The islands of Lyø and Ærø – Denmark.

Continuing our journey south we left Middelfart on a calm still morning with grey skies and dampness in the air, but not actually raining – always look on the bright side.

Our destination was 39 nautical miles away, the island of Lyø which had been recommended to us by at least two if not three different people on sailing boats.

The day remained grey and we had wind from various directions and varying strength all day, we motor-sailed (usually able to get some assistance from the wind) but were relying on the motor to accompany the sails.

Besides navy vessels which we are seeing most days, we also saw a number of porpoises which got us excited as our year in the Baltic Sea has really lacked sea life overall.  Now my fishing heritage instincts kicked right in – if there were porpoises then there must be fish, so out with the fishing lure over the back of the boat – but to no avail, in fact towards the end of the journey we lost the paravane from the line, so not only did we not catch a fish we are also a rig down! (Colleen, I can assure you Phil was on watch when the paravane was lost, he will argue I put it out, which is correct (some hours earlier) but it was then his watch when it was lost).

The wind got right up gusting to over 20 knots as we were preparing to enter the very small poky entrance to Lyø harbour, just what we didn’t want, but the pontoons were very empty so thought we would cheat and pull up alongside rather than box berth as was the set up, well to put it simply – that didn’t work.  There was only a small section to pull this move off in (which really was meant for box berths) and we managed to get in around the box berth poles to pull along side but got blown off the pontoon and couldn’t get a line on as there were no cleats or poles to lasso, only rings and we were not close enough for me to jump off and were getting blown further away, abort, abort, abort … which then meant some cursing and too-ing and fro-ing under strong engine power to try and get back out from the poles all around us! So, take two we lined up for a box berth (like we probably should have to start with, but these are always a stress at the best of times and can be a real mess in windy conditions such as we had) anyway we came in down wind beside another yacht to help shelter and tied up no worries at all – sigh!

There were three old wooden schooners on the outer wall that were disturbingly filled with pirates! Lucky there is no valuable booty on our boat. Phil went over and chatted to them and they were on a weekend adventure, kind of like a murder mystery weekend where you dress in character and pay along to a script but this one was in the role of pirates searching for treasure. They were all in character and looking for treasure on the island, which turned out to be a bag of bones – not the kind of treasure I would have been hoping for, but anyway each to their own, they were having a great time.

The following morning we walked into the village in the centre of the island about 1.5 km from the marina and were in awe of this stunning setting. Old houses (of course with beautiful thatched roofs) with magnificent gardens that you can tell have been established for many many years. The autumn colours were amazing and the misty air that day also added to the appeal.

It was very quiet, especially being a Saturday morning, but everything looked loved and maintained. We did see a couple of signs of life; at the dairy the cows were being milked, we were then passed by a tractor as we walked the “main street” and later saw a father and son working on a stone wall together at the front of an impressive property.

The church gardens and graveyard were immaculate and also a little different to what we were used to, as the graves are all surrounded by small box hedges as well as a lot of garden plants intertwined in the mix which are obviously lovingly maintained and the overall look is very very impressive. The church inside was very simple but looked well used by the community.

We found the small village store and chatted with the lady at the counter who told us about life on the island. Predominately it consists of two large farms and then there is also the village which has a decent number of residents. It is obvious that the community cares a lot and comes together to maintain the island, this is obvious with the church, school building (not used as a school as the kids go on the ferry), the town hall etc, we were told that they also eat together as a whole community each month in the village hall. The population on the island is 99 but will be 100 in January when there is a baby due!

And just when you thought the childish “fart” jokes were over (refer last blog post from “Middelfart”) we come across this delightful sign on Lyø , and did we giggle, yes, yes we did, seems Phil’s toilet humour is contagious!  Really every home, village or decent person should have a well thought out, considerate “Fart Plan”.  As you can imagine every “gas indiscretion” since seeing the fart plan is quickly followed up with the words “it’s ok it was on the fart plan” so much for the traditional “pardon me please, or excuse me” it seems as long as it is on the plan it is ok, can’t be argued with, or declared disgusting or inappropriate – so it pays to have a good plan.

 

We set off later that day for the short sail of 14 nautical miles to the island of Ærø. It was downwind sailing in light winds so under head sail only, a very smooth enjoyable cruise taking a little over 3 hours. It was really very nice, grey but nice.

The island of Ærø has a surface of 90 square kilometres.  It is 30 kilometres long and 9 kilometres wide at its broadest point. There are around 6,300 residents on the island which has evidence (in the form of remains found) dating settlement on the island back ten thousand years. Despite being old the island is very clean and has an even greener future ahead of it, they aim to be self sufficient with sustainable energy and be CO2 neutral by the year 2025. Today they are already considered one of the leading renewable energy islands in the world.

We berthed at the town of Ærøskøbing which is the northern side and pretty much in the middle of the island in the large Trafikhavn basin.

How does one describe Ærøskøbing? I will certainly have a go but really doubt I will do it justice. It is like a perfectly preserved village from hundreds of years ago, indeed it was granted market rights in 1522 and many of the houses are 300-400 years old.

Narrow cobblestone streets, old street lamps, wonky houses without a straight wall painted in yellows, oranges and reds, an amazing array of unique front doors that open straight onto the street, roses growing in the street, lanterns in the doorways, just perfect.  It has the title of the most well preserved town of the 18th century in Denmark and the town has just celebrated its 750 year jubilee.

