Can't stay too long in any one country
Our position is 54:45.129N 10:40.384E Distance covered 25Nm The strong winds had abated as forecast by Thursday, but now there was not much wind at all, and the forecast was for thunderstorms, so we decided to head north for the island of Langeland in Denmark in the hopes of avoiding them and to allow us to use our time seeing more places. It was a very uneventful sail. We left before the Kiel Week boats came out to play – maybe postponed in the hopes of more wind later – and we had to motor sail in order to make progress, making sure to use our motoring cone to show the world that we had our engine going and avoid fines from the German authorities.
We arrived at Bagenkop in time for a late lunch and had our pick of empty boxes, although quite a few boats came in later. The pilot book had described it as a “passage harbour” so it was not a surprise that there didn’t seem to be many permanent residents there, although the adjoining fishing harbour was a hive of activity.
At this point I will add some explanation of “box mooring”. As you can see from the picture above, boats are secured by stern warps to the posts behind and two bow warps to the quay. The technique is to motor gently between the poles , hoping they’re far enough apart for the beam of your boat while the crew attempts to lasso the windward one as you go by. At this point fenders are attached but lying on the side deck as the aim is to be as thin as possible between the posts. However as more often than not there are boats to either side waiting to be blown into, as soon as the boat is through the posts the crew has to kick the fenders over while moving smartly to the bow in order to jump onto the quay with the bow warps. The skipper in the meantime only has to motor gently in and deal with getting the other stern warp over a pole and paying both stern warps out while motoring forward, or not if the boat is already being blown forward! Scandinavian boats often have open fronted pulpits to make getting ashore easier but Moorglade doesn’t. The only good thing is that the quays are usually quite high so it’s just a question of not falling down the gap. A passing Norwegian, engaged us in conversation before we had finished mooring up. He was taking a small motor boat to Italy. He said he had previously been in Greece for 6 years but had had to go home (with his boat) so now was returning to the Mediterranean. We thought he must be on his own as the boat didn’t seem big enough for more than one and I guess he could pursue his plan of going through Holland, Belgium and France on the canals in easy enough stages to manage alone. He certainly seemed to prefer the Southern climate to that of Norway! We registered and paid for our berth at an automatic machine – slightly confusing, but the Danes are more prepared than other nations to pander to those of us who only speak English, so there were some comprehensible instructions. Then we had time to explore the small town. It was unbelievably deserted – like a ghost town – although there was evidence of habitation at what appeared to holiday chalets and there was a solitary man tending his allotment. The attractive church was sufficiently open to allow us to see the interesting interior, and there was an information board with an English option. It is shameful how lost we seem to be as soon as we are faced with a foreign language.
Back at the boat we climbed a small tower that looked like it should have been a lighthouse but didn’t have a light in it. It did, however, provide a wonderful view over the harbour.
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