Our position is 56:25.604N 12:37.476E

Distance covered 39.2 Nm

We aimed at an early start to make the most of the day so we were leaving the harbour at 7.30am in bright sunshine and a steady 16kn North Westerly. Our intended destination was Helsingor, on the Danish side of the Oresund, but it was only 8Nm away and the sailing was so pleasant, in spite of the large amount of big ships squeezing through the narrow gap between Denmark and Sweden, that we decided to forego the pleasure of Hamlet’s castle and head further North.

  Leaving the harbour at Ven bright and early

    Lots of shipping of all sizes, closer than we usually expect

  What we missed – the town of Helsingor

   and Hamlet’s castle (Elsinore)

The downside of this was that, once round the headland, we were constrained from heading straight to Kullen Point by the traffic separation area and the fact that it was directly upwind, so we motored along the coast until we were clear of the TSS and able to sail, close hauled, to the point. This wasn’t as nice as the earlier sailing by quite a long way. The wind strengthened, the sea was much rougher, and there was an adverse current along the coast which prolonged the 5Nm motor by some time. Also it became much cloudier and therefore colder. The autohelm was struggling to cope with the motion and therefore we had to hand steer all the way as well. We’ve changed destinations before and it rarely works out well!

  Relief at rounding Kullen Point and able to pass control back to the autohelm, but it was cold in spite of all the clothes

Once round Kullen point we could free off for our new target, Torekov. It was still windy and the approach was very rolly, with shallow water around the channel into the harbour, but once behind the wall it was quiet enough to rig warps and fenders as we followed the signs to the guest harbour with alongside moorings right on the inside.

A first pass showed no obvious opportunities and we were turning round, planning to raft against one of the boats already there when the harbourmaster appeared and started moving motor boats around to generate a big enough space tight in the corner. We were already aware of the requirement to tie up pointing in the direction indicated by signs, but after helping us tie up the harbourmaster dashed off to ensure that another boat (tied facing inwards not outwards) was turned round. Apparently this is to ensure that the evacuation plan in case of fire can be followed correctly! The depth was adequate, but by no means excessive in our corner and during our stay the level went down to only 0.1m under the keel. A larger boat, coming in the next day, ran aground before reaching the wall. We were very snug and handily placed for the facilities, the recycling and rubbish disposal and electricity and water points. Being close to the restaurants and bars over a public holiday meant the quay was very busy and noisy in the evenings though.

    Tucked into the corner

  This guy was trying to leave and got well and truly stuck in his box. We assumed it was because the water level had dropped and the poles were less springy lower down not that he’d eaten too much and got fatter. The crew eventually managed to lean on the poles enough to get out but there were some nasty scraping noises.

The next day was calmer and sunnier. We walked into town and went to the handy supermarket to replenish our supplies, which had nearly run out. We also took advantage of the laundry, which was slightly problematic as one of the machines couldn’t be made to work and so we were still doing it when the door codes clicked over for another day, which decided whether we left or not! In any case a lady I met in in the showers had volunteered her Norwegian husband to come and tell us about the good places round the Norwegian coast, but after 4pm as they were going over to the small offshore nature reserve island. We had contemplated taking a ferry over there as it was unclear where anchoring was allowed, but the ferries were not running on Fridays, so we missed out.

There was a church on this site but the walls are a reconstruction to show where walls once stood; the tree is really an overgrown bush but very, very old

  This skipper looked a little wooden!

Ole came over in the early evening and provided an abundance of information about routes, currents, harbours and the cheapest place to buy beer (Denmark). We were very grateful for his help.