but for the Grace

Crossing the Great Belt and exploring the Smaland Sea

1st September 2017

My new logbook!

It is the first page of my new logbook that Lorna brought over for me from RYA. There is something exciting about the first page of a new logbook as every page is the possibility of an adventure and somewhere new!

The first line says ‘1015 Engine on, departing Nyborg Marina.’

Leaving Nyborg

The winds were light and the sea state calm for the day. It looked like it was going to be a day of motor sailing, especially the the shipping lane for the Great Belt Bridge’s central span. The bridge dominates the skyline for about 20 nm.

The Great Belt Bridge

We were monitoring VHF channel 12 for the bridge traffic control, it was quite interesting to listen to a large American warship negotiating to pass under the bridge!

The benefit of the calm sea was the that we could see the dolphins, who seemed to be following the shipping lanes and the traffic separation scheme. It will be explained to me by a German in a restaurant at Dyvig in three weeks time why they do it. It is that they prefer the deep water, which is where the shipping lanes are too!

By 1155, we had covered 11 nm and were approaching the Agero Flak light beacon and the far side of the Great Belt Bridge shipping lane.

Lorna sailing Grace

Agero Flak Beacon

It had been a relatively quiet crossing with only 4 ships to dodge!

Only light shipping in the channel

Interestingly a new obstruction had been marked by 6 yellow special marks. This was to warn of a recent ship wreck, which we skirted round to enter the Omo Sund at the head of the Smalands Fahrwasser.

Special marks

The Smalands Fahrwasser is bounded by Sealand to the North, Falster to the East and Lolland to the South. It creates a nice sheltered sailing ground with interesting islands to explore, Omo being the first and was our destination for the day. It is a small island with a little fishing harbour and a very frequent ferry to avoid!

The ferry to follow but also avoid!

We soon realised that the entrance had the potential to be a bit tricky as the ferry we followed in stuck strictly to the buoyed channel – no short cuts here!

Grace moored up in a very quiet harbour!

Once moored up we set about exploring the island on some ‘help yourself’ red bikes. They were lethal! Solid tyres and solid seats that soon induced a worrying numbness; coupled to the absence of brakes meant that I came the closest to a hospital visit in the whole cruise.

Anne and Lorna risking life and limb on the red ‘help yourself bikes’

From the only hill on the island (23m above sea level) you can see the whole of the island. The village is in the centre of island and felt like time had passed it by. As we wobbled along on our red bikes we were certainly passed by the islands 4 cars and 6 tractors and locals stopped to wonder at us!

Views across Omo from its highest (23 m) point!

Omo village and duck pond!

A local resident!

We had arranged to meet Anne’s sister Lorna, in Nyborg as there is a fast train from Copenhagen airport. She was going to join us for a week. So we were keen not to be late as we needed to do lots of washing and to tidy and clean Grace to make her acceptable for visitors!

Leaving Svendborg in light airs

We left Svendborg at 1000 in a light F2, it seemed as if we would have to motor sail all the way as it is a 25 nm trip and we were barely making 2.5 knots under sail alone. The channel out into the Sund is also quite complex with plenty of opportunity for disaster. As usual our departure coincided with that of the ferry, this time the Helge, an old steam ferry dating from 1905, but she soon slipped away from us as she cut across the sandbanks in a way we dared not risk.

The steam ferry Helge

The channel to Langeland snakes out between the islands of Thuro and Tasinge for 4 nm. There are some really nice houses on the side of the Fjord with waterside moorings.

This is the best place to live in Svendborg

Valdemar’s Slot

We then sailed past King Valdemar’s castle and out to the South Cardinal, turning on a bearing of 025 and then on a very broad reach past the Elsetroval Lighthouse and up to Lohals on Langeland. The Great Belt Bridge piers came into sight despite being still almost 20 nm away. It really is a monumental piece of engineering! The wind had built very nicely and Grace was now running under full sail in a F4 south westerly and we were gybing our way up the Langeland Sund. We are going to buy Grace a present of a pole to hold out the genoa on a run this Christmas! My efforts with a boat hook, although effective was a bit crude!

Crude but effective!

After about 12 nm miles we reached the safe water buoy marking the start of the Nyborg Fjord. Then after about 4 nm miles we were through the entrance of the marina. It is very large and we had plenty of time to get our mooring lines ready while we found a box mooring. What we did not realise was that for a short stay, mooring at the town quay is more fun and saves a bit of a walk!

