Stage 7: Ebeltoft and back to the Store Baelt bridge

Friday 22 June
It was pouring with rain when Liz arrived and it continued pouring until well after lunch. When it finally cleared, it was a lovely warm, calm afternoon, so we went out for a few hours sailing. We sailed up the Aarhus Bugt bay and then down again - no particular destination in mind. We saw a few porpoises which took quite an interest in the boat, swimming close to us, coming up to breathe next to us so that we could see them underwater, for a few minutes before they disappeared. It was the best sighting we've ever had of porpoises.

The ugly power station in Aarhus Bugt, spoiling a beautiful bay

Saturday 23 June
We left early to sail to Ebeltoft, about 20 miles along the deeply indented coast. To start with, we were sailing quite close to the S wind, to clear one of the headlands, but as we rounded the shallows off it, we were able to bear away onto a nice reach towards the lighthouse and headland at Sletterhage. This is a bit where the deep water, over 50 m deep is only a few metres from the headland -the sea bed must be almost a cliff. Anyway, as we approached it, we saw a ferry (not a high speed one, this one was only doing 20 kts) was coming towards us on a collision course. I knew they would change course, because they were heading straight for the headland as well as straight for us, but it is still pretty unnerving! Eventually, they changed course and passed well clear of us, and we rounded the headland and passed into quite choppy water as we headed into the deep bay for Ebeltoft. We reefed the main sail and dropped the jib to run in, found the very inconspicuous buoys which mark the channel, and came into the harbour, in time for lunch. Ebeltoft is quite a nice basic Danish town, rather spoiled by tourism. It is a bit too obvious that its main income stream is from the influx of visitors in the school holidays, which are now about to start.

Sunday 24 June
It was forecast to rain, and rain it did, relentlessly and heavily, almost all day - starting at about 10 and stopping after 9 pm. We gave up on plans for a bike ride and spent the morning looking around Ebeltoft's main attraction, the frigate Jylland. It was built in 1857-62, mainly sail, but with a steam engine too. She has been beautifully restored, probably because she fired the winning shots in one of Denmark's rare victories against the Germans - the battle of Helgoland in one of the Schleswig-Holstein wars, which Denmark lost disastrously. The ship itself is fascinating, and the exhibition with it is excellent, with some translations of first hand accounts of the battle, various reconstructions, bits of history for those of us who do not remember much European history, and some fun simulations of firing a cannon.

The construction of the hull, seen from the hold.

One of the excellent exhibits in the museum

After doing a bit of shopping and getting very wet, we invited a British couple (Gavin and Terry) on another boat for tea, only to find that Terry had taught at the school that Liz and I spent most of our school days at. She was, of course, there well after our time, but she knew some of our teachers and was there when it closed down in the 1990's.

Monday 25 June
It only rained in torrential showers, rather than the steady rain of Sunday. However, with the showers were strong gusty squalls, so we took the wimps way out and went for a bike ride instead of a day-sail. We wanted to look at the Helgaenes peninsula, which has two historical interesting events associated with it.

In Viking times, the ships used to be dragged across the narrow neck of the isthmus, and in one of the Danish-Prussian wars, it was defended by the Danes against a hugely superior Prussian army to allow much of the Danish army to be evacuated - a Dunkirk sort of glorious defeat! The ride was along the coast but with a decent hill (probably the longest we've cycled up since we left the UK). The isthmus was grazing land with various lumps and bumps some of which were glacial, and some burial mounds and some ramparts from the defence. We got totally soaked in a heavy shower while working out what was what! Liz then cycled on to the southernmost point - Sletterhage, while we cycled back. We were invited for a drink with Gavin and terry, who lent us some very useful pilot guides to the southern Swedish area. Finally, I won the Scrabble game, which gave us one win each while Liz was with us - honour satisfied!

Tuesday 26 June

We saw Liz off on the airport bus, and then did the domestic jobs, because although the weather was brighter and even became sunny later on, the wind was still whistling through the marina. A bike ride through the nature reserve south of Ebeltoft and tea and cake with Terry and Gavin were about the only notable events of the day - a pleasant lazy day.

