The start of the adventure

Moondog
Brian Whitefoot
Thu 27 May 2010 19:49
Our first trip ! We cast off from Neustadt in rather weak winds for Burgtiefe ( 54:25.3N, 11:11.4E ), a marina on the south coast of the island of Fehman, about 30 miles north of Neustadt. We had suffered problems with the VHF radio, and decided to make the trip with only a hand held VHF, with a rendezvous with an electronics engineer in Burgtief to fit a replacement radio. This being the Baltic, we were also in mobile phone range for the whole trip, so not much of a risk....and at least we were sailing !
 
Everything went fine on this first 'proper' trip, and we certainly gave tghe engine a good test as the winds died and we motored much of the trip. However, the compensdation was that we had the best sunshine yet in the German Baltic, so spirts were high.
 
Burgtief is the first marina I have been to with a roundabout of moorings, but despite this twist we managed a reasonably incident free arrival in the dreaded mooring box, next door to another Brit, so the red ensign was well represented ! Plenty of boatie talk and visits to each other's boats, and a nice sense of achievement that we had made the first trip in Moondog.
 
The radio man duely arrived and worked his magic, amidst a mass of wiring, and after installing a brand new radio we finally had full VHF operation....although it is all in German so is of little use. More importantly ( apart of course from our ability to make a call for help) was that the AIS now works and we now know what the big ships are doing ( I will not bore the non boaties with a fuller description of this wizardry...yet..)
 
To end the day we cooked dinner ( soley because we could not find a restaraunt open) and thus confirmed that all the cooking things worked ! All in all a good day, and 30 miles on the log.
 
 

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