We felt amazingly relaxed immediately which may have contributed to a little over indulging on that Saturday night – hence the title of this blog.

It started when we stopped in at the local pub for a pint around 5pm that evening. It just felt right, and it had been absolutely ages since we had been to a pub for a beer & it was Saturday after all, well we actually only stayed for one drink as the small quaint pub was still running like it would have 100 years ago with ashtrays on every table as well as on the bar and every patron had a cigarette hanging out the side of their mouths. We made the very sensible decision (the only one for the night) to go back to the boat for our second drink.

Somehow the evening slipped away as did the beers for Phil and the red wine for myself. Our reasoning maybe that we were very close to Germany and being able to restock our cellar at great (cheap) rates. To be honest I am not really sure what we were thinking but sometime later when we were so full we couldn’t possibly fit any more beer or wine in, it seemed appropriate to finish off a couple of bottles of spirits that only had a couple of drinks left in them, following that we had quite the sing-along to some classic Aussie rock such as Yothu Yindi, Midnight Oil, INXS, Hunters and Collectors.

We then came dangerously close to running out of lubricant for our throats but luckily found some Baileys for myself and Russian Vodka for Phil (yes Rob, you know the pretty Russian vodka bottle). It was about this time that we had serious discussions about entering our dingy in the advertised billy cart grand prix that was running that week on the island….

Yes, we really were quite untidy, and will apologise now to those people whom witnessed this via telephone calls and FaceTime video’s (well it was then 3:15am our time in Denmark, so it seemed appropriate to call people in Australia as it was a Sunday lunchtime for them) although from the laughing on the calls their end I think they found it all very amusing.

It is fair to say Sunday was a write off for us, a well deserved rest day, although we did manage to get the local diner for a hamburger and chips mid afternoon – it helped a lot.

Monday we were feeling much better and headed out to track down the local Grand Prix Billy Cart Bash, it is a 5 day event running over the autumn school holidays for the kids of the island.

They change the track to a different street each day as well as a new challenge each day before the big grand final on the Friday.  Monday was practice day, Tuesday they concentrate on speed, Wednesday they added some cans to the track for them to steer though calling it precision driving (they got points for a clear run), and so on for the week until the grand prix final on Friday.  We actually only saw those three days as we didn’t stay until Friday, but hats off to Ærøskøbing as it was a great set up, well ran, very popular and fun to watch. Phil was quite disappointed that he missed the cut off age (under 16’s only).

The island provided all the billy carts (about 15 in total) and the kids teamed up into teams of 4 or 5 and took turns going with the remainder of the team having to push them back up to the start after their run before swapping drivers. The billy carts were all really well built, with steering and brakes and despite a small variance in style they all had the same standard in regards to gear, wheels and such meaning no cart had an unfair advantage.

We also visited the other two towns on the island those being Marstal and Søby and to our delight we used the islands “free” bus to get to them.

Marstal is the biggest town on the island but didn’t attract us as much as the endearing charm that we felt in Ærøskøbing. Marstal has a really large harbour, dockyards and lots of affiliated boat works and such as well as a nautical school which for more than a century has trained navigators for the Danish merchant fleet. Its history dates back to the 18th century when it was a thriving sea port and commercial centre.

Most of the housing in the town dates back to the 19th century when almost 200 schooners and cutters would moor in the town for winter behind the 1 kilometre long stone jetty. The jetty was built by during the winters of 1824-1842 by local mariners. It also has a maritime museum which we had heard great things about but none of the outbuildings such as ship builders, steam engine workshops, the schooner ships and such were open so we didn’t go into museum as it was these outer buildings displays that interested us. Much of the town was shut up as the summer season was well and truely over.

Søby is the home of Søby Shipyard, Ærø’s largest workplace and boy was the town a hive of activity when we visited, but all of the infrastructure activity kind. Streets were ripped up being relaid and the ferry dock was undergoing a major reconstruction, they are building a new ferry in the dockyard, the ferry will be ran 100% on electric power, and don’t be misguided it’s a large ferry, for both cards and passengers. Further to this they are also building a new dock and charging terminal to house it, which means currently the towns port (the centre foreshore) is one massive construction zone. From what we could assertion on the information around the project the ferry will be able to run for 20 nautical miles which is the return journey for the ferry to the mainland. Impressive stuff.

Of course a visit to Ærø would be incomplete without seeing the beach huts at both Ærøskøbing and Marstal, these private huts first appeared on the island in the early 1920’s. Unlike the famous beach huts in Australia these are all unique shapes and sizes, definitely not uniform. At the time no rules regulated the construction and no requirements were made of the positioning design or colouring. Of course as time progressed controversy became involved of the legality of them and from 1960 the beach hut case wars over land, leases and such went on for more than two decades.

Today there are 74 huts at Vesterstrand (Ærøskøbing) and 19 at Eriks Hale (Marstal) and the land under the beach huts are on permanent leases and the provisions are rigorous; no annexes, no additions, no installation of electricity or water – everything must remain as it was. The most famous of these huts is the “thatched red beach hut” it was completed in August 1931, today the hut is available to hire and it often used for weddings.

