The two weeks in Denmark together with the girls are delicious. We sail around the large island of Seeland, with Copenhagen as our final destination. Denmark surprises us positively and surpasses our verwachting👍👍. From an earlier visit to the Kleine Belt in 2012 we had written off Denmark as a holiday country 😉. Not because of the sailing, which is top in the Baltic Sea, but because of the dullness on land. We experience that this holiday is very different. The smaller islands are very nice for walking and especially for cycling. We make a lot of use of our fine Brompton's! The villages have cozy harbors, the visiting boats are mainly Danish. Also some Germans, a few Swedes but few Dutch. That must have something to do with corona, but it gives more of a Danish atmosphere. The town of Helsingør has a beautiful wooded area and Copenhagen is a beautiful city with lots of green, beautiful colored houses and a relaxed atmosphere. We hardly notice anything of corona, except that it might be a bit quieter. The Danes are very relaxed about it and nowhere do we see mouth caps. The people are friendly, the supermarkets are well stocked with healthy and organic products and in the restaurants where we ate it was really excellent food ... 'star quality' 😋.
While we're enjoying our holiday to the fullest we're also in a kind of 'no man's land'. Due to the sale of our house for which a bidding process starts from the first day which unfortunately is broken down by the other party on the last day of these two weeks. Because of the unknown period after this with the rebuilding of the boat at the shipyard in Sweden and what are we going to do in that period? Stay there or go home? The first days at Marinthe due to the abrupt transition of weeks very hard work and get much appreciation and now suddenly come to a standstill and then an unknown and still hard to imagine period on rooms in Maastricht with uncertainty about the introduction because of corona. Actually only Eline's situation is stable and well known ☺️.
The distances we sail are short for us without having to sail nights and the pressure of having to get back to Bruinisse in time. The weather is fantastic with lots of sunshine and a nice temperature, between 20 and 25C. The SeaQuest is on the 'summer'-stand with the cap down and the bimini on. I read many beautiful books (Black barn - Oek de Jong, Without audience - Marjolein Beumer, Viktor - Judith Fanto and Op het genius af - Benedict Wells). Every evening we play a card game (alternating heart hunting, canasta and farmer's bridge) and sometimes settlers of Catan. Next to nice little harbours we regularly anchor at a nice spot and we use Joe Jr a lot so we always have delicious food on the boat (with meat and fish from the Sligro from Tilburg 😃). When it comes to food we have never had it so good in a summer holiday 😊👍.
All in all a very nice holiday which we all look back on with a lot of pleasure.
Places to stay:
Port:11
Anchor: 5
The day-to-day report...
After some delay the girls arrive in the beginning of the evening at the station of Warnemünde, right next to the little ferry with which we have to go to the marina. Very nice to have them back on board 😊. For the occasion we have a nice dinner at the steakhouse in the marina and chat about their experiences of the past week.
There's a stormy breeze, so we stay another day. Then the girls can recover from the long train journey. With Marinthe I go shopping. She buys a nice watch. In Germany in the meantime mouth caps are mandatory in shops, that is for me for the first time 😷. With Eline I walk in stormy wind to the seal shelter in the harbour, but it is fully booked. In the evening we have dinner in the fish restaurant in the marina.
What round are we gonna do? Via northern Germany, Bornholm and southern Sweden or in Denmark around the island of Zealand on which Copenhagen is situated? Democratically decide for the latter. That's less sailing in shelter water and shorter because we can stop in Copenhagen and from there take the girls by car and ferry back to the train in Rostock. We make full use of René's informative Sailing Guide Vleut👍.
In the morning Toine and I go shopping by bike at a large supermarket a bit further down the road. At the end of the morning the wind has dropped to bft 4-5 and we sail out after having refueled for a while. The 45 nm to Hesnæs in Denmark is on the wind at 60 degrees, in the beginning relaxed sailing and later spicy with bft 5-6 and some seaway.
Hesnæs is a small harbour in a wooded area with only a few cottages and nothing else nearby. There is a well sheltered anchorage just outside the harbour. With the dinghy we take a look in the harbour after dinner. Luckily we are not lying here because it smells like rotten seaweed or something.
It is 35 nm sailing to Femø, a nice island in the Smålands waterways. With a slight headwind we sail on the engine, under two high bridges, with some other boats around us. Femø is also a small harbour and there is no more room for us at the end of the afternoon. But with this calm wind we can anchor next to the harbour entrance and that is so nice. We drink the bottle of rosé we got from the Nelson and eat delicious Canadian beef and hot chocolate cakes from Joe Jr. It is a nice quiet evening with an almost full moon in a clear starry sky.
