiar to the AroSund waffle being about a kilogram of mint chocolate and liquorice ice cream, in a cone, covered with pink marshmallow and with the Danish equivalent of a Tunnock’s Teacake plonked on top!

Home of the Juelsminde waffle!

It is now Friday 25th May and we have our biggest run planned so far, from Juelsminde on South Jutland across to Samso Island. The days are now staying light until 9.30 pm means that we could just keep going late into the evening if we had to! Casting off at 0930 with the log reading 4832 nm we are soon into the bucht, with our sails up and on a course of 135 degrees towards Aebelo island. Our aim was to reach the wind farm on the bottom of Samso before deciding whether to head for Kolby Kas on the western side of the island or carry on to Ballen on the east coast and our preferred choice. We had a strong incentive to go to Ballen as apparently it produced the best potatoes Denmark and this weekend it was going to be the ‘Best Potato Open Sandwich Competition’ so clearly an event not to be missed!

Around 1240 as we finally passed Endeleve we found ourselves in company with some friendly dolphins who swam around and under the boat. We occasionally caught a glimpse of their dorsal fins breaking out of the inky darkness of the sea. You are first alerted to their presence by what sounds like air leaking from a pipe, or if you are down wind, a whiff of terrible fishy breath! Endearing creatures they may be but they really do smell…but I’m sure they say the same about us!

10 Giant Windmils that make Samso self sufficient in electricity

By 1440 we were at 55 43.6 N and 10 31.5 E and tacking away from the 10 giant turbines to take the inshore route to Ballen. We figured that staying inshore would keep us clear of the large container ships and ferries on their way to Arhus. We guessed wrong of course and soon found ourselves dancing around several large ships going our way!

So many ships going our way!

By 1725 we were safely moored up, Kamikaze berthing technique applied, having sailed 31 miles, the longest daily distance of the cruise so far and with just 30 minutes on the motor!

Snug in Samso

After 7 months out of the water, it is great to see Grace back on the water with her mast up, fuelled, provisioned and ready to go! (…..Well almost! We did need Anders to climb up the mast dangled on a bit of string!). However the unintentional replacement of the topping lift (stops the boom from falling down when the main sail is furled) due to a slight language problem did solve the problem that for the last 18 months I have been hitting my head on the boom every time I step on deck! Simply pulling on the topping lift raises the boom out of my head height…….well worth the investment of 275 Kr!

Grace back in the water after 7 months!

Anders fine tuning the rig!

We arrived on Tuesday from Heathrow via Copenhagen to Sonderborg. Everything was in good order except for the loss of two bags, containing what I felt to be a catastrophic gap in our essential supplies, 7 months supply of teabags and Chichester’s entire stock of mozzie coils! (You may think I am over reacting, but when you are forced to drink Lipton’s Yellow Label tea, or have been bitten to within an inch of your life on a summer’s evening on an unpronounceable desolate Swedish archipelago by mosquitos, who think your sole purpose is to be an insect smorgasbord, then you might change your mind!). The only other missing items were all of Anne’s clothes……..mine came through without mishap!

It is lucky for us that the Ministry of Fish or something similar has relocated to Augustenborg as it means that there are 4 flights a day back to Copenhagen so all these marooned civil servants are able scurry back to civilisation and Starbucks at every opportunity!

Fortunately after 4 days and with lots of help from Susanne in the boatyard; who was able to work her way through the various SAS lost property departments, teabags, mozzies coils, oh and Anne’s clothes were all reunited with us and we were able to get underway!

Bags reunited

Tom Cunliffe, the sailing guru was also preparing his yacht for the summer in Augustenborg. I have most of his books and had to be restrained from stalking him up the pontoons to ask him to autograph them for me! However we took his advice after he watched us fill our diesel tank at the marina to go to Flensburg in Germany, it is only just 10 miles away, as the duty of fuel (too late!) and booze is about half that of Denmark! So on Saturday we joined the queues of Danes doing exactly that in the nearest supermarket!

Flensburg

A lucky diversion in our search for new charts was that we came across a fascinating exhibition about the very famous Abeking and Rasmussen yachts at the rather swanky Robbe & Berking boatyard on the harbour in Flensburg. Founded in 1907 A&R built some of the most beautiful wooden sailing yachts of their day. Today I think they provide big toys to oligarchs.

Robbe and Berking visitor centre

They were busy setting up the displays so we sneaked in for an exclusive preview! It felt rather good to sit at Georg Abeking’s desk amongst his plans and drawing implements – I always wanted to be a naval architect!

Abeking’s desk

Fair well Augustenborg! Thank you for looking after Grace!

Well, it is difficult to believe that it was only about this time last year that we were getting ready to make the first leg of our Baltic trip starting from Grace’s home port of Chichester to Brighton as soon as the weather was suitable. Now there is just a week to go before we go back to Augustenborg in Denmark to continue the cruise for this summer.