We did drop the lines and motorsail around to Marstal (the eastern point of Ærø) on the afternoon of our last day, this was 12 nautical miles due to having to go a fair distance north before turning east then tracking back south, as the water all around the islands are very shallow, so we had to stick to the buoyed channels. We only moved to knock the 12 nautical miles off our journey for the following day which is us leaving Denmark for Germany!

We ended up staying an additional week in Gilleleje after returning from London/Paris due to unusually strong and persistent winds from the East.  So strong were the winds that it blew so much water around that the water level in the harbour came up by 1/2 a meter!!  Red Roo was sitting so high above the marina infrastructure pontoons and pylons, it was a jump down off the boat (which had been a climb across).  Amazing just from wind, not tide as we are still in an area where tide rise and fall is very very minimal.

I guess I must also mention the very exciting last Saturday in September which happened whilst in Gilleleje . . . yes Phil’s AFL footy team the Richmond Tigers won the grand final.  He was (and still is) one very happy Tiger supporter.  It was a long time coming, 37 years since they last won a premiership but win they did, well done lads.

Phil finished rigging a set dock lines with snubbers, these are “shock absorbers” and it was done out of necessity.  We were getting jerked around wildly as the wind shifted and the water level rose.  It was rough, no other word for it.  We were getting blown off the dock (a good thing), we put some of our extra fenders on the boat on the other side of the pontoon who was getting blown onto it and rubbing really badly against the pontoon, other neighbours a couple of boats along asked for help to get the boat next to them off their boat, it was being blown onto them squashing them, of course all happening after dark in the howling wind and rain doing it all with torches – fun!

When the sun rose the following day (well when the darkness gave way to light, using the word sun is a bit misleading) the forecast predicted stronger winds for the coming night – no thank you.  We moved.  Not far, just 500 meters over into the fishing harbour, basically as close to the wind direction as we could get where there was both shelter from town buildings and no water between us and the wind (not allowing a chance for the wind to blow waves up creating swell).  We snuggled in amongst the big fishing trawlers and rafted to a large motor boat and it was like a different world – we could certainly still hear the wind howling but we hardly moved at all, such relief.  We could see the yacht masts over the other side of the harbour rocking and rolling – suckers, but then again people were not living on them like us.

Once the weather finally settled we gave the sea an extra day for the swell to subside before finally setting sail again and heading West.

Destination Odden Havn 33 nautical miles.  There was a little swell still on the water but nothing too bad, we were definitely ready to move so off we went.  The morning was fantastic with sun and a perfect amount of wind and angle for sailing.  The forecast was for dropping winds however of course we got the exact opposite with wind and swell rising considerably – welcome back to the water!  About half way through the journey we surrendered to F6 winds and put a reef in the main sail (reduced the size of the sail due to the strong wind) it provided a bit of relief and settled us down a bit but then the wind continued to build along with the swell and at about the 3/4 mark we put a second reef in the main, it was getting pretty messy.

Red Roo was riding the waves well and it wasn’t too bad, just took us a bit of getting used to after three weeks not on the water, perhaps one would say we had gotten soft!

Phil voiced concerns about getting into Odden Havn due to the waves breaking near shore which would be about where the entrance to the marina was (the point where it goes from about 12 meters depth to 3 meters), we would be entering the harbour taking waves on the side, lots of “ummmming” and “arrrring” and even a review of the nautical charts to see what other options there were further on that may be better to get into…. however as we got closer to Odden Havn we could see we would be ok.  We had to come in fast with a lot of throttle power on to cut through the waves and swell then back off quickly to pull up once behind the break wall – instantaneous calm, and then a quick scramble to get fenders out of lockers and on around the boat as well as shore lines attached (it was way to rough to do them a mile out as per usual).

We bypassed the yacht berths and went into the fishing vessels quay (again close to the wind and protected by larger vessels) and tied up on the wall.  Phil immediately cracked a cold one and soon found an old sea dog on a nearby boat to down a couple with and talk about “that wind”!  He also wanted to sound a local out about our next leg which involves crossing a shallow reef through a pretty skinny channel and with this wind how realistic it would be anytime soon.

When we eventually got around to tidying up the boat and doing up the sail bag Phil spotted a tear in the sail 😦 not ideal, and our second this year for the main sail!!

Now any of you that know me well, know that I enjoy sewing and can be quite crafty with a needle and thread however you will be amused to read that this hand sewing job involved needles the size of crowbars (I may be exaggerating a little, but not much) as well as gloves, pliers, leather and metal hand protector and thread thicker than dental floss  (Heather I don’t recommend taking up sail repairs by hand sewing as a hobby).  Anyway it had to be done, so we took the main sail off the tracks on the mast and threaded it down through the saloon hatch into the boat and I got busy with it.

It was a small tear and pretty quick and easy to patch.  Job done, although not my neatest work it was very acceptable and the captain was impressed.  Whilst we had the sail down it gave us a chance to check out how my last hand sewing repair patch was holding up from May when we tore it in Germany, that tear was both a lot bigger tear and a lot harder to repair being near the edge meaning I had to sew through the seam and extra layer of material and it took hours with each and every stitch needing the pliers to pull the needle through the material.  Anyway good news is it is holding up great, no signs of any further tearing and no fraying of the seams of the patch.

