Harbour day in Flensburg
Flensburg with its beautiful buildings remained relatively intact during WWII, unlike so many other cities. At the end of WWII Flensburg took on about 110.000 refugees mainly from East-Prussia, among them the family of the first mates father, and more than doubled its original size of around 70.000. Relocation programs during the fifties caused the city to shrink to less than 100.000 inhabitants again.
While Flensburg never was a Hansecity it used to be one the most important merchant cities in the Scandinavian Area in the 16th century. The city has danish and german roots, and today a large minority of Danes still live here.
This is clearly visible in the pedestrian area with it large and well preserved town houses, where the merchants used to live.
From here plenty of "Höfe" (patios) are accessable which are nowadays used by cafes and restaurants as you can see on your right.
Away from the pedestrian area in the old captains quarter you can find the houses above. Despite being a city of around 90.000 inhabitants, Flensburg has a lovely small-town character, which reminds of many small settlings in Denmark.
The captain feels at home here with the Art Nouveau style, and if you look closely on the picture, the houses are not particular straight!
The late afternoon and evening was spend with taking the family on a short sailing trip and having a picnic on board
Flensburg-Langballigau
Sightseeing in Flensburg
Throughout Germany Flensburg is infamous for its "Flensburger Verkehrssünderdatei", a central register which documents the "sins" of the German drivers (e.g. speeding). Points are collected here and at a certain number of points the driver license becomes blocked.
Less famous but much more beautiful and impressive are the naval officer training facilities which you can see below. After the suicide of Adolf Hitler, Großadmiral Karl Dönitz implemented a government here, which soon after was dissolved by the allied troops.
The entrance
The captains' house
Being a larger german city Flensburg has its share of turkish and arabic immigrants - and the shops which come with them. Happily a large portion of "Feta" like cheese was purchased, which tasted lovely when topped up with the home-made rose-marmalade, a present from the first mates cousin.
After the sightseeing trip we spend some more time shopping.
The first mate found a "Butler's shop", a lovely shop full of things
you do not really need until you stand in front of it and decide
that you definitely need them. Being fed up with the captains coffee
she purchased an espresso cooker, a mega-coffee cup and at the Tschibo
got some Sicilian espresso and a cacao box to go along. Finally
she can have her own
cappuccino
in the morning and does not have to steal the captains coffee any
more.
We finally left Flensburg around 1400 and went to Langballigau on engine.
Langballigau is a tiny and tight harbour. The harbour were quite full, but we managed, with the help of the harbour master, to find a berth.
The sun is already setting earlier now, at 2200!
While the captain was retreading the wheel cover, a German boat managed to steer straight into us with its pointed stainless steel bow and caused this 10cm and couple cm deep hole in our hull.
Langballigau-Dyvig Kro
Harbour day in Dyvig
The local sailing club was training on righting a capsized dinghy's, The kids did really have fun!
In the harbour office, our new sprayhood was awaiting and in between the rain showers, the new sprayhood was mounted.
Here it is and we are very pleased with the new functions; being able to use the winches properly, no more leaks, a real grab rail and it is much easier to work in the cockpit!
Dyvig-Frederica
The weather has changed to clear skies and together with the arrival of a full moon should vouch for 2 week of nice weather!
The rookie sailor's corner
Why do I always get the smallest bone?
I mean, I am the oldest one, am I not?
With wind broad on the beam we sailed in speeds up to 10knots in sunny weather to Tunø.
We tied up alongside a smaller German boat and later on a 46 footer came alongside us and the captain of the smaller boat grew increasingly more nervous as the wind increased to 27knots in the late evening. Rainy and full harbour at Tunø.
The next morning taking the dogs on a walk on this tiny car free island the first mate met a herd of deer and luckily the free running dogs were too busy to spot them.
Tunø-Øer
Left the harbour at noon in rain, and sailed in good wind and heavy seas to Øer, Before entering the the harbour, we had to be lifted 1.5m up. Here we are in the sluice when the water is flooding in.
The harbour is a maze of quays and summer houses set in green pastures.
For some reason it is well sheltered and surprisingly there are plenty of free berths. A lot of the summerhouses were for sale - no wonder as you constantly would have visiting boats tying up to front terrace...
Øer-Anholt
Left early and made good speed to Anholt. The harbour was full, and we had to lay in the second row off the pier. As Anholt is 40-50nm away from the next harbour, it is usually not an option to move on to the next harbour if full, nevertheless there were several really unfriendly boats denying us and all the other of boats arriving after us to tie up to their stern! Especially a German boat "Baltic Starlet" and a Danish Boat "Häxen" (The Witch) denied 6 arriving boats to tie up to them using different reasons like; the pier is too weak, there are other places available, what if the wind turns....
Were is the good seamanship!!!
Use the scrollbar to see how full the harbour was and no harbour master was around to guide you. Visited the harbour office and there it seemed like they were only interested in you money which was deposited in an automatic machine........
Anholt-Læsø Vesterhavn
Left the harbour before 0800 and had a fantastic sailing day with cruising speeds up to 9.5knots!
Arriving early at Vesterhavn there were no space for us, but a frendly harbourmaster arranged space for us alongside in the fishing harbour. during the afternoon we got 5 boats outside us and everybody was friendly - what a difference from Anholt!
harbourday in Læsø Vesterhavn
The fishing boats came in early in the morning, and brought the
nights catch of
Norwegian
Lobster (Nephrops norvegicus). We had one kilo
for lunch - the best meal on this trip so far!
The dogs were taken to the sand beaches on both side of the harbour and had a great time playing and swimming. In the afternoon the crews were gathering on the quays for a meal.
Læsø Vesterhavn-Fredrikshavn
Short trip across to Fredrikshavn and the harbour was peaceful and with ample space for visiting boats. The harbour is about 2km away form the ferry-city Fredrikshavn. The second dog's cage was transported to the train station on one of the free bikes available in the harbour. The the dog and first mate left by train to Kastrup airport to catch a plane home, leaving the captain and the first dog alone.