Sailing over the Bar at Chichester, not knowing when Grace will be returning!

Checking my log for last year, we left Chichester Marina just after high water at 7.20 am in very light airs arriving in Brighton on the visitor’s pontoon at 15.30 pm after sailing 38.25 nm. This was in fact one of the longest daily runs we made last year! I remember our entry into Brighton very well as we were surprised by a large dredger filling the entrance as we sailed in and we had to squeeze past her, albeit on a rising tide through a narrow and twisting steel pile lined channel while dodging the fishing trip boats at the same time!

Safely on the visitor’s pontoon at Brighton!

Grace, having spent the winter in a nice warm shed, has had her bottom cleaned and antifouled and just needs a new anode for the saildrive, which I have sourced from the Bruntons, the auto prop manufacturer to be ready to go back in the water when we arrive next week.

Fresh antifouling and ready for the Baltic slime!

The vital bit! A new anode for the prop.

The repairs to bows, from the collision with the very unfriendly walls of a lock are now well underway. It is of course going to be more far complex (expensive!) to repair! After removing the bow roller there was more damage to the structure beneath it, as  well as some cracking to the base of the electric winch. Apparently it is a common problem with these Bavarias so we are taking the opportunity to get it reinforced as we will be using the anchor a lot more this season.

Once back in the water, the riggers will tune the rig and install the whisker pole and track. This will enable us to properly goosewing the genoa downwind, effectively doubling the sail area we can carry when running before the wind. It will also help maintain the sail shape on a broad reach, both of which will improve our downwind speed and safety!

We have planned a couple of days of ‘sea trials’ to check that Grace is  fighting fit for her adventures! The Alsfjord is a perfect sailing grounds to test the boat with some nice places to moor around Dyvig or down the Als Sund at Sonderborg.

Our route to Sweden from Augustenborg to the Helsingborg in the Oresund

We will then head north, out of the Alsfjord and into the ‘Little Belt’ and up into the Kattegat to Middelfart. Then we will sail east, over the top of the island of Fyn towards Odense.  Crossing the ‘Great Belt’, we might possibly call at Ballen on Samso before cruising on to Kalungborg on Sjaelland (The largest of the Danish islands). We will skirt past Roskilde and the vikings as we visited them last year and head on into the Oresund. This forms the border between Denmark and Sweden. It is here we have the choice to sail south down the Danish side to Helsingor, the home of Hamlet’s Elsinore Castle or sail to the confusingly similar Helsingborg across the water in Sweden! No doubt the wind will decide it for us! We will then head down the Oresund under ‘The Bridge’ past Copenhagen and Malmo and into the Baltic Sea….. proper….. again! A total distance of about 550 nm or about 25 days sailing for Grace optimistically assuming fair weather!!

There seems to be almost a feeling of no mans land in the Mid-Levels which sit somewhere between the skyscrapers on the shoreline of Victoria Bay and the high rises that cluster round the base of the Peak. The area seems almost in a permanent twilight from the shadows cast by the tall buildings that surround it.

Wandering the Mid-Levels

The afternoon found us making our way along the Queens Road in search of the very well hidden Mid-Level escalators. Built in the 1990’s, the escalators run for almost 800 metres up into the Mid-Levels. They are a slightly crazy, but brilliant solution to the problem of getting lots of people down to the offices in the morning and back to their homes at night in the Mid-Levels without increasing congestion on the roads! From 6am to 10 am they run down the hill and the rest of the day, up it! Simple!

The Mid-Level Escalator – sheer genius!

We hopped off it at Hollywood Road, which was packed with antique shops and headed up what seemed like endless flights of stairs to the Plague Museum.

Endless stairs!

The old Bacteriological Institute

Plague has been and still is a problem here as Hong Kong is such a crossroads for people and goods. Their new container port is the fourth largest in the world. It isn’t just about banking here!

Plague epidemics became so frequent but also so disruptive to trade that 1880s a state of the art Bacteriological Institute was built and staffed, becoming known for doing loads of innovative, if somewhat gruesome stuff in tracking and monitoring outbreaks.

Plague and Smallpox…..plenty of good things to look forward to!

We started the morning out at North Point, making special efforts to use the ancient trams or Ding Dings. They really do Ding, Ding! I had especially wanted to try them, they are packed, cramped, slow, stopping at every stop and very noisy but great fun all the same! We were the only westerners on board and were of some interest to. He locals!

Riding the Ding Dings

The ‘plan’ was to go to the Bird and Flower markets, but our real intention was to gorge on the famous Duck Shung Ho egg rolls! The bird market was a bit grim and we left feeling uncomfortable about keeping song birds in small gilded cages. It was quite a contrast to see the sparrows darting in and out, picking up the spilt bird food!

