Summer 2014

We missed 2013 for various reasons, including the necessity to work on another of our projects, Mero, a 36’ Silverette TSDY built in 1934. We are hoping to relaunch her when we return from Denmark later in 2014.

This year proved to be one of our better years, visiting a number of new harbours and anchorages both in Denmark and Sweden.

After our abortive attempts to get back to the West Coast of Sweden, we decided to have another go this year. Instead of heading north and sailing via Anholt as we had done before, we decided to go on a route through the Smaalands Farvandet, the east coast of Mon and the east coast of Sjaelland, a route similar to our outward journey in 2007.

We set off gently enough, anchoring near Dyvig on a very pleasant evening. However, the next day the weather was dreadful with strong winds up to Force 6 and heavy rain. It was a thoroughly miserable trip to Faaborg, although by the time we got there the rain had eased off and the wind had dropped to Force 4. But we do like Faaborg, and so try to visit when we can. We needed to go to the excellent chandlery too.

The weather the following day was much better with sunshine and lighter winds taking us to Thurø Bund, another favourite anchorage. The following day the weather continued fair with a Force 3-4. We had a cracking sail up the west coast of Langeland, and then over the top to the tiny island of Omø. The harbour there is also tiny, and we wondered whether we would find a place to moor. However, we managed to moor alongside a motor boat for a short while until he left the harbour, and we were able to take his place. Annabel took a day off to do some painting. This was our first visit here, and we really enjoyed it. After the weekend the harbour emptied. See photos of Omø.

Western end of Thurø Bund

A long day followed, beating across the Smaalands Farvandet towards our next port of call, Gabense. This is a tiny harbour, reached by a rather twisty and very shallow channel, just after the bridge between Falster and Vordingborg on Sjaelland. I don’t think we would have attempted it without having a lifting keel. We had a lovely welcome from the harbour master and found that the facilities here are really excellent. The water was warm enough for Annabel to have a swim. See photos of Gabense.

The following morning the weather had closed in again, and we could hardly see the next bridge as it was raining so hard. But we needed to press on, and the rain eased off quite soon, although the day remained rather grey. The bridge is another of the Danish island-hopping affairs, from Falster to Farø to Sjælland which carries the main road linking the ferry at Rødbyhavn all the way through to Copenhagen and beyond. The Rødbyhavn ferry goes to Fehmarn in Northern Germany.

Once under the bridge we passed Stubbekøbing which definitely seemed worth a visit on another occasion. As we approached the long right hand bend we could see the Fanefjord Church very clearly (see below). The Grønsund here starts widening out, and there is then a very intricate channel that leads out to the south west corner of the island of Møn. Luckily the weather had cleared a little by now, although there was still very little wind.

Once clear of the channel we could head northeastwards towards Klintholm on Mon. The wind stayed stubbornly around force 1, but at least the sun had come out and the visibility was good.

Klintholm has a large marina on the south eastern end of Mon. It’s in the middle of a holiday village, although it was very quiet when we were there. There is a good village shop, and a fuel berth. We spent a couple of days there, and Annabel cycled to the famous Mons Klimt - the chalk cliffs on the east of the island.

Photos: Klintholm main street    Klinthom Marina    Cliffs from the shore    Cliff path    Cliffs from the sea

Having had a few leisurely days in Klintholm, it was time to move on, this time to Rodvig, where I had been on our trip to the C.A. Rally at Rungsted. This time the weather was much calmer, and we had to motor as the wind didn’t get above a force 2.

The first visit to Rodvig had been in strong winds and rain, and it had been quite a challenge to get in to the harbour and moor. This time was much easier, and we found a mooring in the marina near the centre.

After a couple of days in Rodvig we headed out again, this time towards Dragor. As with Klintholm, you have to go well south of the harbour entrance to clear the fishing stakes. There is an interesting church to the east of Rodvig, perched on the cliff, with long steps going down to the beach.

The wind remained persistently light until we got to the harbour at Dragor, when it piped up to a force 4, making mooring a little more interesting!

We moored on the north wall of the old harbour this time, having been in the newer marina further south on our last trip here. Astern of us was a very pretty British-owned Xc50 - a really lovely boat! We had arranged to meet Phil and Sarah here. It’s an ideal place to meet up as it is so close to the airport at Copenhagen. You can see the planes take off and land there, but despite this we haven’t been troubled by noise - this is our second visit. There are good facilities here - food, chandlery, repairs and plenty of places to go for a drink. Even this early in the season it had a very busy air, no doubt partly because of its proximity to Copenhagen. There was plenty of evening sailing going on, particularly in keelboats.