Overall the usually tough sails are getting pretty fragile and pretty darn thin in places, showing a lot of UV damage obviously not from the couple of years we have been sailing . . . no not at all – no fear of UV damage during that time!, but it is from the couple of years Red Roo spent in the Caribbean before we brought her.  The sun is hard on the sails and lines and we knew that when we brought her that we would need new sails in the fairly near future, we have managed two years (maybe because we have avoided the sun!) anyway fingers crossed we get another one out of them as you can imagine it is not a cheap thing new sails.

We spent 3 nights in Odden Havn and the majority of it inside the boat out of the rain.  We ended up moving the boat on the second day as where we were didn’t have power and we wanted to run the electric heater.  This meant moving to the wall that is the breakwater on the outside and us on the inside, plenty of shelter from the wind as the wall is quite high (you can’t see over it) so we didn’t get blown around BUT the waves were breaking over the breakwater and over the boat!!!  Seaweed on the decks and you had to time your exit from the boat between waves.

Odden Havn was a sweet little community which looked to be primarily built around it’s fishing boats, we did get out for a walk with our umbrella each day and they had quite the variety of seafood being sold in the harbour warehouses.  The houses were all homes being lived in unlike Gilleleje which looked to be all summer holiday homes.

Monday came around and the swell and wind had settled and indeed were forecast to drop right off during the day so we set out early in an attempt to be able to get the 31 nautical miles to Ballen done under sail while the wind was there to be used.

We had to motor the first 5 miles into the wind out to the reef and across it (depth of 7 meters in the channel over the reef) but then were able to raise the main and headsail and enjoy a great day on the water averaging around 6 knots speed over the water.

After the reef we were crossed the main shipping traffic zone from the ‘great belt’ seeing a Danish war ship and several container ships but managed to sneak across under sail without having to change course for any.

We arrived at the deserted harbour of Ballen just as the wind ran out of puff, we had slowed right down with the wind dropping for the last 2 miles and threw a fishing line out the back without success.

Ballen is a port on the largish island of Samso (114 sq kilometres and a population of 3,500).  We arrived around 4pm and enjoyed a couple hours of sunlight (not sun) and even got out the cobb and cooked up what we fear will be our last bbq of the season.

The days are getting shorter and considerably colder, the season is definitely behind us, indeed today was the day we actually started heading back south.  Meaning retreating for winter – where to is yet to be decided, but the next 3-4 weeks will see us check out the last of Denmark on this route south, then back to Germany through the Kiel Canal and at some stage make a dash out and around the (sometimes nasty) North Sea back into the canals of Holland.  Then we will (maybe) make a plan/decision for winter.

The next morning we left Ballen at sunrise a very decent hour of 07:30am destination Middelfart (Phil giggles every time he says it, toilet humour men love it!) anyway Middelfart was 40 nautical miles south.

We are fighting hard to keep winter away with neither of us even suggesting getting our thermals or Musto (foul weather gear) out, however Phil was wearing his wet weather hiking plastic pants overtop of his jeans as well as several layers up top including rain jacket and beanie, myself dressed in tights (not thermals) under tracksuit pants and singlet, long sleeve top, long sleeve t-shirt and jumper.  We refuse to give in – we are just adding a lots of layers and ignoring all the obvious signs – despite knowing it’s inevitable.

A long day under motor, some assistance from the main but the angle was very fine, basically straight into the wind all day, but the wind wasn’t too strong so at least we were not fighting it, in fact we were actually were 30 minutes ahead of schedule when we reached the narrowing of the small belt where we had to take current into consideration (hence the forward planning).  The last hour of the journey in the populated areas under the big bridge was wet and grey, and of course we tied up in the rain.

We secured in Gammel Havn on the northern side of Middelfart.  We are the only modern boat in the quay with all the others being very old traditional wooden boats, so pretty to look at (not sure what they think of us!).

We explored the sights of Middelfart on foot enjoying walking through the woods and along the foreshores.

Middelfart was traditionally Danish’s whale oil port.  By whale they actually mean porpoises.  We visited the local museum and learnt all about it, and as terrible and wrong as it seems today, it was a means of survival back in the day and they didn’t know any better.  We did see a couple of porpoise as we sailed to Middelfart, and can understand why it was the regions main industry as the water narrows and snakes around a couple of corners making it perfect to trap them back when they were using wooden rowing boats.  Despite the couple of porpoises we still haven’t seen much water life in the Baltic, we were thinking we might see more in this region but not so, other than fishing boats.  We are certainly back into Jelly Fish territory however, the water is very clear and the jelly fish very large, very yellow and lots of them.

I also tested out the Danish health care system with a visit to the Dentist after cracking a tooth and revealing a large cavity.  I walked in off the street, got myself an appointment for half an hour later, was in the chair for an hour (with local anaesthetic) getting the whole filled and tooth rebuilt and was charged 1,559 danish crowns (about $325 Aussie Dollars).  So I was very impressed with both the service and the cost.  I am sure that I have never left the dentist in Australia without forking out a lot more than that even after private health rebates.

The other amusing incident in Middelfart was when Phil was bombed by a local seagull.  Some call it lucky, I call it funny!

After four nights we departed Copenhagen on a drizzly wet Thursday afternoon heading north away from the capital city to explore the more regional areas of Denmark (and to cheaper harbours).

We slipped easily out of our box mooring (first one, so first time getting out too) and took the 12:00 noon bridge opening out of the canal into the harbour.

