2019 Norway/Sweden and Denmark
This year we planned to sail north, across the North Sea to Norway. This meant covering a stretch of 350 nm across the open sea, requiring about three days and nights. To us it seemed a good idea to cut this passage in two with a stopover on the Danish coast.
We had to wait on the Frisian Island of Terschelling for a depression to pass until we could finally depart and set sail in moderate winds. However the state of sea was still rough, causing once more seasickness. The trip to Hvidesande took us 36 hours. We had to cross shipping lanes, navigate around obstructions such as wind parks and gas platforms and we had to give Horns Rev a wide berth, these hazardous sands off the danish coast. It is quite amazing how promptly the spell of nausea is broken as soon as the breakwaters are rounded, leaving you raving for food, as eating is hardly possible when feeling sick. Here I can always rely on Alex to muster up something really good from the pantry.
Hvidesande
Now let me tell you something about the hardships of sailing life: Late last night we had arrived in Hvidesande and had rafted up alongside a danish sailboat. Nobody was present on scene, we guessed the crew must either be out eating or already fast asleap. We were dead tired after 36 hours of sailing and retired to our bunks without setting an alarm clock, as we had only a short sail planned for next day. At 04:00h, meaning in the middle of the night, we were awakened by a knock on our hatch. The neighboring boat wanted to leave and we had to untie our lines to set them free. It was clearly too much onshore wind to let them simply slip out. We jumped into our oilies, started the engine and docked off. About 20 minutes later we were again back to bed.
Thorsminde
Thyorøn
Our onward journey took us from Thorsminde, where we stayed a night, to Thyborøn. After a short break for lunch, we set off to cross the Skagerak and headed for Kristiansand/Norway. We left Thyorøn in the late afternoon in order to reach the Norwegian coast by daybreak. The conditions were perfect this time, light to moderate winds and a clear sky. Sailing under a conopy of stars is an absolutely awesome experience.
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Off the coast of Norway runs this complex array of glacially formed skerries, called skærgård. Many of these skerries are arranged parallel to the coast and provide a protected channel behind an almost unbroken succession of rocky islands, reefs and skerries. We sailed through these channels and inner passages almost the entire route along the southwest coast of Norway and down the west coast of Sweden. We explored these fabulous cruising grounds, where rugged nature blends in with wooded islands, rocky cliffs and uninhabited islets. We admired the colourful assemblies of wood cottages everywhere along the way. We had a hard time chosing between one of these charming guest harbous, called gästhamn, and secluded anchorages, where only basic facilities are available or none at all.
Canon at Christansholm fortress built to defend the city
Kristiansand Gästehamn
Let the beauty of this scenery speak for itself
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Everywhere you go you’ll find friendly, helpful Norwegians and Swedes, who speak good English and love to socialize. That’s how we are too and that’s how this incident came to pass….
This fellow, a lone Swedish sailor, came into the harbour of Lysekyl close to midnight. The harbour was packed with boats, as a music festival was taking place. We had rafted up along a pack of three other boats and enjoyed the music and a drink. We beckoned him to come alongside our boat, which he gratefully did. We had an extended chat discussing what is the most reliable anchor and which is the tastiest booze. This could only be decides on with a tasting of the different samples we had in stock on our boats, ranging from Dutch Oude Jenever, to Scottish Whiskey, from there to Danish Aquavit and Swedish whatever, I can’t recall.
For the next day a gale warning had been issued, so we hadn’t planned to leave the harbour and had already brought out extended landlines to take the pressure from the inner boats. The next morning the gale picked up with gusts of 40 knots (in this protected harbour). The boat of the Swede, a 30 year old Hallbery Rassy 36, weighing easily 12 t, pressed onto the whole pack in onshore galeforce wind. The owner of the innermost boat in excitement demanded of him to take another berth in the harbour. The harbour master and others prepared for guiding him with dinghies to replace his boat. The Swede didn’t give in to the boat owners request, so in distress he came on our boat armed with a knife and threatened him with cutting his shorelines. In the end the Swede gave in, but only to push out of the harbour! …in a gale! …in very restricted waters!!!…. after securing everything on his boat in danger of being flinged about and preparing his nautical paper maps with waterproof pouches. As he was an experienced old school sailor, he did not have any electronic navigation aids aboard.
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Now it was time for us to head for Kopenhagen, as we had fixed a date there with friends from our home port. And a friend of ours from Israel was expected to land in Kopenhagen on the 7th of August. He would be joining us on our onward voyage to Norderney.
When sailing towards Kopenhagen along the Øresund, this narrow sound between Sweden and Denmark, you will be passing the respectable Danish stronghold Kronborg in the town of Helsingør. This castle definetly had to be visited. Its history dates back to late medieval times and has been immortalized by Shakespeare’s drama „Hamlet“.
Kopenhagen
Kopenhagen is a buzzing capital with royal history and much atmosphere and it has to be explored on two wheels, which we did…extensively. Accompanied by our good friends from Hindeloopen.
Conny and Mecki had docked their boat „Ginger“ in Christanhavn in the hubbub of the city, while we had opted for the quieter Margretholm Lystbådhavn. A day later Chanan arrived from Israel carrying with him 35 kg of stuff for setting up a mobile maritim radio station on Arielle.
4Z1DZ/MM is his maritim call sign on Arielle. By connecting the transmitter to our bord batteries, hoisting up an antenna on our 19m mast by the aid of a halyard and by plugging in wires to all kinds of gadgets, including a morse code device, he was able to transmit around the world…awesome.
If you are interested to know what radio amateurs exactly do, you can have a look here👇:
From Kopenhagen we sailed over to Skanör/Sweden, a first short sail for our friend, which convinced us that he would be able to put up with more.
Klintholm was planned to be our destination for the next day. Having paid the harbour fee, we were about to go for a bike ride to explore the surroundings. However, a glance at the weather forecast for the next days once again suggested an immediate departure. Another gale was on the move in our direction and would have kept us stuck in Klintholm for at least two more days. This meant having to miss Rostock and Wismar out. We decided it to sit the gale out in Rostock, from where we could also explore Wismar.
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Wismar
In Wismar we were met by my cousin Andreas and his wife Marie-Luise. They have been living in Wismar for a few years now and guided us through this wonderful historic city dating from the times of the powerful Hanseatic League. And they invited us to their beautiful Baltic townhouse with its gabled roof and red-brick colored facade. It had belonged to Marie-Luises family and had been returned to them after the reunification of East and West Germany. With much love and financial effort they had refurbished it in the authentic Hanseatic style.
From Rostock via Fehmarn we headed for the Kiel Channel, connecting the Baltic with the North Sea. At Kiel Holtenau we locked into the channel and shared the ride with huge cargo vessels and oil tankers. The passage of 60nm takes a whole day at the end of which a sea lock releases you into the river Elbe.
Our next stop was Cuxhaven, where we were held up again by strong westerly winds. But there is a nice beach front and the busy city to keep you occupied.
Chanan, our radio operator on board, noticed radio activity from the Elbe 1, a decommisioned lighthouse vessel. We paid it a visit and Chanan was greeted with much respect and admiration from fellow amateur radio operators, who spent a whole weekend on the vessel transmitting to colleges around the world.
Norderney
We were now on our way home. Our last stop was the German island of Norderney, a sea resort since the days of the German Emperor Wilhelm I. Here we had a change of crew: Chanan disembarked and my girlfriend Hella boarded Arielle to sail home with us to Hindeloopen.
sailing home
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