Copenhagen-Kastrup
Did some shopping before leaving Nyhavn, and could enjoy fresh Danish pastry on the little trip alone to Kastrup Strandpark. A well equipped harbour with a well assorted chandler; Heller's, I think I'm becoming a shopaholic.... so far I've gotten a rope, a hose, a gas bottle, a sea anchor and a saltwater filter.....
Some Russian adventurers came to the harbour the next day. They started of in the river Volga, via several rivers and lakes to St Petersburg and across the Baltic sea and will continue to Canada.
The pit stop in Kastrup is due to excessive chafing on the 3 inflatable pontoons that keeps their vessel afloat. Except for the pontoons the vessel is made out of three trunks held together with ropes.
harbour days in Kastrup
Had to make some more pictures of this remarkable craft, it sports 2 diesel engines with extremely long stern drives and a radar!
The time waiting for the 1st mate and the 1st dog was spent cleaning and polishing the boat.
Pickup at the airport was done by bike, the only challenge was balancing a huge dog cage on the foldable bike!
Kastrup-Rødvik
20 knots wind broad on the beam brought us quickly to the next harbour. There are two basins in Rødvik one for yachts and the other for fishing boats, but both can be used for pleasure boats. We preferred the yacht harbour because of the smell in the other harbour.
It rained through the night and the morning too, so we decided to stay. The First Mate was doing accounting and the captain exchanged the faulty seawater filter for the engine with a new one and installed a galvanic isolator to prevent corrosion of the propeller.
The rookie sailor's corner
Why can't we come below deck, it's so cold and wet here!
At Stevns Klint, there is an unique geology, where one can see more than 65 million years back. The dark continuous line in the middle of the picture is marking the world wide catastrophe that caused the end of the dinosaurs.
Fossils from the dinosaurs era can be found here, and we did find some fragile shells from that time!
In a crack about 10 million years old these swallows had found shelter for their nests and were busy feeding the small ones.
Harbour day in Rødvik
After two thunderstorms with heavy rain during the past 24 hours, it looks like the front has passed and the sun is about to come out again.
The first thunderstorm deposited 10mm of water in 10 minutes, and the last one caused chaos in Copenhagen!
The old fishing boat "Freia" (in the front of the picture) is taking passengers for excursions to Stevns Klint.
Rødvik-Hesnæs
To the left you can see part of the impressive coastline we past: Møns Klint.
As we had left early from Rødvig, we arrived also early at Hesnæs, finding the harbour relatively empty. However, this did not last. During the late afternoon it filled up quickly mainly with German boats.
Not much going on here! Next shop was 4km away and the captain took the second dog on a bike ride to find a cash machine - without luck.
As we had no Danish money left, we had to pay the harbour fee in Euro: 15 € - quite ok.
Hesnæs-Vejrø
The rookie sailor's corner
Now this is a nice place to sleep!
We thought that sailing through the narrow straits and fairways of the Sealands waters would offer a lot of nice views, but the haze covered up most of them. It was however nice motoring the narrow passages as we had the current with us, and did 7.5 knots through the water and 9.5 knots over ground!
When the waters opened up a bit we could set sails and head to Vejrø, a newly rebuild harbour just by Storebelt. This harbour is the most expensive in the Baltic Sea; €50 per night!
We walked around a bit along the green pastures on the island and saw birds, deer and rabbits. Below is a cushat and a coot.
Vejrø-Lundeborg
Crossing over the Belt, on the north end of Langeland, we spotted several harbour porpoises.
The harbour master in Lundeborg was very strict and we had to move place two times until it was to her liking.
However, she was right, as the harbour got completely full during the late afternoon evening and all space was used.
Lundeborg's church was discovered by the first mate and second dog 1km outside of town. Strange place for a church.
A Danish friend visited us in Lundeborg, bringing with him some fresh Danish cherries.
Lundeborg-Lyø
We sailed through the sounds to Svendborg where we stopped for taking in some more supplies. The sailing were quite slow in the sound as we had a strong current against us.