We back tracked passing the Copenhagen Opera House, the Queens Yacht and the cruise ships before leaving the protected breakwater of the harbour and entered a choppy sea with moderate F4 winds coming from the North East.  We beat our way across the bumpy patch for about 2 miles before turning to get a good angle finding steady winds and smoother seas providing a good but wet sail the 23 nautical miles to Helsingør.

We arrived just after 4pm but due to the drizzly day it seemed almost nighttime, a real grey old day.  We secured alongside a pontoon in the commercial port harbour basin near Kronberg Castle.  It was surprisingly quiet with no other boats on the pontoons, just the ferries coming and going to Sweden in the outer part of the harbour and some fishing vessels also.  Later in the evening and overnight a couple of other ships did arrive, two old large wooden barques with two and three masts – beautiful.

The next day we put our coats on and took ourselves (and our trusty umbrella) on a self guided walking tour of the city.

We walked around Kronberg Castle built from 1574-1585 and famous for being the setting of Hamlet’s Shakespeare.

Many of the warehouse buildings around the port harbour are all ex shipyard halls and have been modernised and repurposed to house the cultural centre, library, visitor centre, street food hall, art spaces and the shipyard museum.

The “Han” meaning “He” sculpture is also in the port harbour and stands out being made of highly polished stainless steel.

The maritime museum of Denmark is located here also and is unique in its location being in built inside the old shipyards dry dock – basically it is underground – looks great from the top.

The tour also took us past a rather plain building where Hans Christian Anderson attended Latin School learning to read and write (he was illiterate when he arrived in Copenhagen as a teenager and a rich philanthropist sponsored him to attend school here).

We moved the boat around to the marina later in the day (between showers) as it was cheaper than staying in the harbour, it was also closer to the weekend carnival set up on the edge of the marina in the car park.  It was a pretty pathetic looking carnival with just a couple of really lame rides and a few food stalls, but they did have a band that night – an ACDC tribute band!  Phil went and listened for a while and said it wasn’t too bad, but being wet it was inside a marquee and the 100 or so attendee’s were all smoking (inside) making it not such a great place to enjoy the music.

After two nights we had done our research as to where to head next as we had some specific requirements and picked out the town of Gilleleje only 12 miles further on.

We will be leaving Red Roo here for two weeks while we take a short break from the boat, and the price and facilities are perfect for doing this.  It is time for me to leave the EU again to reset my visa and it is timed very nicely with friends visiting London and Paris from Australia so we will enjoy our mini break catching up with loved ones from home.

We set off from Helsingør around 3pm and just as we slipped out of our berth the heavens opened again dumping heavy rain for the entire journey.  Despite the buckets of rain there was little to no wind and we had to motor all the way.

There really was no need for both of us to get saturated so Phil sat this passage out downstairs “doing important stuff” whilst I kept us on track out in the rain.  Fair is fair and I must admit usually it is the other way around, it was definitely my turn.

I threw a fishing lure out the back to keep me amused but didn’t catch anything and even considered stripping off and and showering – my hair really was ready for a wash and it wasn’t really cold just constantly wet pretty much like standing in the shower, any wetter and I would have been swimming.  The picture doesn’t do it justice as you can’t see the rain (unless you look really hard near the dingy in the water you can see the droplets hitting the water).

It was a relief to see an empty alongside hammer head pontoon to easily and quickly secure to when we arrived around 6pm.  We packed up and stripped off our wet gear (Phil did get wet when he took the helm to berth us up while I secured the lines).

Neither of us mind getting wet, it’s fine really, but can be frustrating when the water inevitability gets inside the boat from our wet weather gear hanging up inside to dry – that is when the boat feels small, cramped and damp.

The following day we moved into a box berth to make the boat secure to leave her in a few days time.  We also spent the day drying everything, from our wet weather gear, our boots, to the sails as there is nothing worse than packing things up wet, especially since we are leaving her – it is just an invitation for mould, so we were thankful for some wind and a relatively dry day to help (it was the only dry day for the coming week).  We also ran two heaters inside the boat all day with the windows open to air and dry everything and circulate air.

The following couple of days were spent cleaning and washing; ourselves, the boat inside and out, and 5 loads of washing (all the linen from both beds, towels, dirty clothes and good clothes that haven’t been worn for a year ready to take away).

Gilleleje the town is small and popular as a summer holiday destination, with a couple of nice beaches and heaps of holiday homes.

The harbour is really big with lots of yachts based here as well as a large fishing fleet, both private and commercial vessels as well as a couple of big ship repair places working flat out on everything from yachts to fishing boats to really large motor boats as well as a historic steam ships (berthed next to us) which is going into dry dock for its 5 year certification test later this week.

Steamship Skjelskør was built in 1915 and was in commercial service until 1962.  Since then she has been kept as a historic working ship, taking passengers on cruises (without minimal modernisation of the boat).  It actually still runs on coal and has bags of it stored on deck.

So it’s a short break for us (see picture below) and after sailing on average every second day since March it is very welcome.  We are feeling fatigued and the thought of a real bed and real shower is very very inviting.

We will be back shortly to explore more of Denmark and hopefully get another 2 months sailing before having to think about hiding somewhere for winter, well at least getting out of the Baltic before there is a risk of it freezing on us!

