Things that go bump in the night

Cefnforhud
Sarah and Graham
Fri 24 Jul 2015 09:23
54 25N 11 12E  Burgstaaken
 
If you are wondering why we are in Germany............. About 2am Thursday morning we hit something, just north of the shipping lane off the southern end of Lolland; had just changed watch and I was below changing out of deck gear when there was a loud thud from port bow that shook the boat and veered us to starboard, conditions were very light wind and flat sea so we were only doing about 3k.Went on deck immediately, Graham had seen nothing and we both scoured the sea for debris but nothing. He went below and unloaded all the forward lockers to look for water but thankfully nothing. We made the liferaft ready just in case and called the coastguard; got a Danish one who advised nearest port with a slip was Burgstaaken which was about 18 miles away so we made our way here. Once moored Graham had his scuba gear on so he could take a look at the hull and again thankfully couldnt see any damage. We were however a bit worried so made arrangements to be pulled out so we could take a proper look. Cefi came out yesterday afternoon and all we could see were a couple of places on the port side well below the waterline where the slime had been disturbed. The marina folk reckon it was probably a seal or other mammel rather than flotsam or we would have seen something, at 2am it was half light and clear sky and anything like a container or a tree etc would have left its mark. They pressure hosed the hull and no damage to be seen, how lucky were we. Had a fresh coat of antifoul applied, we werent allowed to do it ourselves , no DIY here, and had to wait till this morning to get the boat launched so spent the night in a hotel, the Schutzenhof and apparently lucky to get a room at short notice. Bit odd in a bed!! So after a hearty breakfast we have just wandered back to the marina to find Cefi re launched and on her berth and all for Euros 930 ouch! but at least we have a clean and sound hull.
 
Pondering whether to stay here for a few days or go on to Marstal but for now we are just thanking our lucky stars.
 
cefi AT mail DOT com