Annabel, Phil and Sarah took advantage of being so close to Copenhagen and spent a day sightseeing, and then we were off up the coast to Helsingor. Had a slightly easier than usual attempt at passing the ferries that go from Helsingor to Helsingborg in Sweden - sometimes it can be quite difficult to pass them as they are so frequent. It appears to be a popular booze run for the Swedes!

Photos: Rodvig marina   Church near Rodvig   Oresund bridge   Dragor marina   Helsingor

Sweden

After a couple of wet and windy days in Helsingor, we headed north in blustery weather, intending initially to look at the anchorage at Hallands Väderö. But it was too windy to consider anchoring there, and we went in to the marina at Torekov, a harbour we visited in 2008. The facilities had been improved upon since we were last here, with more mooring spaces. There is an interesting small museum with a cannon dating from the 1700’s, and a bathhouse where you can get a massage!  See photos of Torekov.

It rained heavily during the night and we were woken early the next morning by hail! We left in the rain but it soon cleared up. However, as we progressed northwards the wind climbed from 15 knots to 20 knots and then up to 30 knots NNW, with a rather lumpy sea. The last couple of hours were hard work as we made our way towards Falkenberg and we were very glad to get inside the long walls of the outer harbour. There was plenty of room to moor either bows-to by the club house, or further in alongside. See photos Falkenberg

The following day we had an easy motor into head winds, leaving the crew able to relax! Varberg is another of our favourite places - a good harbour and interesting things to see - the bathhouse built around 1870 with it’s Moorish domes, and the castle which was established in 1287. There are two marinas here - one on the north shore, and one in the main harbour. The outer marina has a regular ferry linking it with the main harbour. The shots show us approaching Varberg from the south, and the marina looking towards the bathhouse. Annabel and the Monty’s went off for a marathon cycle ride and walk to the south of the town.

Rather than go on to Lerkil, was we have done in the past, we decided to try an anchorage a few hours north of Varberg, by the Mönster nature reserve in Mälo Hamn. We found this to be a well-protected anchorage with nice views. Originally we intended to moor to the rocks, as most Swedish sailors do. However, we couldn’t see the rings, and settled to the anchor. We realised later that the area where the rings were was a little further round the bay. Perhaps next time! See the photos.

We headed further north the next day in variable winds, mainly motorsailing. To the northwest of us we could see big electrical storms and we were hoping they would miss us. Of course, having had little wind during the day, it blew up to Force 4 to 5 when we were approaching the harbour on Donsö!

Phil was hoping to contact a Swedish friend whilst we were on Donsö and when he did so he found that she was living on the next door island of Styrsö, and within sight of where we were moored!

The weather was pretty grim for a few days so we stayed at Donsö and Annabel, Phil and Sarah took the opportunity to take the ferry in to Gothenburg.

See photos of Donsö

When we moved on again, it was to motor in to headwinds yet again. We wound our way through the rocks to the west of Donsö, through the shipping channels that lead in to Gothenburg, and then on between Öckerö and Björkö to Utkaften where we have been before.

From Utkaften we motored around to the east, and then through the very pretty Albrekstsunds Kanal to Marstrand which at this time of the year was fairly quiet. We didn't stop there, but kept going north to the island of Tjörn and a favourite mooring of Skärhamn, a lovely town on the west coast. We wanted to show our crew these favourite places of ours, as this was their first trip to this area. It was certainly nice to be here again - the islands on this coast are wonderful!

After a couple of days at Skärhamn we headed north in to unknown territory over the north end of Tjörn. We found a delightful anchorage on the east side of the island of Lyr where we stayed for a couple of days waiting for the wind to subside, and for a bit of exploring by dinghy. Annabel found the time to do some paintings as well. See photos.

Then we set off east again through Stigfjorden and through the narrow Skåpesund and in to Askeröfjorden to Stenungsund.This was a delightful trip with lots of low-lying islands, and one or two intricate channels. In Stenungsund we saw the first British boat since Falkenberg, and they were just setting off so we didn’t have the opportunity to meet up.

Phil and Sarah had to dash off to find the railway station, as they had to get to Gothenburg, firstly to meet up with friends, and then to catch a flight back to the UK.

The marina was looked after by students who were very industrious keeping the area clean and tidy. We were even more impressed the next morning to find a complimentary bag of rolls and an up to date weather forecast! We spent a few days looking around the area and Annabel found a lovely museum close by.

But time was marching on and it was time we started our journey back to Augustenborg.

