Closer and closer
Our position is 54:34.807N 11:55.392E Distance covered 119.9 Nm With the wind in the east we needed to keep pushing on so planned a 24 hour sail to Gedser before the final leg to Fehmarn. Again the forecast was for the wind to go round to the west for Friday so it made sense to cover as much ground as possible.
The wind was light and the morning warm as we waved goodbye to lovely Svaneke and motor sailed south down the coast of Bornholm in a south easterly. Later in the day the wind strengthened and we were able to broad reach in sunshine, although the visibility was hazy. As we skirted a wind farm under construction a yacht was hailed by one of the guard boats. Being unsure who they were calling, we responded, but according to our charts we were not inside any prohibited areas. They also seemed unsure and there was another yacht in the vicinity but further north, who wasn’t responding to the radio. As a lot of local boats seem to sail in the Baltic without VHF it was probable he hadn’t heard the call. My belief was they were the ones that were too close, although later it became more confused as none of the marks were actually in their charted positions.
That was soon all behind us and we were closing on a traffic separation area and the deep water channel, which always concentrates the shipping so there was plenty to keep us occupied.
As we closed on the Gedser approaches the wind went into the west and blew up and several pilot boats were coming and going from their base there. We were pleased to be tied up alongside in the harbour in time for breakfast.
We sat out the wind the next day and took the opportunity to go further away from the harbour than we had been on any of the previous occasions we had stopped off in Gedser.
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