The next morning at 10 o'clock we enter the harbour and then there is room for us, all the way in the corner, because a lot of boats have already sailed out. We make a cycling tour all over the island, up and down hills with lots of grain fields and beautiful yellow and white coloured houses. We ride on our own bikes and the girls on rented bikes. We end with a lunch in the sunshine with fries 😉 and some Danish specialties, such as herring.
When we get back to the boat we are completely built up with boats around us and there are a lot of people standing on the shore at the drinks stand next to our boat. There's also a band playing some old men not too nice music 😅. The music from the box near our boat in the breaks is more our genre, just a bit loud. Eline and I go to the beach next to the harbour and Toine and Marinthe watch the qualification of the F1 in the crowds and the noise around them. Normally this weekend would be the annual jazz festival on the lawn a little further we hear from the neighbors, but that will not happen because of corona. Apparently this is a reaction of a group of Danes to corona, who don't follow the corona rules at all, hoisting themselves full of wine and beer with loud music. How long will this take? Luckily the beer tent closes between 18 and 19 hours, the terrain is empty again and everyone leaves with the ferry (including the one with the music box). The peace and quiet has returned 😃.
We sail 6 nm to the next island Vejrø. A private island with a fine marina and a lovely restaurant where they only use products from the island itself. Eline and I take a nice 1.5 hour walk around the whole island and eat a lot of ripe blackberries picked by us 😋. We also pass by the airport and the greenhouses where the products are grown. We end up on the beach near the marina and even take a dip in the cold water. Toine and Marinthe watch the F1 which, especially at the end, absurdly leads to a nice 2nd place for Max. In the evening we go out for dinner, star quality, with a nice young Danish waiter who explains the island to us. The owner is a Danish banker who invests money (1.5 million?) annually, and aims to run a small hotel, restaurant and marina in a climate-neutral way, using local products. Really nice ambience and delicious food with tasty wines, like the sweet cherry wine with dessert 👍.
We sail 50 nm through the big Belt to Korshavn. On the engine with very light headwind, again under a big bridge. Just before the bridge two fighter jets fly very low stunting over us, what a spectacle.
While sailing we get an offer on our last open marketplace advertisement (leather Rolf Benz chair) and through Dennis we arrange that the buyers can pick up the chair immediately 😀.
Korshavn is a large sheltered anchor bay in the middle of nature. We eat delicious salmon on a wooden board of Joe Jr with marshmallows. After dinner we row to the shore and make a nice walk in the sun to the 25m high cliffs of Fyns Hoved.
We take it easy and let the girls sleep it off. The 15 nm to Samsø is wonderful sailing with half wind bft 3. The marina in the village of Ballen is a nice full harbour, a bit like Vlieland in the summer. We are the third one next to a nice German couple with a Contest 43 from Hindeloopen. Next to us are three more boats with right next to us the Water Queen with a young Danish couple we had seen and talked to on Femø and Vejro. Again we eat delicious from Joe Jr. This time lamb filet with broccoli and mushrooms. As always we end the evening with a game of cards and this time also with Settlers of Catan.
We'll stay on Samsø for a day. In the morning there is first some rain and stronger wind. When it is dry we get on our bicycles for a trip of over 20 km up and down the hill to the lighthouse on the southern tip. On the way there against the wind and on the way back we are lucky to have wind with us. Except for Toine who gets a flat tire 1 km before the lighthouse 😥. Now the road with big sharp stones was a bit too much for our Brompton's as well. We walk a bit to the main road and there we call a taxi to get Toine. The girls and I cycle on to the lighthouse. There we can enter the lighthouse with a nice view. Once back we feel the legs. On the advice of our German neighbours we have dinner at a restaurant with a 3-course choice menu only in Danish. Again it is very good food.
We leave 8.00 am with many other boats and sail 60 nm to Gillejeje. Through the shallow area of the Sjællands Rev along the north side of Zealand. It is wonderful sailing, half wind bft 2-4, with three hours in the middle of the trip on the engine with too little wind. We sail the whole time at the same time as the Water Queen (that is a fast slim 43 ft boat). When the wind blows a bit harder we sail them out, when it blows below 10 knots they overtake us again. At Gillejeje too, a bit in front of the harbour entrance is a nice anchorage under a high steep wall. Then our choice is quickly made, we drop anchor and say goodbye to the Water Queen. Again we eat Joe Jr's hamburger with marshmallows. From the anchorage we have a view of the west coast of Sweden.