Wednesday 27 June
The wind was still howling in the morning - 25 kt gusts, but the forecast was for it to moderate by lunchtime, so we set off after an early lunch. Very soon the wind reduced to a nice F4 on the beam, and we had a lovely sail down to Samso. It was a great pity Liz could not stay a bit longer - she'd have loved this! We wanted to revisit one of our favourite anchoring sites at Langoer.

It is an almost enclosed shallow bay with narrow spits of sand on every side except the approach from the north, but then you turn around yet another spit of sand to find a bay sheltered from every direction. It is, not surprisingly, a nature reserve, but people seem to be able to anchor and pass through to a tiny marina. It was also used by the Vikings as a harbour, and they dug a canal right across the island of Samso at its narrowest point, so that they could escape either to the east or west. I think the Danish navy tried to reuse it (presumably much enlarged) in the Anglo-Danish war around 1800 for the same purpose. When we looked for it on a previous visit, there was a muddy ditch and an inconspicuous notice board explaining the history in Danish. Anyway, it is a magical spot to anchor, and we are here with half a dozen other boats (Danish, German and Swedish) who also appreciate the peace and ambience. We'd like to have a few days to wander with the canoe and explore in detail, but the weather does not look good for anchoring tomorrow night, so we'll have to be off in the morning.

Thursday 28 June
When at anchor, Alshira sings. She doesn't do it when moored in marinas, so I think it must be that she needs clear air to blow onto the shrouds for them to hum. Sometimes it is a single note, but often the harmonic changes, or another shroud joins in, and the singing becomes more complex. She sang all night, not loudly, and quite pleasantly! We set off in the morning with a satisfying sail off the anchor and out of the bay, but the wind was very light and in order to manage the very narrow channel between the sandbanks and islands, we had to motor. We emerged into the Store Baelt and tried to sail. At times we actually overtook the jellyfish, but after a couple of hours we had progressed about 2 miles, and we were actually going sideways - some current, we supposed - so we gave up and motored to Ballen, which is a small harbour further down the island of Samso. The afternoon was warm and sunny, so we read in the cockpit and relaxed. More - probably too much - wind is forecast for tomorrow, though, so we may be on bikes again.

Friday 29 June
We woke to heavy rain, which then became even heavier during the morning, with lightning and loud claps of thunder. We drank lots of coffee and read until it cleared. We could see the rainfall radar on the Danish met office site, and were able to predict quite accurately that it would clear just before lunchtime. So after lunch we rode our bikes across the island and wandered a bit to see what the middle of Samso is like. It is very agricultural with lots of fruit and veg being grown, with lots of stalls by the roadside selling strawberries and potatoes and other stuff. It is not as attractive as some of the other islands, like Aeroe or Langeland, but in good weather must be a lovely place for a children's holiday, with super sandy beaches, almost empty roads for bikes and so on. Very soon after we got back, we had another, brief but torrential, thunderstorm, and they continued on and off all evening. A lot of rain certainly fell today, as we could see in the fields when we were out on our bikes. However, tomorrow looks better, so we hope to move further south.

The sights of Samso - a traditional windmill and a rather nice jam factory

Saturday 30 June
It was a lovely morning - blue sky, blue sea, a little wind and everything was drying nicely after yesterday. An American, in a German boat with a German wife, was rafted to us, and was clearly very nervous about leaving the raft and clearing the boat in front. Everyone heard his plans and a lot of us tried to reassure him. In the end, a hefty push or two did the trick and he left, looking very relieved. He had been telling us what a nervous sailor his wife was - after that performance, I can see that she has some cause! We left straight after him and sailed south down the Store Baelt. It was an easy sail, with a rain squall at one point, but little else of note, except a couple of groups of porpoises. Eventually, as we tried to clear one of the headlands, the wind died almost completely. We tried the drifter, but we were hardly moving, and when we started going sideways towards the shallows, we gave up and motored the last 2 miles to the island of Musholm, where we had anchored a few weeks ago. It was warm, completely calm and sunny, with a few other boats already there. We read for a bit, but I got so hot that a swim seemed a good idea. The sea is still quite cold, but it was very pleasant - it's the first swim of the year for me.