And back to Denmark again

We set off back towards Denmark reasonably early as we knew we had a long day ahead of us. Once clear of the rocks on the coast we got the sails up and started off with a fine reach initially. The wind slowly changed direction until we were close-hauled. Suddenly the wind changed direction in the middle of the day and began to increase. We had to furl the genoa and start the engine to make any progress, as it began to get rougher. It became a hard slog, especially as we approached Skagen, with so many ships coming in to the Kattegat. It had taken us 10 hours altogether - several hours longer than we had anticipated.

The harbour was heaving when we arrived - it seemed to be full of Norwegian motor boats. Apparently there had just been a jazz festival. We were moored five out, having gone round the harbour several times looking for a place. We decided that it was too crowded for us, and left early the next morning heading southwards.

We had a pleasant motor-sail down the coast to Sæby in warm weather and diminishing winds. We found a mooring alongside another Norwegian boat alongside the pier in the inner part of the harbour, and Annabel met up with a British couple who had arrived the previous day. This was a very nice harbour, and well worth the effort despite our tiredness. There’s a huge sculpture in the middle of the harbour, pictured below.

We stayed at Sæby for a couple of days to recharge our batteries and check the boat, as the engine seemed to be playing up, faltering occasionally. We cleaned the fuel filter and checked things over without being able to find anything specific that was wrong.

We had another sail down the coast to Egense, or rather to anchor off Egense behind a large sandbank that sits off the entrance to the Limfjord. This proved to be an excellent anchorage as we had a good view of all the traffic going in and out of the harbours, as well as having good protection from the strong wind that arrived with heavy rain during the night. We stayed another day waiting out Force 7 winds, which eventually calmed that evening.

Below, one of the ships leaving Has, the northern harbour at the mouth of the Limfjord - we think they were on their way to the Tall Ships Race.

The next port of call was Bønnerup. The harbour entrance here is rather intimidating as there are several large wind turbines on each of the moles; the wind was around Force 4 and the turbines were turning quite quickly, and very noisy. There is a very narrow dog-leg to get in to the marina and as it was very full not much maneuvering room. We moored alongside another boat as it started to rain. A lot of boats came in after us, and were mooring wherever they could find space, making the harbour very full.

We made for Grenaa the next day with excellent sailing reaching 7 knots over ground. Arriving in Grenaa around 11 o’clock there was ample space, although it filled up rapidly after lunch.

We like the island of Tunø, and so headed there the next day, having to motor most of the way in very light winds. We could see Tunø was busy as there were a lot of boats anchored near the harbour entrance, so we didn’t bother to try to go in. We anchored off the north coast in a couple of metres of water, and were soon joined by several other boats for the night. See below.

We wanted to find an anchorage between Tunø and Middelfart, and chose one in the bay north of Julesminde: As Hoved. This was very picturesque but proved a bit bumpy as the wind swung round towards the east. See photos.

The next day we had a really good sail to begin with, on a broad reach. However, as we had to bear away towards Middelfart, and the sea became quite rough. At this time there were two maydays further north, one for someone who had been lost over the side, and another for a fire. Luckily both were happily resolved about an hour later.

IIt was slow going in to Middelfart but once we were around the corner at Strib it was more sheltered. There is an nice sheltered anchorage close to the southern Middelfart marina which we have used before, but it was quite crowded when we got there, so we continued on to Gamborg fjord. We have passed this fjord on many occasions without going in, but we found it to be a very nice anchorage with lots of room and shelter from various wind directions. It had been a long day, and we were grateful to be able to drop the anchor and relax! Gamborg fjord, below.

We set off for Assens the following morning in a good breeze, making over 7.5 knots. But the wind began to increase, and we had to reef and then eventually furl the genoa. We anchored in the bay south of Assens, Tøro Vig, but towards the northern shore to get some shelter from the wind. It was quite a breezy night, but the wind had moderated by the next morning as we set out towards Augustenborg fjord. We spent the night anchored in the bay leading to Dyvig, watching with amazement at the number of boats that were going in to the inner bay at Dyvig.

Another good sail in the morning took us back of Augustenborg finding several British boats had got back there too. It’s a popular spot for British boats as it is not too far from the Kiel Canal, and is a good place for leaving the boat both during the summer and over the winter.

We had to get the boat ready to leave Augustenborg later in the summer as we had arranged for her to be sailed back to Southwold to upgrade the electronic equipment and sort out the engine.

We discovered later that the faltering engine that had been niggling all summer wasn’t dirt in the fuel as we initially thought, but in fact the alternator, which gave up as the boat was leaving Augustenborg. This had to be replaced before the trip back.

Wandering Star II back in Southwold ready for the work to start - taken before the new boatshed went up on this site.