Leaving Svendborg harbour with the sails up, we could enjoy a pleasant sail in T-shirts to Lyø, which translated would mean Sheltered Island. We anchored up in a SE strong wind, and had not much shelter before a front passed with a magic light and the wind turned to SW and disappeared.
We were invited for a nice dinner onboard the Danish Hanse 53' you see above and had a pleasant time with its German crew of 6. And even the dogs were welcomed! We met them in Lundeborg where we helped with a leaky faucet, exactly the same problem we discovered onboard our boat in the same harbour.
Taking the dogs on shore we walked through the village at Lyø, a paradise, with lush gardens, big oaks, chestnut or cherry trees and the characteristic Danish timberframe houses with straw roofs. It is like the time stopped some hundred years ago!
The gardens are full of singing birds making it sound like in a jungle!
This is the proof that mankind is still trustworthy!
In Denmark one can find tiny "help yourself shops" like this. Take what you want and leave the money, you will even find change if you need it!
Lyø-Kappeln
After taking the dog onshore, we motored almost half the way, until a nice southerly breeze brought us the rest of the way to the Schlei, a narrow fjord that cuts almost 20nm into Schleswig-Holstein.
Here is one of Germanys busiest sailing area with plenty of harbours and also a good choice of anchoring places.
We past the galeas"Flinthörn" from Emden, just before we entered the break waters of the Schlei.
Kappeln is a very touristic city, with plenty of outdoor restaurants and cafés, a beautiful pedestrian area and plenty fish restaurants in all price classes along the harbour. We choose the restaurant "Stark" next to our berth , which did not provide a menu. Instead you could select your food on a market type booth and get various suggestions from the cook directly, how he could prepare it. The cook was very young and the place seemed quite a success.
The first mate bought a kilo of German cherries on the market place: much cheaper than in Denmark and soooo much sweeter and better!
Above the typical landscape along the Schlei.
This northern area of Germany has a higher unemployment rate then the German average, and it is visible, that it is not as well of as Denmark. The bright side is: shopping is so much cheaper and the same goes for the harbours. We usually paid between 15-18 € per night for our 42 footer, including water and electricity.
Kappeln-Schleswig
The next morning it was raining and we went on engine to Schleswig, a city more than 1200 years old. From here it is not very far to the North Sea and during the medieval age the route along Schlei and Schleswig was commonly used for transferring goods from the Baltic to the North sea, which made Schleswig an important place.
The city harbour is just in front of the Saint Petri Dome
After receiving some information and maps at the information point we had a trip around the old city and the Dome. Left is the beautiful altarpiece made by Hans Brüggemann in the years 1514 to 1521.
There is also a large castle here with an extensive garden, which we did not visit.
Next we visited an area called Holm, which was also close to the harbour.
Above you can see the picturesque fishermen's dwellings formed in a circle around the cemetery with its on chapel. Narrow alleys go down to the fjord.
Holm is the 1000 year old and used to be an island.
Afterwards we visited the pedestrian area, which was not so picturesque.
Schleswig-Maasholm
Anchoring prohibited in the road...
In the Schlei there are two draw bridges that opens once every hour, this one at Lindaunis we missed by 2 minutes....
The guest harbour at Maasholm is big, not so the city. It is a small, touristic place with lovely houses, restaurants and plenty of rooms and apartments to rent for holiday makers.
The nature is fantastic. The first mate took the dogs on extended walks and we spend some time at the dog beach. Walking paths are leading from here along Schlei to the harbour at Schleimünde passing fields with wild ducks.
Maasholm-Flensburg
We were not leaving the Schlei alone through the breakwaters, the same route that many Vikings had sailed on their way to and from Hedeby, an important Viking settlement in the fjord.
We sailed north a couple of miles and entered the next fjord to Flensburg. As we tacked against the wind in the fjord we going back and fourth between Denmark and Germany as the border is in the middle of the fjord.
Around 16:00 we arrived at Flensburg which turned out to be the absolute highlight on our trip so far. Originally we planned on arriving earlier here, but the "Dampf-Rundum" (Steam all around) Festival was taking place that week-end and the city with its harbours was full.
We were warmly welcomed by part of the first mates extended family in Flensburg and spent the evening in the city with them.