Safely moored up in the marina

The town quay, the rain started and we had to find refuge in the distillery!

Nyborg

Views of Nyborg, a pretty and very quiet little town

Nyborg main claim to fame was that it was a massive ferry terminal for the link between Fyn and Sjaeland. Then in 1998 they opened the Great Belt Bridge and railway tunnel, this virtually killed the place off overnight! In the marina they have a memorial to the crew the of a Stirling Bomber which was shot down in 1943 laying mines across the Great Belt. Although the wreck was a war grave they had to blow it up before they could build the bridge as it still had 16 mines on board and was in the direct path of the the bridge foundations.

Memorial to Stirling bomber crew

However it does have a great beach (with no jelly fish) to go swimming from and a distillery. They have only just opened this year so visitors are more like guinea pigs as you sample everything! By the end of the visit, some 5 hours later, with which we combined with great cocktails and lunch our resistance (good sense?) had completely been eroded and we ended buying a bottle of 62.5 degree proof cask strength rum for the boat! It was eye wateringly expensive and equally eye watering to drink without diluting it first! But it does keep the cold out of your bones!

A great beach and lovely clear water

Samples and cocktails!

The stills

Refurbished port casks for colour and flavour!

Filling my own bottle, most of it ended up on the floor!

Ships rum to keep out the cold!

Aeroscobing to Svenborg

26th to 28th August 2017

We left Aeroscobing at 1025 to avoid being caught up in the ferry’s approach to the harbour. These things may be small but they don’t half shift and produce a huge bow wave that can swamp you. The channel out to the north from Aeroscobing is quite narrow so we were pleased to have timed our exit to avoided them!

Best to keep out of the ferries way!

Once past the safe water mark we set a bearing of 015, the wind was so light that we motorsailed on a run with the genoa giving us about 0.5 knots of speed. No much help but it felt better than just motoring like most of the other boats out there! After about 3 nm we were in the approach to Svenborg. The channel is dredged to about 3m and passes between the small islands of Drejo and Skaro to port and Hjorto and the rather bigger island of Tasinge to starboard. Tasinge is about 3.5 nm long with a Cardinal buoy at the end where you need to make a sharp turn to the north before passing another Cardinal buoy in 0.5 nm, making an immediate turn onto 050 to bring you into the Svenborg Sund. The Sund needs to be steered accurately as just before the motorway bridge crossing there are some tricking narrows marked by cardinals through which the channel snakes. Of course it is here, at the narrowest point that we meet the ferry and get thrown about a bit as it steams by us!

The narrows at the motorway bridge

Of the three or four marinas around Svenborg we went for the one right in the centre of town in the new port (1884 new!) as it sounded the most interesting! This involved sailing round between a large ship repair yard where they were working on some wooden sailing ships and a minesweeper and the large grain silos. It did not look particularly attractive but once past the commercial buildings there was a modern marina with nice pontoons and by 1340 we were moored up along side. This was the first time we were not in a box mooring since Wangerooge on the Frisian islands. All our fenders and mooring lines had to be changed and being out of practice We needed several goes to get Grace in close enough…….We really have become quite continental in our mooring habits!

Svenborg

Approach to the marina

Grace safely moored alongside

Svenborg

Being so early in the day there was time to explore! In the tourist office it claimed that Svenborg was the shopping capital of Fyn with ‘exciting and individual boutique shops’ , unfortunately for us it was 2.00pm on a Saturday afternoon and they were all closed! The only exception was a Kwickly Supermarket where I made the biggest improvement to my life onboard Grace, a 99 Kr electric toaster! The hateful, costly and completely useless gas ring toaster can now go over the side! I bought it in Chichester and it has never worked, only managing to cremate the edges while leaving the centre of the bread raw!

Out with old and in with the new!

Proper toast!

The next day, while waiting for Denmark’s yachting museum to open we have an excellent deconstructed Danish apple cake at the ferry terminal in the old port (1642 old!).

