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As this was our first trip to Denmark as a family, we decided to content ourselves with looking around the area closest to where we kept the boat. We had a month to gently look around and get to the Cruising Association Rally at Rudkøbing on the island of Langeland.
The absence of tides in this area is such a boon - you can leave when you like, which makes for relaxed cruising, and no forced early mornings!
We set off in early August in glorious sunshine heading northwards. With the main and cruising chute up, it was a good start to the cruise.
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Lighthouse on Aro
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The harbour at Aro is very small, and we didn’t think that we would find a place. However, as we were about to leave, the harbourmaster shouted to us, and directed us to a place near the fishing boats. There were soon several other boats there, and one rafted outside us. There is not much in the way of facilities there, but it is very pretty.
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Middelfart Marina
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A bright blustery day set us off for Middelfart, hard on the wind. The approaches to this part of Middelfart are very pretty with wooded shores and islands. The marina is large and quite well appointed, apart from having too few power points. It is quite a distance from the shops too.
Turning back south, we headed for Assens the next day and had another good sail. We found that the boxes at Assens were quite narrow, and we had to muscle our way past the posts. We noticed that several other boats had to do the same thing. When we had a look around, we found that most of the boxes were 3m or 3.5m wide - rather narrow for modern sailing cruisers.
The marina is well organised with a card-system for paying for moorings. Apparently if the harbourmaster has to come and collect his dues you are charged extra! However, he was very kind in explaining how the system worked. The facilities are very good here, although it is crowded with tourists - there is a holiday park close by. But there is a restaurant and chanderly close by, and the town is about 15 to 20 minutes walk away.
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Another gentle day saw us heading further south. The wind was light and the day hot. We passed Helnaes Light, and went round in to Helnaes Bugt where we anchored off the tiny island of Illum.
The next day it was so calm the sea was flat with virtually no wind. We motored all the way to Faaborg. It was busy, and despite it only being 13:00, the spaces were being filled very quickly.
Faaborg is a delightful place and quickly became one of our favourites. It is very picturesque and the shops and other facilities are excellent. There is a newer marina about 5 minutes walk away with an excellent chandlery. They were extremely kind in helping us sort out some Danish gas, and even lent us a trolley to carry the cylinders back to the boat (and changing them for us when we discovered they were too big!)
We stayed for several days, and Annabel took advantage of the time to look around the town and the museums.
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Faaborg harbour
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Faaborg cottage
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We were still blessed with the weather when we left Faaborg to make our way to Ærøskøbing. The WNW F 3-4 gave us an opportunity to play with our cruising chute again, We had another lovely day’s sail and moored mid afternoon. There is a supermarket immediatlely adjacent to the harbour, although we made the mistake of going in to the marina - the harbour would have been fine.
Turning northwards now, we headed towards Svendborg, going through a very shollow area between the islands of Tasinge and Drejo, having to make way for the ferry which clearly had even less room than we did.
We motored through Svendborg Sund, which is often referred to as the Danish Riviera. There are certainly some very impressive properties on the banks.
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Idyllic anchorage - Thuro Bund
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We wound our way through the sund, passing a number of marinas, making our way around the north end of Tasinge towards Thuro¸ Bund to anchor. It is a lovely area, heavily wooded with some very pretty houses.
The entrance to Thurø¸ Bund is quite narrow and shallow, passing a marina and mooring buoys. The bund itself is quite shallow but we had no difficulty and anchored in the lee of a heavily wooded hill.
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Approaching Rudkøbing bridge from the north
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We were now close enough to Rudkøbing and the Rally that we could bide our time, so we enjoyed the anchorage whilst the weather was good. When it changed, we thought we might as well go to Rudkøbing. However, we hadn’t realised quite how sheltered our anchorage was. We left the calm of Svendborg Sund to find the wind blowing 25 knots, and the water quite rough.
We turned round, had another night at the anchorage, and tried again the next day. It wasn’t a lot better: dark and windy, but not as rough as the previous day. As we headed under Rudkøbing Bridge we radioed the Rally organisers and received our instructions as to where to moor. Shortly afterwards we had another Southerly 115 moored alongside us: Footloose of Worcester.
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Egeskov Slot
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We were moored in a small basin behind a hand-operated footbridge. It was shallow, but well protected, and as we were moored alongside the quay we could chat to people as they wandered past.
The Rallies are organised with a welcome barbecue, various local sight-seeing trips, and a more formal dinner at the end. It gives us all an opportunity to speak with other who have similar interests, and to gain information about places that they like or dislike. This was our first rally so we found the talk about cruising areas we hadn’t previously visited very interesting.
Amongst the trips was a visit to Egeskov Castle, on nearby Fyn. This castle, which in its present form dates from 1554 is the best preserved moated castle in Europe. It is a very beautiful place, and contains a wide variety of museum pieces, from the famous ‘Titiana’s Palace’ (a fantastical dolls house) to exhibitions of cars, motorbikes, armour and furniture, to name but a few. The grounds themselves are no less spectacular. It is well worth a visit.
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Sadly, the end of the Rally at Rudkøbing also meant that our summer was drawing to a close. Our next job was to sail back to Augustenborg and pack the boat away for the winter.
We set off in a NE F 4 south towards Marstal on the south eastern tip of Ãero¸. The area between western Langeland and Aero¸ is extremely shallow and it is necessary to pay attention to the marked channels. We went aground once, and paid more attention afterwards! We found the approach to Marstal quite confusing, and with the depths outside the channel of less than a metre, we had to be cautious. The channel actually goes inside a baffle wall set up to protect the harbour entrance.
Once clear of Marstal we were able to head in a more westerly direction towards Sonderborg. The wind steadily picked up until we had a NE F 6 and an uncomfortable sea; it also started raining.
When we arrived at Sonderborg there wasn’t much space in the harbour, and we didn’t feel like rafting up to another boat. We went through the bridge and further up Als Sond where we found a quiet anchorage close to the wooded bank - far more peaceful!
The next day was our last sailing day, so we made sure that we got as much sailing in as possible. Instead of turning south at the top of Als Sund, we carried on up Augusteborg fjord in an excellent sailing wind and sun. It was a good final days sail to round off the summer.
We went home via DFDS Esbjerg to Harwich; Annabel and I returned for a week in October to finish working on the boat and then pack her up finally for the winter.
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