A spectacular jellyfish, which I did not encounter in the water, I'm glad to say!

Stage 6: Store Baelt to Aarhus

Monday 11 June
It was cloudy to start with, but the wind was right down, so we left, as planned, at 8 am. The plan was to go under the Store Baelt bridge, and about 10 miles further to a small harbour at Mullerup on the island of Snaelland (the other side of the island on which Copenhagen is). We got the drifter up straight away and sailed happily on a calm sea with the clouds clearing to give us a fine sunny day.

The bridge is absolutely enormous. We went through the Eastern section with a height of 85m, and a traffic separation scheme under the main arch. Actually there was very little traffic, but we changed course a little to allow a ship to pass a bit further from us than it would have if we'd kept going. But by this time the wind was dying, so the engine came on to see us through the bridge. We tried to sail after that, but we were not really getting anywhere, so the last 5 miles were also under engine.

At this point we saw a tiny island on the chart with an anchorage in a sheltered bay, so we decided to try that - Musholm. It is gorgeous. No sound except for eider, gulls, terns... One or two other boats, but well spaced out. Blue sea, blue sky, green island... We can see the bridge over the island, and a couple of fish farms, and the coast of Snaelland, and a few small islands.

Tuesday 12 June
We took the inflatable canoe out to go over to the island. We landed closed to an old landing stage, and found a few notices, one of which was just decipherable in German and Danish, from which we gathered that the south side of the island was off limits during the birds breeding season, and we should not go closer than 150 m to the house and barn.

That left us a short walk on the east of the island over sea cabbage, and short grass. There were lots of birds, but they seemed more threatened by each other than us, although we did frighten an eider off her nest. The far side of the island had a sandy cliff, inhabited by sand martins.

We paddled back to Alshira and took a few photos with her on a calm blue sea.












In the afternoon, we sailed to Reesoe, all of 3 miles away. It was the first shorts and T shirt sailing we've done on this trip. Reesoe has a small fishing harbour, and a few pontoons for yachts - a good enough place to stop for a night.

Wednesday 13 June
The wind was from the west, but apart from that it was a perfect day to cross the Store Baelt to Kerteminde. We sailed in winds which started off around 5 kts and gradually increased during the day, until just before we got to port there were gusts of 22 kts. However, it was a lovely sail, with a few tacks, mainly to avoid two large ships in the deep water channel who seemed determined to share the same piece of water that we wanted to be in, but discretion is the better part of valour, and they were very big, so we took appropriate avoiding action.

Shortly after that excitement, a four masted, square rigged, Russian boat called Sedov passed, heading towards the bridge. She was motoring, but even then was a magnificent sight. Kerteminde has a huge marina, and we are moored next to a row of Hallberg Rassys, which seem to be charter boats.






Tomorrow, we will have a look at the town beyond the marina.

Thursday 14 June
The forecast for Saturday and Sunday is not very good, so we want to be somewhere we don't mind staying a few days. That meant either Kerteminde for 5 days, or moving on straight away. So we left without visiting the Viking longship nearby - another visit perhaps. We had a lovely sail up the east coast of Fyn, between the tiny wooded island of Romso and Fyn, to the headland at the north. At this point, the sea became quite rough as we threaded between the shallows and the headland.

Immediately the west side of that headland is a tiny almost enclosed bay, called Korshavn. It has a few swinging moorings, a small jetty with box moorings, and a reasonable space in which to anchor, so we anchored along with two German boats.







We found that Alshira, along with a German Bavaria, swung in the wind through about 100 degrees. We'd been irritated by this before - when she's at anchor where there's no tide, the wind blows her bows round, until she is stopped with a jerk by the anchor chain, and she swings back again.