Entering the bird market

The flower market was equally unsatisfactory but in a different way, cut flowers in vases do not excite the same emotions as birds in cages! The market had gone and it was now rather a dull street of wall to wall Interflora shops.

Interflora!

More disappointments were to follow, by the time we had got to Duck Shung Ho all the egg rolls had been sold. Although to ease our obvious distress we were offered a bag of broken ones from under the counter! Starving, we headed off to Lee Keung Kee and their Michelin Guide recommended eggette waffles……which were truly excellent and some bubble tea….which had the consistency of frogspawn and tasted very much like I imagined it would!

However things rapidly improved with Dim Sum at Yum Chi and their hilarious steamed dumplings!

The yellow custard ones are the best!

In Hong Kong people really love to gamble! Wednesday evening and the Happy Valley race course is packed. The 12 wise men of the Hong Kong Jockey Club controls all the betting on and off the course, so for the serious gambler the only place to go is Macau. It is the only place in China where casinos are legal and as such, has a slightly Wild West and sleazy reputation!

However that certainly does not put off the good bergers of Hong Kong, no sir! Nor indeed a high roller such as myself! There are 75 jetfoil sailings, day and night to get you there. And these jetfoil are serious pieces of kit – they fly the 68 kilometres to Macau from Hong Kong in less than 60 minutes!

Macau Jetfoil

We arrived at the ferry terminal bright and early at 9.30am, not really realising just how many people wanted to go gambling! But as with everything in HK, if you are prepared to pay then the shorter the queue becomes! Standard class meant a 2 hour wait, Super Class equals one hour but Premier Grand Super Class was step this way to the next flight!

Within in minutes we were ushered to the head of the queue and into our special Swedish designed leather lined cabin. With some excitement I got my tray table ready to receive my Premier Grand Super Class High Rollers meal, only to be repulsed by the slice of warm Spam floating on what I took to be a bed of sick but was probably some form of dried egg! An inauspicious start to my new career as a gambler!

Warm Spam!

I’m not sure what I expected Macau to be, part Portuguese port and part fishing village. I was not expecting the huge brightly lit Las Vagas style casinos of the new town and the towering skyscrapers of the commercial district and somewhere nestled in between was the Portuguese old town and all in 29 degrees of heat and 85 % humidity.

Downtown Macau

Senado Square

Hopping on a local bus, we went to Senado Square, this is the heart of the old town. Getting out of the heat we discovered St Laurence’s church, a white stucco building that would not have been out of place in Lisbon! Climbing some rickety old wooden stairs we found three floors of assorted saints including a rather curious box of saintly bits or perhaps spares!

Saintly Spares!

Following the crowds, the next stop on our tourist trail was the ‘Gateway to Nowhere’ or less interestingly, the ruins of St Pauls. Again more saintly relics to see before we could legitimately go for the main reason for our visit……Portuguese Egg Tarts Chinese style! There are shops every where selling the little bundles of deliciousness and people are buying them up by the dozen to take back to Honk Kong or mainland China.

The egg tarts!

As usual, I wanted to go to the maritime museum but also as usual my navigation skills left quite a lot to be desired and we ended up in the Artisan Quarter, a less than salubrious area where our progress was watched with some suspicion from doorways of the many bars we passed!

Artisan Quarter

Catching sight of an ornately carved doorway, curiosity drew us in, only to find that we were in the Chinese Carpentry Guild Showroom. A real gem of a place where a helpful guide showed us how traditional Chinese houses are built!

Handmade wooden puzzles

Finding main the streets again we jumped on a bus for the old port and the Largo do Pargode da Barra and the A-Mn Temple. This we found easily from following the reek of industrial strength incense but did not linger too there long. Now onto the maritime museum next door and the mariner’s astrolabe which seemed to figure quite heavily in the displays for a reason I am uncertain. The astrolabe is a contraption that can be used to measure latitude but without a means for measuring longitude accurately (and at the time there was not!) it makes determining a ships position a bit of a guess!

A-Ma Temple

Traditional Junk in the Maritime Museum

Culture almost done, it was time to head towards the casinos but not before visiting the Moorish Barracks where mercenaries where housed for a coup that never happened in the 1820s. And what was probably the highlight of the day, the Mandarin’s House. Build in the 1860s it belonged to Zheng Guanying, a writer, merchant and thinker who it is claimed influenced the ideas of Mao and Lenin! It was the largest private villa in Macau and still is! Being a bit off the beaten track it was a peaceful refuge from the people and heat!

Moorish Barracks

The Mandarin’s House

However tranquility is only nice for a bit and it was back to the bright lights, air conditioning and free drinks of the Wynns and MGM casinos we craved! Straight on the slot machines we invested 20 Hong Kong dollars ( about £2) and soon winning big we were 4 dollars and 20 cents ahead and then equally quickly we lost it all again bar 1 HK dollar! The ‘house’ always wins! There was nothing for it but to take the the free bus service the casinos thoughtfully provide to take penniless gamblers back to the ferry and culinary delights of Super Class on the jetfoil!

