Into the South Funen Archipelago

Late last night the little cafe on the quayside was busy because the sailing club was having an evening race (they finished with their nav lights on) and the veteran car club gathered including a Skoda Octavia, an American muscle car, a 2CV, and a gorgeous, open-top, flame-red Jaguar XK140 - Lesley's favourite car.

We woke to the same grey skies and patter of rain. Aargh. The little cafe (it's on the way to the toilets) was busy again with little old fishermen and their retiree mates on mobility scooters.

While Nic did some work on reviewing a document for the NOS, Lesley had another swing through the shops netting some books and ... a small table from a shop that appeared to be selling its fittings. The table cost £3 and is just what we need in our living room!

Around 11 the rain eased so we set off for one our shortest passages ever, a mere 10 miles to Soby at the northern end of the much-lauded island of Aero. We could have sailed slowly across after negotiating the narrow channel out of Faaborg and dodging the ferry ... but the rain came on again and it's cold so we opted for the quicker passage by engine. 2 hours later we were snuggled up alongside a pontoon on Soby harbour (pic). Suddenly the Harbours are all half empty, which suits us.

After lunch on board we walked around the tiny town with its two shops, a restaurant and a pizza house. Much more interesting were the numerous houses that appear to have permanent garage sales (pic) with honesty boxes or numbers for 'mobile pay' - all very cheap and we saw a few things that are quite collectable. We bought one thing, a blue glass vase. A couple of buns from the bakery and back to the boat for tea. Finally the sun is out so everything is hung around the cockpit to dry.

Torrents and currents to Faaborg

Yes another 'borg. Huge contrast to yesterday where in Svendborg the sun was burning hot - the pic shows a bit of the old harbour, looking down from the old town and you can just see SIRENA IV's bottom if you look v hard just to the left of the concrete silo that every port seems to have.

Today was rain, torrents of it. Still, we're not made of sugar, so on with the wet weather gear and off we go. No wind as per forecast so motored a relatively short passage of 16 miles westwards along the south coast of Fyn to a small town called Faaborg (in Danish that's one 'a' with a little circle over it). Pic does the weather justice if not the town - all is grey and wet today.

The current was with us as we left Svendborg and a good thing too. We swept under the high road bridge at almost 8kn ... coming the other way we'd have been down to 3kn and the rain for twice as long. 

A late lunch with a hot drink and some book reading in our cosy cabin was much anticipated, and very welcome when it came.

Finally the rain eased enough for a stroll round town - it's small and very pretty. You'll have to trust us on that because one didn't take their phone and the other had a flat battery. Tsk. Nic had a nice coffee & cookie while Lesley rootled around in the charity shops, though no bargains this time. 

There are lots of 100 year old wooden sailing boats here, as in Svendborg - 1, 2 and 3 masts and all lovingly maintained. It's a real thing around Denmark, and on the southern coast of Fyn especially. 

Boats and booty

Another day without sailing but this time on land. Svendborg gave us great charity shopping and a wealth of maritime history. 

In the afternoon we hit the ships museum where Lesley posed innocently for a photo with a great green buoy sticking out of her head. 

It was a  wonderful local museum chock full of classic wooden sailing boats from the 1930s to 70s. There were original 'Folk boats' and such humble vessels as a Wayfarer and even a tiny Mirror dinghy. 

Note the bag held in L's hands. Earlier we had been to an astounding antiques and collectables shop based in a half timbered old railway building  (see pic) with a huge array of lovely things to wear and decorate the home.  We bought quirky presents for family birthdays and a couple of fun things for ourselves. Prices were not astronomical!

Earlier still L had bought a jacket and jumper at the Red Cross shop - total £12.

When we returned to Sirena IV loaded with bags we tackled the question of where to go in the next three days and marked up charts for tomorrow. Then we made a ludicrously long list of what we'll have to do before and after the boat is lifted out in Germany next week. 

Lesley tweeted about her Radio 4 programme going out tonight, Nic did another food shop and we had tuna salad for supper. A long and productive day. 

Borg to Borg

From Nyborg to Svendborg on the island of Fyn, we motored south for 25 miles in glassy waters with not a breath of a breeze. 

It was the first day we had not been able to sail since we came back to the boat. It was sunny but boy, it was cold, motoring gently down endless wide fjords with green land at either side, fluffy white clouds above. 

We arrived at 'the Danish Riviera' as Svendborg is known. It is very pretty, but the long winding approach had something we hadn't quite expected which felt suspiciously like a tide in this tide-less Baltic.  It was a fierce current of 2 knots or more against us, dragging us toward buoys and cutting our speed from 5 knots to 3. The currents apparently result from water building up, pushed by strong winds. 

Once inside the inner commercial harbour we managed to go alongside a pontoon, (see pic) much easier than struggling with a bows-to space with the dratted poles at the stern.

Not only is the town more cosmopolitan than many of the ports we've visited, even the harbour is. 