I'd found the idea for a riding sail on the YBW forum, and had made one. This was its first outing, and it reduced the swinging to about 15 degrees.

The anchorage is lovely and quiet, with wooded slopes to the north, a few holiday homes to the east, and a long shallow nature reserve bay to the south, and a sandy spit to the west. There are no facilities on shore, except a toilet, so we trust we are not kept here by the weather deteriorating before we can get to the next stop 20 miles along the coast.




Friday 15 June
We woke up to a beautiful blue sky and peaceful bay, but no wind at all. We left early in order to beat the impending poor weather, but had to motor for the first hour or so. Then we got fed up with the drone of the engine, and drifted along at about 2 kts with the drifter and main goose winged. The wind strengthened a bit, but not much, and we continued ghosting along. We saw a seal and a couple of porpoises, and tried to make sense of the strange islands on the north coast of Funen. One, Aebeloe, is particularly odd. It has a well defined wooded main part, but is nearly connected to the main island by a long causeway and smaller lump - but only nearly connected - we learnt later than you can wade over to it at low tide (although we are unsure what tides mean here!). Eventually we got close to the buoy marking the northern end of the Aebeloe island and turned towards Bogense. The marina is large, friendly and laid-back. We moored next to a helpful man whose boat had no mast, and went to explore the town.

It is a small honest market town sort of place with some lovely old buildings. We were able to get bike maps from the tourist information office and charts for the eastern islands in Denmark and southern Sweden, which we'll need later on. Despite the forecast warnings of winds strengthening after midday, as I type this at 6pm, they are only now beginning to become significant - we needn't have hurried to beat them at all. We intend to stay a few days to allow the poor weather to pass, but we are keeping track of the changes in the forecast.

Saturday 16 June
The bad weather forecast for today never really arrived. It was cloudy at times, and there were some tiny showers, but most of the time there were sunny intervals and very moderate winds. Anyway, we had decided to stay put, so we had a quiet day in Bogense, shopping, seeing the sights of the town and then a bike ride in the country nearby. We passed a castle with a moat, a manor house with a magnificent huge half timbered barn, and a windmill right on the coast. The roads were almost empty and pleasant to cycle along. Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be even worse - we'll have to see what that means, but a much longer cycle ride is planned!

Sunday 17 June
The strong winds did arrive during the early morning and some pretty heavy showers, so we had a lazy morning reading and drinking lots of coffee. After lunch, we decided to try a bike ride despite the forecasts of more rain. It was delightful - farmland, woods, small cottages, almost empty roads.

In fact it was so pleasant, that we left our 25 km route about three quarters of the way through in order to join another 25 km route with about three quarters still to go. We started and ended up cycling along the coast with views across to Jutland in one direction and Aebeloe in the other. On the way back, in the town, we noticed that the water tower was open, so we paid 20 kr to go up to the top. The staircase was a trifle rickety in places, but the view from the top was worth the climb. There was an exhibition of watercolours and woodcuts at ground level. Most were of wildlife, and some were really good. The one we both liked best, a moorhen woodcut was, inevitably, already sold.

Monday 18 June
We saw the weather forecast that warned of high winds and rain in the early afternoon, but... When we left there was no wind and the sun was hot enough for us to wear shorts and tee shirts. We sailed very slowly towards Endelave, even debating whether to anchor instead beside Aebeloe - in view of the forecast, we should have got a move on and motored, but it was fine and calm and we were enjoying the peace. Eventually, the wind increased enough to allow us to sail in the right direction at a reasonable pace, but all too soon, it clouded over, and began to rain, and rain and torrent. The wind wasn't too strong, in fact, but the visibility was very poor. We were approaching Endelave by this time, and having difficulty spotting the buoys, but as we got closer in, it cleared enough for us to see the tiny harbour. Once in, we realised the mooring was to a single stern post, bows on to the pontoon. We made 3 attempts to get a line on the post, and when we finally managed it, it was too short, and Gordon had to let it go. We drifted sideways onto a German boat, whose skipper came out to help, while his wife had unhelpful hysterics! No harm was done and we ended up mooring alongside to the pontoon. It continued to rain, but not quite as hard for the rest of the afternoon, so we had no chance to see the island, but the washing machine was free, so we took full advantage.