Waiting for the yacht museum to open

The museum itself is an almost completely random collection of old boats and their bits in a big dusty old shed. It is almost like visiting a jumble sale! It is absolutely fantastic and I have a great time as we are the only visitors! They have a display and exhibition on the history of the Folkboat, a boat I have always wanted and liked. In fact they have the original boat on display that was used as the mould for all Scandinavian GRP boats. This includes a duff finish to one of the planks at the stern and is apparently a feature in all glass fibre boats! They have Kaiser Wilhelm’s steam launch, a colourful collection of old outboard motors and a tiny boat in which a Dane sailed around the world. Fittingly, we also got a discount on the museum’s entrance fees as we had sailed there!

Denmark’s yachting museum

Folkboats

A feature of every Scandinavian GRP boat

The Kaiser’s steam launch

Outboard motors!

In the evening we go to an open air ‘sail through movie on the dock. It is about Jacque Cousteau and is in French dubbed into Danish and is all very confusing!

Sail-thro movie

Tomorrow we set sail for Nyborg and the Great Belt!

9th September 2017

After covering 846 nm and 12.5 degrees of longitude Grace’s 2017 cruise is ending in Nykobing! The weather has started to deteriorate for autumn. Trapped by bad weather for 2 days we have our route back to Augustenborg planned! We need five clear days to get across the Smaelands to Vejro, the Great Belt to Nyborg  and on to Svenborg and then finally crossing the Little Belt to Augustenborg. 

Planning session 1 in the warm!

Planning session 2 ……much better!

We are making a break for it! we have a gap in the weather for 2 days ahead of 5 days of gales. Let’s see how far we can get!

23rd to 26th August 2017

Our next destination in the Little Belt was the island of Aeroe and the picturesque harbour of Aeroscobing. It was only a short 10 nm hop from Lyo so we left after anchoring practice in the Lyo Trille. We were keen to test the anchor. All season we had kept saying; “we really must test see if that anchor works”! So we anchored in about 2 to 3 m of water and enjoyed a peaceful lunch!

A nice anchorage for lunch!

Lunch at anchor

The wind was very light with an F2 southerly. At 1315 we weighed anchor and made slow progress past the entrance to Faborg and down past Avernnako. However the weather was nice and warm and Grace was sailing well in the light airs so we settled back for a gentle glide towards Aeroe.

Sailing in the Little Belt

Once in the channel we found the Danish Navy at play! They had their helicopter flying backwards and forwards between two ships dropping a man on one then picking another one up and putting him on the other boat. In the light wind we edged closer and closer into their play area! They kept a close eye us and eventually schussed us away! However by 1545 they all packed up and went home!

Danish Navy at play / exercise!

We realised that we would not make Aeroscobing that day and made for Soby, Aeroscbing would have to wait for tomorrow.

Soby

Windmill above Soby is a great landmark from the sea!

Soby to Aeroscobing

Leaving Soby

We were underway by 1130 for a short hop to Aeroscobing. As the town is very pretty and we had been warned that the marina would be packed full, however when we got there it was virtually empty. This was sort of a good job as we made a rather spectacular entrance into the box mooring! The wind caught our bows and we were pivoted round against the posts and got rather stuck. Fortunately as Grace’s bows swept round we did not come forward enough to graze the side of an expensive and very new Halberg Rassy 42 with our anchor! The owner was on deck and became very keen to help get our bows under control again and pull us straight in our berth.

Berthed at Aeroscobing

The old part of Aeroscobing is a charming traditional shipping and boat owners village and as there was a free bus service we spent the next day happily exploring the island. Our first destination was the Aeroscobing museum, which was an eclectic mixture of local clothing, boat bits and the stories of the local ship owners, all stuffed into an old house at random. An because of that it is throughly interesting and fascinating. At one time there were 80 schooners based in Aeroscobing, travelling all over the world, with fish to Russia, pit props to England and nitrates from South America.

Aeroscobing town

The town square

Keeping an eye on the street!

The town museum

The museum garden

Our next destination was back west towards Soby and Sobygaard. Sobygaard was the site of the stronghold of the rulers of Aeroe. The bus drops you off on a deserted stretch of road next to an ancient Iron Age mound, which is marked as ‘history unknown’ . You have to go looking through the trees to find the moated Manor House and farm. As with most of these places now, it is virtually empty with the exception of a visitors book and we discovered that we were not the only British people to have visited the island that year – someone from Leeds had beaten us!

