CLOCKWISE AROUND DENMARK, AERO AT 54.5N 10.2E
Restless of Auckland
Roland and Consie Lennox-King
Mon 22 Sep 2008 13:14
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11 September we left the marina at Copenhagen, continuing
with our plan to sail around Denmark for the last month of our time
aboard for 2008. We had a couple of possibilities for the storage of
Restless, the limitation being our size and weight, as we have found that
we are a bit oversized for many Scandinavian yards. We were lucky to find a good
yard, not far from Copenhagen, and will be returning there at the end of
September.
The temperatures were steadily dropping and we had a
series of gales, just to remind us that autumn was on its way, as we sailed
south in the Baltic. Luckily our "skinny " draught allowed us to pass
through a passage to the north of Nyord and Mon islands,Good weather
allowed us to anchor off Omo island, which we walked around, complete
with all the earthy smells as the whole area was being ploughed prior to
winter. On the 14th we sailed to Thuro island, near Svendborg, a
convenient town for our friend Keir to join us from Scotland, there is a train
service from Copenhagen. We walked around Svendborg, a lovely ancient town, with
cobbled streets and crooked buildings, and a fish market on the dock, where we
bought smoked salmon and pickled shellfish. Whilst Denmark is flat it
does have a little elevation which makes the landscape interesting. There are
numerous anchorages, but often miles form anything. I think we have seen more
German boats than Danish, but Germany is only some 20 miles from this
area.
On our way south to Aero Island we saw the 80 m. Royal
Yacht, Dannebrog. We arrived longside just in time to watch Queen Margrethe
II and Prince Henrik come aboard on their pinnace, with all the
bunting, royal pennant, and about 25 crew standing to attention.
We walked many miles on Aero island over the next
couple of days. We walked the fairytale cobbled streets of Aeroskobing, and
the towns of Marstal and Ommel, with their thatched houses, even the new
buildings seemed to be a hundred years old. This island has a fantastic maritime
museum, with hundreds of ship models, boats in bottles, paintings of ships and
memorabilia brought back by sailors over the past hundreds of years. In the days
of the sailing ships there were often 200 ships tied up in Marstal
harbour. By chance there had been a tall ships regatta the weekend before
and we saw a few still around the area, all in beautiful
condition.
When we left Aero we sailed north to some quiet anchorages
on the Jutland shore. It was interesting to walk ashore,
along country roads with unfenced paddocks and huge, beautifully
ploughed fields. The famers' barns are huge and all beautifully kept with
several tractors and farm equipment all lined up inside. All very capital
intensive.
A good beat in beautiful sunshine bought us up to the
narrowest point between Fyn and Jutland where we waved goodbye to Keir at
Middelfart, for another direct train journey to Copenhagen airport.
We now have some ten days to make our way around the north of
Zealand to Copenhagen, where we will leave Restless in early October, to return
to New Zealand. We have loved our time in Denmark and met many wonderful
people, but have been very surprised at how few British yachts we have seen
over the whole summer in Scandinavia.
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