Tuesday 19 June

It was a lovely morning, so we took an hour or so to wander round the village of Endelave. There isn't much to it, and we saw all of 3 bikes, 4 cars and a man on a lawn mower (remember that Good Life episode - yes, just like that!).







Then we moved on, to Tunoe - another tiny island. It was a lovely sail in a calm sea with a few twists and turns to keep clear of various shallow bits and to keep us awake.

We had been to Tunoe a few times when we were in Denmark 8 years ago, and remembered it for fresh veg and fruit being sold from a stall near the harbour (still there, we got potatoes and asparagus this time) and for children playing in the harbour (yes, they, or their younger siblings were playing and crabbing from the pontoons, still). It is a bit contrived, very much a holiday island, more so than most of the islands we've been on, but lovely nonetheless.

Wednesday 20 June
It was another fine day and Tunoe looked gorgeous in the sun, with a blue sea and green fields and trees, and the bright Danish houses. We left to sail up into Aarhus Bugt, so that we could head to Egaa on Thursday ready for Liz's arrival on Friday morning - there were a number of things we needed like another Danish SIM card for the iPad, more gas for cooking and some spares for the bike puncture kit. We sailed up in a lovely gentle wind past the next island, Samso, and turned into the large bay in which Aarhus is located. There are high speed ferries running from Aarhus to Zealand, and they kick up a very steep wash. The first one, which was the most distant, proved the worst. We actually turned away from the second, and crossed its track some time after it had passed and the wash was steep but quite manageable. The third passed only 0.7 miles behind us, and we only just felt the wash. We worked out, later, the best way to cope with them. We went into an almost completely enclosed circular bay (Knebel Vig) through a narrow buoyed entrance and picked up a mooring buoy set out for visitors. The bay is quiet and peaceful, surrounded by farmland and woods, the sea is blue and calm - another lovely place!

Thursday 21 June
We wanted to be in Egaa which is close to Aarhus in time to do a number of jobs before Liz arrived on Friday morning, so we sailed the short way across the bay in the morning. It was another lovely day - blue sky, blue sea and a gentle wind. We managed to sail off the mooring, and then sail through the very narrow entrance to the Knebel Vig bay. Once moored up in Egaa, we got the bikes out, did some shopping then ventured into Aarhus to get yet another SIM card, and some spares for the bikes - we have had more than our share of punctures and the puncture repair kit needed replenishing! It was quite a culture shock to be in a proper city, crowded with mainly young people on bikes or on foot, and it was a relief to get out along the shore bike path to Egaa again.

Aarhus, seen from the sea

Stage 5: Denmark islands to the Store Baelt bridge

Sunday 3 June
Sailing again. This time, we left Germany to venture into Denmark. We crossed the Lille Baelt to the island of Aeroe, spelt with just 3 Danish letters. Marstal, on Aeroe, is about 20 miles east of the lighthouse we rounded to get into the Flensburg fiord, and since the wind was in the west, we had a dead run most of the way, so on went the gybe-preventer, and although the waves made it rolly at times, it was a lovely sail. The route into the main harbour is along a narrow dredged channel, confusingly buoyed in the wrong direction. The harbour includes quite a big ship builders yard, with a floating dry dock containing at least two commercial ships and a lovingly restored large wooden sailing ship, the Bellavista, which people seemed to be able to wander on board.

The town is more like a Dutch than a German one - the houses are small and a bit twee, and jumbled along narrow streets. We arrived to find that the Aeroe harmonica festival was on, but actually just about to finish, and there was a bit of a holiday atmosphere and flags on the streets (which were rapidly taken down as soon as the festival finished). Not being a great fan of the harmonica, I was not too disturbed to miss the festivities, but Gordon was disappointed to just miss getting a photo of the dancing (well, two middle aged couples dancing!)

