53:56.60N

10:52.55E

30 June 2012  - Potenitzer Wiek, Trave river

At anchor in this rural idyll, just yards from the ferry port of Travemunde.. There is a cuckoo, and the sun is just starting to fade.

Yesterday evening I succumbed to the cold weather; bought some dried peas; and soaked a cupful overnight.  I cooked a big stockpot of soup, using the green stalks of the leeks and the celery heads rather than throw them out.  To reward me, the sun has shone, bright and hot all day.  “Proper” soup should have been on the menu earlier, rather than the flimsy packet of consommé we had last week, with its multi-coloured dumplings of uncertain provenance and content.

It’s taken all day to sail from Heilingenhafen.  After 3 days next to German neighbours and ‘nary a word, they suddenly started talking as we were about to leave – in excellent English!  Then, through the Fehmarn bridge on a close reach at 7knots (just as well there was just enough headroom – there would have been damage if the height datum had been wrong;) and then a beat down the Mecklenburger Bucht.  It seemed strange to think that only 20 years ago this was the cold war frontier between E and W Germany, and policed accordingly.  The wind dropped progressively, and we ended up motoring into travelmunde.

The pilot books indicated a greater level of freedom for anchoring than the charts that we bought in Laboe.  The excellent dictionary was found to have limitations – it does not cope with specialised technical chart-speak!  Roger (quite properly) is nervous about transgressing rules.  The Dassower See, which the older pilot also identified as an anchorage, is now verboten as a nature reserve.  Another anchorage further upriver had been identified.  But there were 6 boats at anchor here as we came through (although none in the official roads) so we decided to peel off.  So, here at anchor in 7m, relying on safety in numbers and the fact that tomorrow is Sunday.

I’d like to go to moor in the centre of Lubeck: but if not there’s always the train from Travemunde.

Hey!  It’s raining again!