Wednesday 4 April

And so, after all the waiting, we were finally able to leave Fehmarn today. The alarm went off at 6:30, we jumped up, and then after breakfast, we consulted the preparation checklists to remind us of what had to be done before we left. Then, with a little emotion, slipped our lines and headed out of the harbour.

We have had such a good experience in Fehmarn. The people were warm, genuine and friendly, the businesses that looked after aspects of the boat were all competent and efficient. I could not recommend the place more highly. We feel as if we made many friends there.

The weather started cool and windy, we all had multiple layers of clothes on. Before long however, the cloud melted away, the wind moderated to a reasonable level and the temperature rose. We got out the sails, and tried out our new mail sail. We were going along beautifully, and I had a grin like a six year old in a sweet shop. It was one of those perfect moments that you just cannot describe to those who don’t sail. My recollection of golf was that just once occasionally you would hit the ball perfectly and it would justify the whole process of playing golf. Today was the sailing equivalent, it was glorious.

As the day wore on, the wind died away, so we had to revert to motoring. We had several hours of this, going along the shipping lanes that lead to the Kiel canal entrance. There was not as many ships as we had feared, but even so we had to modify our progress once or twice to allow either ships or ferries to pass.

By 5:30 we had arrived at Laboe, which is about 3 miles from the entrance to the canal. We have been swatting on the regulations, and we are going to try to do the 60 mile passage in a day to catch up some of the time we have been delayed. It should be doable, but may depend on how long we have to wait to enter the canal. Wait for tomorrow’s exciting episode to see if we did it.....

Distance covered today - 61 nautical miles

Total distance covered - 61 nautical miles

Steve (and Tricia)