Monday 4 June
We met a couple sailing a Westerly, but who had been considering buying a Sirius, and came to ogle Alshira. They were from Harlesiel, John, an Englishman engineer and Gabriella, a German GP. We discussed routes out of the Frisian islands, and they recommended exiting from behind Wangerooge into the Jade, and if we were to attempt coming between islands, then not in more than F4, and near HW. They also recommended the museum in Marstal. They are bound for Limfjord, so we are likely to see them again. So we decided to stay an extra day in Marstal. It was quite cold and windy, so we didn't regret the decision.

The museum, dedicated to ship building, was really excellent. There were lots of model boats, lots of explanation (in English) of the different types of boat, lots of old photos and paintings, some reconstructions of sections of boats, workshops, houses and so on and hundreds of ships in bottles (which we passed over rather quickly!). There was also an exhibition of paintings by a Russian artist, whose name I've forgotten, several of which we'd loved to have bought if they'd cost less than a few thousand pounds.

Tuesday 5 June
We left Marstal to sail the ten miles to Aeroskobing further up the island, but because of the off-lying islands and shallow bits, you have to go quite a long way out into the reasonably sheltered area enclosed by the islands. It was as well that it was sheltered because the wind was a good F5 with a few squalls. We decided to look at one of the other island, Stryno, so went out of the direct route for a few miles. Once we joined the narrow buoyed channel over the shallowest section, the wind was on the nose and we motored for three quarters of an hour, before Gordon got bored with motoring and decided to sail. That was when we were directly between two islands, and we had a few very short tacks, with me poring over the chart plotter, before we were able to bear away and sail the last bit rather more freely.

Aeroskobing harbour was surprisingly empty, and when we ventured into town, it too was almost deserted. Even the supermarket was closed, but there we found the explanation - it is Constitution Day - presumably a bank holiday in Denmark. The town is lovely.

Narrow winding cobbled streets are lined with tiny houses all jumbled together, all fronting directly onto the street and all painted different colours and with tiled roofs.

The church had four votive model ships and a lovely carved and painted wooden pulpit.

The town is definitely the most interesting that we have visited so far, in a slightly twee style.











Wednesday 6 June
It was warm and sunny with a clear blue sky and light south wind - far too nice a day to go to a town, so we decided to spend another day on Aeroe, rather than go to Svendborg.

We got the bikes out and cycled along the long sandy spit to the north of the village, which is lined with colourful beach huts. Then we made our way along tiny country lanes to Bregninge, which is a village half way along the island with a church that we'd read about in one of the leaflets in the museum at Marstal. The church has a fine tower, all encased in scaffolding, but inside it is quite remarkable.

The vaults of the ceiling are all painted with stars, flowers and patterns. There are several murals, all 15th century, showing scenes from John the Baptist and Christ's lives, some obvious, some rather odd - eg some disembodied feet, with stigmata, disappearing behind a frill, leaving footprints, with stigmata, behind.

One showed someone, possibly John, being tortured by having a tourniquet tightened around his head, but the others were not gory. The drawing was good - they looked like real people, mainly.

The altar triptych was carved and painted in a very busy scene of the crucifixion with all sorts of other action taking place in front - people fighting, knights on horseback talking, soldiers supervising, children being shown off, and of course the two thieves being crucified upside down and various cherubs around Jesus and demons around the thieves. All of this, and a rather fine wooden pulpit and a couple of votive ships are in a tiny parish church on a remote Danish island, not even mentioned in the guide books!

Thursday 7 June
We needed to get into a reasonable sized Danish town to buy a SIM card, and restore communication with the world, so we set off for Svendborg. We left just as the ferry was arriving and several dozen German yachts left the main harbour - some sort of flotilla or race set-up. We got the drifter and full main up as soon as we could, and sailed almost as fast as the German yachts could motor until they diverged from our course to go towards Marstal, still motoring. We managed to sail the whole way, through a narrow buoyed channel, around the island opposite Svendborg, down the Sound, lined with trees and some rather nice exclusive properties, and under the bridge to the next island. Another British boat, Solara from Christchurch was coming out of the town as we approached it, and they stopped for a quick chat - the first British boat they'd seen for 3 weeks. We came round into the main harbour in Svendborg - a bit industrial, but good for our purposes.