We all know the story a beautiful lady from Tasmania (I know you are all thinking of me) however it was Mary who met Prince Fredrick in Sydney at a pub during the Olympics and went onto marry him to become a Princess and furthermore will be Queen Mary of Denmark once hubby Frederick is crowned King (successor to his Mum).  Someone made a grave, grave typo error in that fairytale Mary/Maree . . . so close – should have been me!

Anyway back to real life, we arrived in Copenhagen or to be technically correct  København until we English came along with our spelling and pronunciation and overwrote the Danish spelling.

Only a short 25 nautical miles from the beach we were anchored at in Sweden as there is a short cut through a canal cutting off a big chunk of land that one used to have to journey around – all done under motor as the wind was on the nose (again!) and we were also confined to a buoyed channel for a lot of it before hitting more open water which was then full of commercial shipping traffic and wind turbines, so engine it was.

We didn’t leave the beach until after lunch having done a few boat jobs in the morning and arrived in the capital city at 18:30 taking one of the last berths in the canal.   Our timing was excellent (two fold) as we went straight through the canal as the bridge was opening in Sweden and only had to “tread water” for a couple of minutes to wait for the pedestrian bridge to open letting us into the canal in Copenhagen.

This was our very first box mooring berth (which is quite unbelievable having spent the entire year in the Baltic, where box mornings are the norm).  Box mornings require us to pass between two posts and drop a line over/around them on each side of the boat and then tie the bow off to the dock – despite nerves and the need to be in three places at once whilst executing this, we pulled it off perfectly (most appreciative of the high buildings protecting us from all winds and also that the posts were nicely spaced not too far out and we also have had plenty of “bow to” practise with stern buoys rather than posts which is half of the battle anyway – almost looking professional these days as we tie up!

We set out the next morning on foot to do our information gathering (further to internet research) at the visitor information centre to plan our next couple of days.  We gathered up all the brochures available and was standing in line to speak to one of the staff when an energetic gentleman came in announcing he was collecting people for the “free” walking city tour departing in 10 minutes – he had us at free, that will do us nicely thank you, we fled the very long line we were standing in and joined the tour.

The tour went for three hours (including a half hour coffee shop stop) and it was fantastic, we saw heaps, learnt a lot about a multitude of Danish topics everything from religion, to schooling, to politics, all about Hans Christian Anderson the famous fairy tales author (Little Mermaid, the Snow Queen, The Ugly Duckling, The Princess and the Pea, The Emperors New Clothes and many more) as well as all about the Royals and heaps of Danish history.  Some of the stand out facts include;

• Greenland (Danish soil) makes Denmark 75 times larger than it would be without it.
• Denmark consists of lots of small and some big (Greenland) islands, in fact 400 of them to be precise.
• The gap between rich and poor in Denmark is the smallest in the world.
• 40% of all adults in the country do some kind of volunteer work – amazing!
• They pay very high taxes (apparently happily) as they are very happy with free education, free hospital and medical, and the social welfare policies.
• Lego is Danish and this year has been voted the worlds most powerful brand (replacing Ferrari).
• In the year of 1658 the Swedish invaded and attacked Denmark, taking them totally by surprise during the winter in a snow storm by dressing in white (making them invisible) and walking across the frozen Baltic Sea (it’s not very far in some places). The Netherlands came to the rescue and sent ships and soldiers but it cost Denmark dearly, they agreed for saving them to give them 25% of their country (land), guess that’s better than loosing the whole lot to Sweden.

Further to the walking tour we visited over the following two days loads of interesting places including the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek which is a museum built by one of Denmarks wealthiest families the Carlsberg (think beer) and contains many many beautiful and famous sculptures, however it must be said that overall the building inside and out is amazing all on it’s own maybe more so that many of the things in it.

We climbed three of the tallest buildings in the city, those being the Christiansborg Palace tower, the Round Tower down town as well as the Our Saviours Church tower close to where Red Roo was berthed.

We climbed three of the tallest buildings in the city, those being the Christiansborg Palace tower, the Round Round Tower down town as well as Our Saviours Church tower close to where Red Roo was berthed.

 

 

 

 

The Saviours Church tower has over 400 steps to the top (some of the inside ones are pretty much just ladders) and once past the clock workings and bells you reach the outside spiral steps (150 of them wrapping themselves around the spike)  funnily the hand rails got stickier as we kept going up, think they must still be soaked from stress when our mate Rob braved the climb back in 2015 (he tells us his knees go a little funny when he gets up high, heights are not his thing, but hats off for making it up this one Rob, and note: I posed for the “look no hands” picture just for you!).

The Royal Families all live nice and cosy in Amalienborg Palace, which is a large square (well circle actually – it contains a roundabout) with the four palaces around the outside all facing each other and the massive statue in the middle of roundabout.  One palace for the Queen and hubby her house has 5 chimneys (as she is a chain smoker), next is Mary and Freddy’s with four chimneys one for each of the kids, next is her seconds sons house (I don’t even know his name), then the forth palace is the guest house (that one only has 3 chimneys).  Obviously the guest house was already booked out or I am sure we would have scored an invite.  Incidentally Freddy and Mary were home when we visited as their flag was flying high.  I was actually surprised how close you can get, the whole thing is public, you can even drive your car around the round about right out the front of the houses (like a big circular courtyard), there are armed soldiers on patrol of course at each residence but no fencing, we were told however you can not touch the houses and must remain two rifle lengths back.