Here we encountered the first British sailors in our Baltic trip, and a French boat too. Otherwise it is solidly German. Ninety per cent of the boats we've seen on the move in the last week have sported German flags. Germany's summer holiday season lasts longer than the Danish season. I suppose Danish marinas must be very grateful for the custom. 

We sauntered around Svendborg to see churches (see pic) have coffee and er..a Danish, and track down the two charity shops (one closed,  one open)

Tonight we dined on salmon on a bed of hoisin noodles and tomorrow we will stay here for more culture and fresh food shopping. 

Almost a bridge too low

Last night we pored over the charts and the weather forecasts to make a rough plan for the remaining 9 days before we are due at the boat's winter quarters. The policy now is to get south to within striking distance of Fehmarn in case of sustained foul weather. There are plenty of islands to visit south of Fyn.

There was fair weather today, NW F4-5, that's roughly behind us, therefore we have come south to Nyborg because it's a convenient stopover en route to Svendborg at the south end of Fyn. Nyborg does not feel as well to do as our previous ports, certainly in terms of the marina. It is one of the 'ferry towns' that wad blighted when they built the motorway bridges between the islands at the end of the 20th century. It has history though, being the ancient seat of the Danish parliament. 

The high point of today's 3 hour sail, or rather the low point was passing under one of these road & rail bridges. The top of our mast with aerials and wind vane is, according to Nic's calculations, 15 metres. The chart states the bridge has 18m at the centre of the arch, 16m by the pillars. The sea level can change by 1m depending on the weather and we were in 1m waves. So we head for the centre of the span, rolling along at 4kn with the wind behind us and the engine on in idle just in case. The pics don't do it justice of course and bridges always look close when you look up even if they are 40m ... but this must have been close, less than 10 feet to spare. Of course we could have taken a 7 mile detour to go under a different section thar has 65m clearance, but where's the fun in that? The sequence of pics could be entitled: thar she blows (with a coach for scale); oh ... really?!; AARGH; Nic smiles on the other side.

Danish Navy day

Everyone loves a military band and today we were lucky enough to see a band playing as a modest Danish Navy ship entered the small port of Kerteminde for a celebration of its 75 years as a naval Base.  A snide German sailor watching sniggered to us 'that's the whole Danish Navy!' Uncalled for, from an old enemy. 

There were ranks of old sailors with white beards, sporting blazers and medals, (see pics) and an official lunch later (we saw them tucking in through restaurant windows) The ship put out its flags (dressed overall) but there was a hitch in the proceedings when they couldn't make the gangplank work.  

The rest of our morning was spent at the museum and studio of local artist couple Johannes Larsen who was known for his delicate bird and nature paintings and Alhed Larsen who painted flowers. It is a delightful house and studio (see pics) with tantalising views of the dark blue sea, set in lush gardens full of geese, ducks and chickens. 

Back to the boat for our cheap in-house lunch (2 drinks and a small pastry at the museum had cost £12!) And then it was time to get out the charts and pilot books to decide the course of the rest of the journey before we take the boat to her winter home in Fehmarn. We mapped out a southerly route taking in the most interesting ports. All very soothing to have some idea where to go next.

Then it was time for jobs. Dull stuff today like washing clothes,  filling the water tank,  repairing a sail cover...you get the idea. Dinner was breaded fish bought at the supermarket which Nic put in the microwave. Alas the fish exploded and decorated the inside of the microwave in an artistic fashion.

We ate the fish anyway. Boat rules. Never waste food.

Phwoaargh worra sail

Please forgive the robust subject line - it was a v good sailing day. The Baltic delivers again. We are working our way around the island of Fyn and last night positioned ourselves for the expected wind and it worked. A steady F5 Westerly and we had 6 hours sailing with the wind on the quarter and then the beam to take us across the top of Fyn and down its east coast to Kerteminde. 

In the biggest gusts we saw 8.1knots SOG (speed over ground) on our GPS plotter. The maximum hull speed of our boat, even assuming the heeling over increases our waterline from 27' to 30', is 7.3kn so we must have had a 1kn current with us too. No tides in the Baltic but there are currents which flow roughly with the wind.

We threaded two narrow channels between Fyn and smaller islands, crossed a narrow shipping channel that leads via a canal to Odense (the main town/city on Fyn) without any ships in the way, saw a few yachts but not many. The open sea had decent waves by Baltic standards but nothing compared to the Channel in this wind. What a joy. No pics though cos it just doesn't transmit the joy. There is a random pic of people sailing at sundown from a couple of days ago.

We've had enough of canals and commercial ports which is why we skipped Odense. 

The last few miles across the bay to Kerteminde were dead upwind, and rather than beat ourselves to death tacking in we put the motor on and dropped the sails. Quit while we're ahead seemed a good plan. 

Now we are nursing our aching shoulders and arms (heavy weather helming syndrome) and cooking dinner in our berth in the large marina (pic - note the German flags which are very common). There seems to be some issue about this berth being for charter yachts, however it had a green available sign (rather than red reserved) which is the system in the Baltic ... so there.