Iron Age mound

Sobygaard

A moated manor to keep Danish Vikings safe from marauding Germans!

The frog motif

We then went back to the road and waited for the bus to appear again to take us to the opposite side of the island to Marstal, which is the industrial area and the commercial port. It is actually quite difficult to sail to it from the west due to the many reefs and shallows, taking the bus is much easier! In the harbour, there is a big floating dock but there are still plenty of spaces in the nicer end to moor up. We were not temped to move Grace despite back in Aeroscobing they were setting up for a sea shanties festival. This explained some of the interesting people we saw!

Marstal Dock

The harbour cookhouse. It was forbidden to cook onboard ships in harbour in case of fire

Riding buses clearly makes one hungry and the first stop was for lunch. We went to the first cafe we saw on the quayside and what a treat! It was fantastic! Plaice is the ‘local’ fish and a great favourite of mine. I had a starfish sandwich which as the waiter helpfully pointed out is neither a sandwich nor contains starfish! But it does have plaice cooked in lots of different ways! Perfect!

My ‘starfish’ sandwich

Strength restored it was time for the next treat, the maritime museum. This is a most wonderful experience, especially if you like boats, which of course I do! There are lots of interconnected buildings packed full of the boat, their bits and stories of their adventures from all over the world. They have a gallery of a Danish artist call Rasmussen, who spent time on the island and seemed to have given all his paintings away to local people who collected them up and put them in the museum gallery. The paintings are really very good and bring the details of sea and sky to life. The outdoor part of the museum is in amongst the ship repair yard and it all feels a bit strange dodging forklift trucks, showers of welding sparks and piles of rusting metal to view the exhibits!

The maritime museum

In command!

Outdoor exhibits in amongst the shipyard

They still build and repair engines here!

All finished by 1730 and back to Aeroscobing for the beach and a swim!

The beach

Huts on the beach

The cold Baltic Sea

22nd August

The Little Belt is the channel and its islands that runs between South Jutland and Fyn. It is one of the three straits of Denmark that lead to and from the Kattegat and ultimately the North Sea into the Baltic Sea. There is the Little Belt, the Great Belt and the Ore Sund/ Sund Et adjoining the Swedish border to the east.

Our first island visit after Augustenborg was Lyo. It was a great sail, on an easy reach we went up the Augustenborg Fjord and then opening out onto a broad reach as we entered the Als Fjord. Once into open water we turned onto a course of 046 and headed for the North Cardinal buoy off the end of Travesand about 2nm east of the Northborg Light.

Crossing the Als Sund

Clearing Norborg and Travesand

At the Cardinal we changed onto a bearing of 110 to cross between the two North Cardinal buoys that mark the string of shallows; the Lillegrund, the Langgrund, the Hesteskoen and Sondre Stenron. These run for 7 nm along the Als coast. Gybing, we ran across the Little Belt for about 9 nm on 093. At this point the genoa was not pulling well as it was shielded by the mainsail as we were running before the wind. Grace would would really benefit from a Spinnaker here and would fly along! Perhaps we can get Anders to fit one for Grace’s Christmas present! However our speed was not much affected and we still made 3.5 knots in a brisk F4 wind.

A spinnaker would be a great Christmas present for Grace!

On the perfect course we entered the Lyo Krog, the channel between Hornenaes and Lyo that takes you behind the island and the shelter of the spit of land that forms a nice anchorage but also guides you into the harbour itself. The harbour entrance is very tight, just 15 metres wide along side the ferry dock with a 90 degree turn almost immediately into the marina! So you have to be a bit lively about it and and pick your moment as only one boat can enter or leave at a time!

We did! But not before causing much amusement to the Germans in the boat next to us. We had missed getting a stern line onto one of the posts of the box! Trying to lasso the post from our bathing platform I almost fell in on several occasions but got a big cheer from the rest of the marina when I did finally manage it!

Grace safely in Lyo

Swifts on our mooring lines

However attention on us soon faded as a big yacht tried to come into the rather narrow space next to us. I had avoided it as I thought Grace was a bit too fat for it! Misjudging his width and with plenty of power on he got well and truly wedged between post and jetty! CRUNCH! Sailors love nothing better than watching other people moor up or try to, it is a gladiatorial sport where we all have our thumbs pointing downwards! As always when you have a slightly vigorous landing there are always plenty of people on hand to watch and offer useless and too late advice!