We accidentally stumbled across the Crown Jewels – I am serious.  We were cutting through the city park named Kings Park to get to the Botanical Gardens and in the middle of the park we found a huge magnificent castle like building so consulted our map to find out what is was, which turned up a big blank – literally, as the city map showed green parklands with a white square blanked out where this building was.  So of course we investigated and turns out it was Rosenborg Castle where they keep the good stuff, all that gold and all those diamonds unfortunately a couple of blokes with guns stood between us and the actual jewels.

City Hall houses a world clock that was really interesting.  The hall is usually open for viewing also but the day we visited was Danish Flag day where they celebrate all men and women in the armed services and the hall was being used for a ceremony (I think they were getting medals as there were soldiers and their families) and were having morning tea, anyway I walked straight through the big velvet red curtain and went inside for a look (and came out with a flag after enjoying a drink and piece of cake) but Phil was stopped by security before getting to the curtain (obviously his dodgy looks).

We admired the Copenhagen Opera House, which is one of the most expensive opera houses ever built with construction costs well over US$500 million, it was built by the founder of Maersk Shipping (worlds biggest shipping company), he then donated it to the Danish State (meaning the full cost of the project was tax deductible for him).  It is designed to look like a container ship in recognition to Maersk.

Frederik’s Church commonly referred to as the Marble church is also worth a mention, it stands very proudly at the end of one of the streets that runs off the fancy royal roundabout (a very short street, it almost is part of the royal set up) only a stones throw from the Queen and family.  It is very impressive and imposing with its huge dome sitting above the large column entrance all made of marble of course.  Inside is even more breathtaking (Evangelical Lutheran denomination) very intricately decorated with the marble colouring just beautiful.  Phil of course wanted to ensure it didn’t escape my attention that the ceiling dome was painted containing the 12 disciples, and furthermore that it was noted that Philip (spelt the same as him) was a star of the show following Jesus around as part of his trusted few.

Closer to the boat on the southern side of the city is Freetown Christiania.  This is, in very simple terms a kind of seperate town created in an old army barracks (taken over by hippy squatters when vacant) and ruled as a free town (under their own community laws) by its residents (around 850 people)  it is also known as the “green light district” as cannabis is openly for sale here in the street markets.  We strolled around and to be quite honest found it really quite dirty and unattractive.  A highlight however was seeing the home of the Christiania Bike which we have seen thousands of in Europe, perfect for carting kids, families and general stuff around these flat cities, and we also have friends in Australia who imported one when they started a young family in Adelaide.

And of course no visit to Copenhagen would be complete without a stroll through Nyhavn the most photographed street in the country.  It is rather stunning with it’s colourful bright old buildings, alfresco dining on the cobblestones and old wooden ships in the canal.

At Nyhavn our attention however was continually drawn to the other side of the canal where a piece of artwork was newly installed in the window arches of an old style brick warehouse.  It is a display of more than 3,500 abandoned life jackets collected over three months from refugees arriving at the Greek island of Lesbos.  It is very thought provoking if not confronting.

 

We spent a total of 4 nights in the big smoke before moving on North to explore more of Denmark.  Whilst we certainly didn’t see everything we had a real good look around and certainly got an insight into the life of the Danish.  The world really is an amazing place and there are delightfully unique things in every place you look.

As I sit here now in Helsingør 25 miles north of Copenhagen 2 days after we left the country’s capital I am feeling nervous that winter may be approaching too early and too quickly.  It is the third consecutive day of rain and wind, the temperate has dropped and it is forecast to continue to rain for the next 7 days – darn it.  It doesn’t stop us exploring or sailing, it’s only water after all but it makes the boat damp and wet and cluttered with coats and wet weather gear hanging everywhere dripping . . . it is haunting me, surely it can’t be that time already, please, we would really like at least another month maybe two of fair (not even great) weather before having to hide somewhere.

I also have a new found appreciation for public library’s.  What normally takes me up to three or four hours uploading pictures to the blog using slow free marina wifi (usually sitting outside with the mozzies of a night when no one else is using the signal) has taken only minutes 🙂 which ironically is a shame as I am enjoying the amazing view from the second floor overlooking Red Roo in the shorefront basin with the Helsingør Castle behind her protecting the town.  Also this particular library is not only huge it is stunning (except for the noisy children that disturb the peace), and the books, oh the books, I just want to take them and read them all (well the english one’s anyway) one can never have too many books after all I have read 13 in the last 22 days (all those motor journeys) but luckily most marinas have a take one leave one free library system which is a god send to us.

Foot Note; for those of you following along at home I have finished the Sweden Photo Slide Show click this text to view (or as always you can navigate to find each country’s pictures via Our Photo’s Page)

Jeg kan ikke tale ret maget dansk (I don’t speak much Danish) so you will have to make do with English.

Christiansø

After our day off waiting out strong winds on Utklippan we headed 43 nautical miles south west to the Danish Island of Christiansø, the journey was about 1/3 sailing and 2/3 motor sailing in light winds, yes it had gone from blowing a hooley to virtually nothing!

Christiansø (and Bornholm our next stop) are Danish islands off the south coast of Sweden – meaning we will be stopping along more of Sweden’s coast again before actually arriving full time in Denmark.