We had a look at the town, which is quite nice with winding streets, jumbles of old and new building and a couple of helpful boys in mobile telephone shops. One sold me a SIM card which I had to cut to size myself - a rather nerve-racking experience, but it worked, and I'm now back in Internet contact.

Friday 8 June
Our pontoon in Svendborg was the most international we've seen for some time - usually, there have just been German boats everywhere, but as well as a few of them, there were Dutch, Danish, us and a Japanese boat which had sailed the Pacific and Atlantic with a truck to cross the US! They said they didn't like oceans, they preferred islands.

We left quite early, down the east end of the Sound, which meanders between wooded banks and islands.












It soon came on to rain, which was a pity, because it was a glorious sail and the view in every direction would have been good, if it had been clear enough to see it. The current through the sound was quite fierce - probably 3 kts in places, luckily in our favour. We then emerged into the channel between Fyn and Langeland, hardly able to see either and sailed up to the buoys off Lohals. You have to sail through a reef, helpfully buoyed in the wrong direction, and it was a bit too close to the wind to manage on one tack. We studied the charts, and were making our way only slightly off the line of buoys when a Danish boat passed us, shouting and hooting their foghorn, and finally coming back to direct us. I think they thought we intended to pass the green buoy to starboard, which would have set us onto the reef it was supposed to be guarding us against. It was hard to convince them that we knew where we were going.

By this time the rain had finally cleared and we moored in Lohals, a tiny holiday village nearly at the north end of Langeland, in glorious warm sunshine.









Saturday 9 June
The wind was whistling in the rigging - we are getting a little tired of that sound - so we decided to stay a day to explore the island on bikes. When we were having breakfast a German couple on a Southerly arrived, and we helped them moor next to us - they were from Juist (the German Frisian island that we have not visited) and were not enjoying the winds either. We decided to visit Traeneker, which the Langeland guide waxed lyrical about as the only surviving castle town in Denmark, attractive houses, etc etc and a castle. Before we left, Gordon had to mend a puncture, and after we'd gone a few miles, it became clear he had another. We followed one of the waymarked bike routes with no clear idea where it was going, but since the island is so long and thin, it couldn't be far out, could it? Eventually, we found a signpost and discovered that we had nearly cycled past the village.

The whole way was on tiny lanes through rural farmland with small hills, views of the sea, small woods, and isolated cottages (like your granny should live in).









Traeneker was a bit of a disappointment - nice enough, but nothing special compared to the villages on Aeroe anyway.

The castle was large, painted dull red, and ugly.

We had our lunch in the churchyard and mended Gordon's puncture. The church had a whole aisle behind locked wrought iron gates in which there were tombs of the family who owned it, the castle and the village, and a reserved pew for them - all a bit feudal. We got back before the rain started, with the wind still whistling. The forecast for tomorrow doesn't look much better!



Sunday 10 June
It was raining hard when we woke up, and the wind was still whistling. The morning was a lazy one - we invited the German couple in the boat next door (the Southerly 110 called Milan) Reinaert and Dorothy, for a coffee, and they only turned up after 12 when we had already started cooking lunch. We had a nice chat - they recommended Usedom just beyond Rugen on the North East German coast. We will certainly try to get there. After lunch we cycled up to the north end of the island, at Hou. There is not much to see on land, just a few holiday cottages and lots of standard Baltic beach, but the view to the bridge over the Store Baelt and Fyn one side and Snaelland the other were well worth seeing. There were very few boats out - a Dutch two masted boat, sailing with one jib and mizzen and a yacht motorsailing both quite close in. There was a small lighthouse, and some nice beech and oak woods, and lots of farmland and cottages - all rural and very Danish.