We continue a bit further, 12 nm to Helsingør on the north-eastern tip of Zealand with from there the shortest distance to Sweden without bridge and many ferries. Helsingør has a large marina with a view of the castle and a beach right next to it. After a nice lunch on the boat we go to see the castle. What a beautiful location, with a view of Sweden and the many ferries and sailboats that sail on this narrow stretch of water. We walk around the castle, inside and outside, with a performance here and there by actors performing something of Hamlet. At the end of the afternoon Toine has a call for work and the girls and I go to the beach. Lovely to cool off in the water. I even fall asleep ☺️. Until long in the evening we sit outside playing canasta.
We stay a day in Elsinore. Now at the weekend it's too busy on our next stop. I go shopping on my bike and turn four washing machines. With this warm weather and the wind the laundry is so dry 😃. The girls go to the beach. In the afternoon Toine and I make a nice bike ride of 25 km through a beautiful beech forest and along the coast.
Through Airbnb, Toine found a beautiful holiday home in Sweden close to the shipyard with a beautiful view of the water. Probably a great place to live and work for a couple of weeks. At first it was not possible, because everything was already closed for the season. But when we explained our situation it was still possible. We fixed the rent from Aug 17 to Sept 21 😃. We eat again delicious from Joe Jr. This time duck marinated with Chinese 5-spices. Mmmm. A lovely day like this!
On Sunday we go a bit further to the Swedish island Ven which is situated in the middle of the Sont. The small harbour is crowded but south of it is a large anchor bay where it is fine with this wind. Many other boats think the same. It is warm and we plunge into the water to cool off. Thanks to the good 4G antenna that Toine installed last winter, we can easily watch the F1 while we have a very thin connection on our phones. Nice race with a surprising first place for Max 👍. At the end of the afternoon almost all boats leave for their homeport, fixed for a new working week. We stay with three other boats and eat another time the delicious Canadian beef of Joe Jr with hot chocolate tarts 😊.
We take it easy and at the beginning of the afternoon we sail the last part with the girls 12 nm from Ven to Copenhagen. On the engine because there is not enough wind. Toine goes back to work this last week and is regularly in calls. Luckily that can be done remotely with the good wifi on board. We find a beautiful spot through the bridge in the narrow Cristianshavn. Between old colored houses and with many tour boats and small boats enjoying the beautiful weather with drinks and food passing by. Cristiania used to be a hippie neighborhood and is still a free state where weed can legally be sold and where many eccentrically dressed people walk around. So we have a lot to see from our private 'terrace'. We eat super good sushi in a sushi tent a bit further down the road. Until late in the evening there are people sitting on benches next to our boat. A cozy place in this beautiful weather.
We explore Copenhagen by bike. It is a cycling city par excellence with beautiful wide cycle paths everywhere. In the morning Toine has some calls and the girls and I go shopping. During lunch in Nyhavn Toine connects again. Afterwards we cycle to the mermaid on the boulder. We had sailed past her when we entered, but she is very small and looks at the city. Via a detour through beautiful neighbourhoods and along a large park we are back at the boat. In the afternoon we continue our exploration of the city with the dinghy. Behind all the other boats we make a trip of an hour through the canals while enjoying some wine, bread and cheese. All the quays are full of young people sunbathing and swimming. Nice to see the city from the water as well!
The last day with the girls is coming up. We drive with a rented car via Møns Klint to the ferry in Gedser. Møns Klint is a national park with high steep limestone cliffs and a beech forest on the island of Møns. An excellent stop halfway. We make a nice and varied hike, first along the edge of the cliffs through the dense forest. Then 495 steps down and back along the beach under the cliffs. Finally 495 steps up again. Super fun!
First we had the idea to take the ferry to Rostock with the girls and in the evening the two of us back again. But that is a lot of travelling and then we have to hurry. We take it easy at Møns Klint also because of calls from Toine and then we drive on to Gedser with the idea that the girls take the 18 hour boat. When we arrive in Gedser at 15.45 it turns out that the ferry of 15.30 is still there. We buy tickets and the girls can join us just as they are running. One minute later the pedestrian bridge is disconnected. That's a bit of a quick and abrupt farewell, but that's a good thing, because there's not much to do in Gedser. A new phase without the girls starts 😢. Who knows when we will see each other again. That could be 5 weeks from now. They sail to Rostock when we drive back to Copenhagen. After Toine has handed in the car we have a nice dinner at the Italian tent with a view on our boat. Again we have a delicious dinner with nice wine, outside at a small table, with two nice Danish men next to us where we have a nice conversation. Copenhagen is a really nice city and not crowded at all. But that is because of corona we hear from the Danish men. Without corona the city would overflow with tourists. Just like in the spring in Rome we are lucky again thanks to corona. How privileged we feel 😊😊.
The girls had a great night in a hotel in Rostock and are now on the train on their way home. We left for Sweden early this morning. On our way to a new adventure!