Lyo was a beautiful little island, only a few miles across with a few traditional farms and a local shop selling wonderful local honey and milk. It was a lucky find as we had intended to sail Aeroe, about 10 nm further on. But that is why the destination section in the log book is always titled ‘towards’ and never ‘to’, as you might not make it all the way there!

Lyo village centre

Lyo

A traditional Long House

The little church dates from 1645 and is built on the site of a 13th century one.

Lyo lagoon in the morning

Sonderborg towards Augustenborg

In the 3 days we spent in Sonderborg waiting for the weather to improve, I became thoroughly addicted to some sailing essentials – 'Skipper's Pipes' liquorice sweets. It was definitely time to leave and do cold turkey!

I cannot get enough of them! I have a 20 a day habit!

We left Sonderborg marina at 1030 and headed into the basin at the town quay to wait for the bridge to open. This bridge, the King Christian X replaces a floating bridge which was still in use in 1930. It opens at exactly one minute past the hour. Except when they don't! We've seen boats waiting for hours when they seem to have forgotten to open It!

King Christian X bridge

It was gusting 24 knots while we were waiting for the lights on the bridge to change to red. Curiously they have five red lights, various combinations of which signifies a different form of chaos! This time it was five red lights which means all boats from both sides of the bridge can go at once! Suddenly about 20 boats were all trying to squeeze through a 60 ft gap in the bridge. We hang back and watch the fun!

Charge! Free for all through the bridge

By 1200 we had reached the end of the Als Sund and the start of the Augustenborg Fjord. Passing the clear water mark we turned to starboard and sailed towards Augustenborg. Just then, a dolphin swam past! He obviously knew the 'rules of the road' and swam past us keep strictly to port!

In the Als Sund

The Augustenborg Fjord

After 6 nm we enter the channel to Augustenborg itself. It is a 2 nm long narrow snaking channel, well buoyed with 3 pairs of tall markers but then confusingly 3 pairs of low level buoys at the waterline which were very difficult to spot.

Augustenborg has a nicely sheltered marina

Augustenborg is very well sheltered and by 1320 we were securely in a box mooring. However we did have some neighbours who looked like that they could be a bit lively!

Our neighbours!

One of the main reasons why we were keen to visit Augustenborg was to find somewhere to over winter Grace this year and keep her safe until we return in May. There is a large modern boat yard which gets favourable reports on the Cruising Association website. Grace will need to come out of the water and be stored inside a nice dry shed as it gets very cold and the water freezes! Her engine will need to be serviced, the steering gear requires some maintenance, the hull polishing, the bottom cleaned and coated with antifouling paint and some GRP repairs from our argument with a lock in Holland! Clearly I will need to do lot of work when we get back in October if I am to keep her in luxury this winter!

A nice shed for Grace this winter.

Anders, who runs the yard and Marina clear loves boats so it will be a good place for Grace this winter. Apparently Tom Cunliffe, the sailing writer will keep his boat there this year, his will be in a heated shed, poor Grace will have to put up with an unheated one!

We went exploring the town and the Slot. It was all a bit sleepy. However we did discover a dodgy bottle of 'local' wine which despite its exceptional maturity tasted not at all bad!

A great vintage!

The Danish fisheries ministry has been moved out of Copenhagen to the Slot. But you are completely free to wander the grounds.

The Augustenborg Slot.

Sonderborg seems to have a special place in Danish history. Everything is focused around 1864 and the Danish defeat by the Prussian/united German. They have a fascinating open air museum on the battlefield site above Sonderborg which explains from a uniquely Danish viewpoint the historical significance of the date as the ultimate precursor to the first war and in fact all modern 20th century modern European history!

The 1864 museum
In essence, Denmark in 1845 to 1856 controlled the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. Part of which wanted to be German and part wanted to be Danish! Various skirmishes and battles ensued. It is now that the scheming Prussian Otto Von Bismarck enters stage left, like some Victorian melodrama villain rubbing his hands together hatches a plot to creat a united Germany under his leadership. What he needed was a nice easy war where Prussia could step in and save some oppressed and put upon German minority. The Schleswig Holstein question fitted the bill perfectly! A familiar story that has been repeated many times over the centuries!
It all kicked off in 1864 when the Prussian army crossed the Eider river into Danish territory. The Danish army could not resist the superiorly equipped Prussians. At this stage there were lots of references to heroic Danish defence and tactical withdrawals oh and a cold snap in the exhibits. The outcome was never in doubt. It was a battle against a modern army (Prussia) with the latest kit, breach loading rifles and artillery verses what was essentially an army from the previous era, muzzle loaded muskets and cannons and a deluded Danish king.

