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