There are actually two islands here joined by a small bridge.  The western island being Fredriksö and the eastern being Christiansø, neither of them are very big in-fact the day ferry suggests that tourists should enjoy walking the circumference of both islands the inland garden paths, climb the tower, have a swim and lunch at the pub and be more than ready to return to mainland Sweden or the larger Danish island of Bornholm after 3 hours – and we can confirm that 3 hours is plenty of time to complete all those activities.  However we were here for 24 hours so were going to make the most of it and have a real good look around, maybe even see somethings twice!

To put the size into perspective Fredriksö is 440 meters long and 160 meters wide with the highest point being 8 meters above sea level, Christiansø being the bigger island boasts a length of 710 meters by 430 meters wide and rises to a height of 22 meters above the sea.

The islands were fortified in 1684, and include a stretch of over 2,500 meters of continuous masonry – impressive.  The fortress walls, bastions, towers, half timbered building and stone huts still remain today and little has changed since the last soldiers left the island in 1856.

There are around 100 full time residents here and the homes are all very old, traditional and very endearing to the surroundings.

We walked the huge and largely intact defence walls, saw the local protected green toad, climbed the tower, visited the old prison, looked at the swimming hole and old dwellings.

It was a popular spot for boats and boats were rafted two deep all the way along the quay.  Phil impressed himself by taking a great picture suitable for the cover of a sailing guide he thinks!!

Svaneke (Bornholm)

The next morning we awoke to rain, and we let it do it’s thing waiting for it to clear before we slipped the lines and sailed downwind the short 12 nautical miles to the island of Bornholm stopping at Svaneke.  Why are all the nice down wind sails only on short legs??

After securing to the wall in the basin we took a stroll and immediately were both impressed by this little village.  Almost every place we visit is nice but we both really liked this place it had a really nice feel.

We immediately set off to visit an attraction having a heavy link back to Australia that being the Svaneke Water Tower designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon in 1951 and built in 1952, what is the connection I hear you asking, well in 1957 Jørn Utzon went on to design the Sydney Opera House!  Whilst the two buildings couldn’t be any more different (although both largely use concrete) it is obvious that Jørn was very creative and thought outside the box.  The water tower for example is the only one of its kind being three sided – a pyramid shape.  The surprisingly shaped water tower was inspired by the old sea marks used for assisting the navigation of ships at sea. The marks were used in the west of Jutland and in the Swedish archipelago from the end of the 16th century in cases when there were no other distinguishable markings along the coast.  It really is quite striking and very visible from the sea, we certainly used it as a navigation point when approaching land.

We also stopped in at the 5 sisters smoke house, easily recognisable by the 5 smoke house chimneys that stand proud and distinct along the coastline.  We shared and enjoyed a freshly smoked herring.

The village has many a tourist drawcard but because there were very few visitors/tourists in town it was easy to enjoy.  They had a boiled sweets shop where they make the lollies, a brewery, locally made fudge and chocolate shops, lots of ceramic crafts and glass art,  we enjoyed watching them doing the glass blowing (which we were to later lean the Queen is coming to see also this week).

Our second day we decided to catch the bus across the island to the capital Rønne 30 km due west,  but of course we chose the bus route that was the longest pretty much sticking to the coast line north to enable us to see as much of the island as we could.

Rønne had a big busy commercial harbour and the required new look city and shops fitted into old cobblestone streets.  We armed ourselves with a map of the old town and historic sites and went off walking to see it all.  It wasn’t long after we reached the old town that we noticed a bit of activity in the streets in the form of police and what looked like defence force personnel, turns out we were in for a treat and watched the Danish mounted forces band performing.  We asked a local policeman what was behind the parade and he explained they were practising their route and parade for when Queen Margrethe II arrives on the island on Wednesday, she is bringing the Royal Yacht over as part of her summer holiday.  We inquired as to if Princess Mary (and Freddy) would be with her but seems not.  Very unfortunate as if Mary “my old mate” being a fellow Tasmanian was visiting I have no doubt she would have invited us back on board the royal yacht for a refreshing beverage!!!

Queens mounted band, note the offical boot polisher! They rush in when they stop to polish up boots – Dream Job!

We arrived back at Svaneke after taking the bus back via the southern coast to find the harbour that was the night prior very empty (four boats including us) to be rather full and boats milling around looking for a space.  They ended up being rafter 2, 3 & 4 deep in places but we were pleasantly surprised that nobody rafted against us, the red boat must have put them off!!  Turns out they were all German charter boats so each had 5-8 people on board for a sailing holiday.

Allinge (Bornholm)

All the German charter boats left pretty early and we had a lazy start leaving the harbour around 11am for the short but good sail 15 nautical miles sail north to Allinge.

Allinge is pretty much at the northern tip of the island and we had read about some bronze age rock carvings/drawings that are on the coast line that we wanted to visit. They turned out to be a little underwhelming, but not to worry a nice walk to see them.

After the picturesque Svanke, Allinge isn’t as attractive but we got around the major sites during the afternoon, those being the church, the shoreline, a couple of fish smoke houses, the rock drawings and walked north to the next village of Sandvig to see the beach.

We depart tomorrow back mainland Sweden, originally we thought we might bus back to Rønne or Svaneke to see the Queen, the parade and her yacht but the winds look good for sailing so will take them while they are there.