The Danes then had to abandon the Danekircke, an ancient Bronze Age earthwork near Flensburg, it was of no real defensive importance especially as the cold snap meant that the marshes surrounding it froze and provided no obstacle for the Prussian army to circumvent! It was however of massive symbolic and patriotic importance for the Danes and the failure to hold the Germans there spelt the end of the campaign. They retreated to Dybbol mill, just on the hills above Sonderborg and to some redoubts on the hill for what was effectively a 'last stand'.

Dybbol Mill overlooking Sonderborg

Needless to say technology won out and the Danish army retreated to Sonderborg over the Als Sund. At this point Britain steps in and a summit was held in London. Bismarck and the increasingly united Germans demand Schleswig, the Danes refuse. Palmerston, the British Prime Minister is reputed to have told the Danish negotiators 'that it was better to have half a loaf of bread than no bread'! Clearly this did not seem to help as the Danish king thought they could fight on.

Sonderborg

The German army simply crossed the Als Sund, entered Sonderborg and put the Danish army to flight, leaving the Danes no option but to sue for peace on what ever terms they could get, which came expensive! Schleswig, Holstein and Luneburg all were ceded to the Germans – essentially a quarter of the whole country! The success united the Germany under Prussia and Bismarck as Chancellor and Wilhelm as Kaiser.
Then the story goes on to say that Otto and Bill enjoyed the success so much that this lead to the Franco German war in 1870 and lots of other battles on the borders around the new German empire until Sarajevo in 1914 and the Great War.

A plebiscite was held in 1920 for the people of Schleswig, Holstein and Southern Jutland in which Schleswig and Holstein voted to remain German and Jutland returned to Denmark. Everywhere we went there were stories about how the Danes found ways of maintaining their links to each other including 'coffee and cake' meetings allowed by the Germans and that the lighthouse on the southern end of Aeroe was shone a light towards the then occupied Southern Jutland to remind people they were not forgotten!

Sailing past the southern tip of Aeroe

Sonderborg and the Slot

This story was then repeated in the Slot (castle) museum, which was rather good too although virtually all in Danish! The chapel was interesting as behind a large padlocked door was stacked in boxes all the rulers of the principality from about 1400 to 1900. They certainly liked to keep their ancestors where they could see them!

The chapel

Where the ancestors are kept!

All through the exhibition there were signs saying that this display represented a symbol of Danish German unity and love…….'he doth protest too much' as Shakespeare might have said!

17th August – Maasholm to Sonderborg

Well this is quite a momentous day, we are popping over into Denmark but also I have finished Grace's first logbook! By 1100 we are out of the marina and engine off and all sails out. It is F3 or F4 with a bit of a lumpy swell. At 1150 we get closely looked at by a large German Polizi boat. Perhaps it was a good thing that we did not change our German courtesy flag for the Danish one before we left!
I fit our gybe preventer and we sail easily up the Flensburger Fjord, gybing at the Kalkgund Lighthouse to avoid a shallow bank of rocks that runs 2 nm into the Fjord. At 1255 we cross into Denmark but then almost immediately into German again and again out into Denmark. This continues over the next 2 hours until we are directly off Sonderborg and make our turn for the Als Sund and the marina at its mouth.

Sonderborg Marina

The marina has two entrances which are narrow slots in the stone wave breaker followed by a sharp right angled turn into the fairway, all a bit difficult to see until you are virtually in! We pick the western entrance as it looks a bit easier. We can see there are lots of yachts moving about inside and up and down the lanes, this is not a good sign and the wind has started to blow up a bit. Also not great news for manoeuvring into tight spaces! The yacht in front of us has a look up a few lanes and then gives up and leaves. We are not going out again! We are here. We will tie up to a tree if needs be! A kind person waves to us and points out a free berth right at the bottom of a pontoon. It is a bit of a tight squeeze and we do our usual controlled crash of a landing! What this teaches us is that you really have to go and look and not just give up when it gets a bit tight! Five weeks of close quarters boat handling practice on the Dutch canals means we are all a bit more relaxed about Grace's gelcoat and we will shortly know a man in Denmark who can polish out the scrapes! It is 1625 and we are all secure in Denmark after a 6 hour journey of just over 20 nm. The Good Samaritan who showed us the space and helped with our lines looked at our flag halyard and said pointing to the German flag, "you better get that changed"! The Danish flag was flying in minutes!