A winner!

But the ‘house’ always wins!

The Hong Kong MTR (underground) is a wondrous thing! Remarkably quick and cheap. We took the Tung Chung line out to Lantau island. To go from Central station to Tung Chung took just over 30 minutes and cost about £1.60! All you need is an Octopus card, like an Oyster card only better! It works on all public transport, even the Ding Ding trams and the crazy old green 16 seater minibuses that swerve through the traffic. The only thing it does not work on is the 1970’s style red Toyota Crown taxis that are an icon of Honk Kong just like London black cabs. You can also use your Octopus card to buy groceries and drinks in the 7Eleven and if you collect enough points at the Market Place supermarket they will even give you place mats or a toaster!

Lantau is the largest of the islands that makes up Hong Kong, yet with the exception of Tung Chung, some small coastal villages and Disneyland……oh and Chek Lap Kok International Airport it is virtually deserted!! These are all built on the flat bits round the edges, the centre is densely verdant and mountainous and criss crossed with walking paths.

The big Buddha

The main reason why people visit is the famous shrimp paste or the big Buddha! The former has been made on the island with local ingredients for millennia and the latter is an enormous statue perched on top of a peak together with the neighbouring Po Lin monastery. With all the tourist razzmatazz it is quite easy to forget that it is actually a place of worship, with people undertaking their devotions amongst the school trips and ice cream guzzling gawppers (me!).

The big Buddha

Po Lin Monastery

Out of the MTR and straight on to the Ngong 360 cable car, why we opted for the crystal cabin with the glass floor I do not know – especially as I really dislike heights! When I could open my eyes, after much encouragement from our fellow travellers, the view was breathtaking!

Ngong 360 cable car

The big Buddha and his shopping mall done we hopped on a bus and down through precipitous hairpins to the coast to the Tai O fishing village and it’s stilt houses. Their tiny alleyways, teaming with people, the noise and above all the smell is really an assault on the senses!

Tai O Stilt Houses

The place is famous for dried fish and the bright pink shrimp paste which is either dried as bricks in the sun or put into old jam jars. People really do travel from far and wide just to buy this stuff – from Hong Kong and mainland China. Basically it is just shrimps and salt densely packed into what looks like old blue oil drums and fermented in the sun for up to 2 years! We had the misfortune to be passing an open barrel which was being decanted into jars – the smell was eye watering!

Dried Fish Markets

Shrimp Paste!

We kept walking briskly along the coast and suddenly the shanties ended, the people and smells disappeared and there was a big wide promenade leading to the tip of the island. It was very welcome to find a smart hotel with inside toilets, food on plates and cold beer! The old Police Station. It does have it’s own pier so guests do not have to make the Tai O trek.

The Old Police Station

Some hours later and fortified for our return journey, we meandered back through the village and back to the bus stop. The queue to Tung Chung and the MTR stretched for miles and twice round the block. So with no bus in sight we risked the very much shorter taxi queue.

Lantau is clearly the place where old Hong Kong taxis go when they cannot possibly go any further and cannot be repaired by any conventional means! It is a testament to Toyota engineering that our prehistoric taxi stoically climbed up the steep hills and shuddered down the deep valleys to get us safely back to Tung Chung and the slick, smooth and swift MTR!

The Star Ferries are an institution here in Hong Kong, taking you quite quickly from Hong Kong Island to the Kowloon and the mainland with what must be some of the most incredible views of human habitation on the planet! As tourists we decided to pay the extra 5p to sit on the top deck, not a bad investment considering the normal fare is about 26p!

The Star Ferry Terminal at Central

Views across the bay

At just over 100 ft long these flat bottomed little boats roll their way across the swell in Victoria Harbour from the Central Ferry Terminal in all directions, dodging the container ships, cruise liners, sampans and the high speed Macau jet foils that seem to fill the Bay!

The wheel house – one at each end!

Our ferry, Meridian Star was built in 1958 to a double ended design reminiscent of the original ferries from when the Star Ferry company was formed in around the 1880s. In fact I assumed that ours was coal fired by the quantity of smoke coming out of the funnel – it is a diesel electric!!

So much smoke!

It was lovely to watch these boats berth, a stern line was thrown ashore, caught on the boat hook and then looped over a bollard. The boat was then driven forward pulling it closely alongside for a bow line to be secured. Not a bow thruster in sight! It’s a manoeuvre I’ll definitely try with Grace!

The boat hook!

The days of the ‘Stars’ are clearly numbered. There are new bridges and roads everywhere and the MTR underground is just so quick, cheap and easy that given the pace that people like to move here, if you are not a tourist why would you choose any other way to travel?!

Harbour views