Our position is 54:34.811N 11:55.237E

Distance covered 47.1Nm

We had always planned to spend a few days at home during our time away, to catch up on a few things that had been left undone when we left. When we started considering when we could do this it became apparent that we would have to make use of the time before the CA rally, starting on the 5 July in Stralsund, and therefore we would need to find somewhere secure to leave the boat for 4-5 days. We took advice from the local CA HLR and she recommended a small yacht club on Danholm, a small island near Stralsund. In order to have the time we needed we would have to get there in two days so it was going to be a longish day going to Gedser, still in Denmark.

The weather was reasonable, although the wind was quite light, and the main interest on the passage were the big ships and the ferries running between Germany and Lolland in Denmark, and the seemingly endless wind farms. We had plenty of time to admire the application of technology and the patterns that the orderly rows made when viewed from different angles.

Big ships; the second of these seemed to have a wish to run us down as they changed course towards us when close after all the indications were that they would miss us nicely.

and ferries; can anybody tell me what a “hybrid” ferry is?

It’s really hard to photograph a whole wind farm and be able to see anything!

Eventually we were past the wind farms and motoring up the channel to the harbour. The ferries occupied the first harbour but just round the corner was the little marina. Again it was identified in the pilot as a “passage harbour” and there were very few permanent inhabitants. Unusually there was quite a long jetty that we could go alongside for a change.

Like Bagenkop, Gedser was a really smart, clean little harbour. Again we had to sign in via an automatic machine, although this time there was a helpful harbourmaster in the office as well, to explain how to get the card for the showers.  As we tied up there were a couple of girls shrimping off the harbour wall – not sure how much they were catching though. The high spot was brilliant free, fast wifi, which even reached to the outer reaches of the harbour, where we were. The next morning we were able to buy bread and Danish pastries from the bakery van at the end of the slipways and refuel at a self-service diesel pump.

The harbour at Gedser

Earlier in the week the autohelm had been flicked off its mounting by an errant mooring rope that had come off its post and initially it didn’t seem to be working at all, but when it recovered from its concussion, it worked but was a bit erratic. When we got to Gedser Ted performed a brain operation and restored the fluxgate to the correct position, a successful outcome.