Flying the Danish courtesy flag

I want to go for a swim but am rapidly discouraged by the number of jelly fish.

Jelly fish!

Time to use the facilities! We all traipse over to the shower block. On the wall there was 4 meter boxes to put 10 kronor in to buy a shower. Money inserted, I open the door to be greeted by a room full of naked men……ugh a communal shower!
The weather continues to deteriorate with torrential rain and winds gusting 25knots.

Raining cats and dogs!

We must have timed our arrival in Sonderborg perfectly! There is nothing to be done but to eat Danish Pasties, pump more water out of the bilge and learn about 1864!

Eating Danish Pastries!

Ever since we have been in Northern Germany everyone we meet has been saying 'moin moin' to us and despite our very reasonable German we were not sure what it meant but saying it back does not seem to cause offence! It actually just means 'hi' or 'hello'.

Our first stop after the canal was was only about 1 nm along the western shore of the Kieler Fjord at Stickenhorn Marina which is next to the now closed British Kiel Yacht Club. We have a pre allocated berth, the first time in the whole trip, so once tied up I visit the Hafenmeister. He greets me like a long lost friend, giving me a package for 'UK yacht Grace, Stickenhorn'. DHL are good! It is my new navigation card for the chart plotter that Navionics have sent to me. They were also very good too!

Leaving Stickenhorn Marina

16th August. It is time to put our new NV charts and Navionics card to the test!
Our first destination is Maasholm in the Schleimunde and our last stop in Germany. Maasholm is a pretty big Marina on the edge of a fishing village and a nice anchorage round the back of the headland if the marina itself is too full.

Maasholm

We sail up the Kieler Fjord passing the big U boat crew memorial at Laboe. It looks like a big grim and slightly ominous conning tower.

U Boat crew memorial at Laboe

To save time we cross the Stoller Grund, which is a large shallow bank of rocks to the North West of the Kiel Lightship. It feels a bit daring but we have 4 to 5 m of water under us all the way and we are near the lighthouse if we hit the rocks! The big advantage is that it keeps us out of the shipping lane and traffic separation scheme to the East.

Leaving the Kieler Fjord far behind us

Crossing the Stoller Grund

We now head slightly to the North West, Grace is sailing very well but somehow it does not feel right to be sailing west again after so long going east! Skirting the military training area on our port side we are heading for Schleimunde lighthouse at the entrance to the Schlei. This used to be a pick up point for the Kiel pilots waiting for ships going down to the Kiel canal and there was a small pilot dock and station near the lighthouse. Now they just hang around the Kiel light in big motorboats and are home for tea every night!

Sailing towards the mouth of the Schlei

The mouth of the Schlei is quite narrow with a lively current across it and although there is plenty of depth around the channel markers I followed them closely, much to the annoyance of the large German yacht that tried to beat us in (Gracie despite her big fat Germanic bottom and bulk can actually show a clean pair of heels when required!). He now wants to cut the corner off the channel and grab a berth in the marina first but can't quite bring himself to break etiquette and jump the queue! Instead he hovers about a foot off Grace's stern, so I carry on and be extra careful, which of course means slowing down! There is plenty of space for everyone, we have never been turned away yet and you can always raft up against someone else if you have to. We were 6 up in Borkum!

Safely in Maasholm Marina

It is Thursday night and the local restaurant in the main street has a fish buffet. On going in we get the usual 'have you booked?' Followed by much sucking of teeth as the waitress surveys the near empty room before offering us the fishtisch, a novelty fish shaped table. We politely decline and sit at a nice corner table instead. She palmed it off onto a Dutch couple a bit later on! We have the most wonderful fish supper ever and stagger out of the place completely stuffed!

A peaceful anchorage at Maasholm

After a nice evening we return to Grace