On the sea again

Having so much fun been lax on the blog updates. The boat repairs went well at Amsterdam – both the Horta to Amsterdam and the Amsterdam to Oslo crews – kicked in. Robbert, the Harken dealer at Ijmuden and his racing cohort Dennis (Dennis owns a boat manufacturing company, makes and sells 30 boats a year, why he spent a sunny Saturday epoxying on the Grateful Red?? Must be a sailor!). Had the forestay ready by Monday evening. We were at the fuel dock 9:00 pm but ……. Winds in the marina were 25+ decided to leave early the next morning and it was beautiful at 0600. We averaged over seven knots an hour sailing thirty plus hours arriving at the Kiel canal about eight at night the next day. The first overnight for this crew. Managed to get in the canal and motor about twenty kilometers before the canal closed for pleasure boat traffic. We slipped into an anchorage – all the dolphins were full – so we anchored off.

Motored the last 70 kilometers of the canal the next morning through the German countryside – out the East end lock (no s only a lock) by noon. Windy, very windy on the east end – we sailed jib alone at six knots on a sunny day to the Danish island of Aero – Marstal port. Arrived in the evening and rafted off of a Gran Soleil owned by a Danish couple. Stayed the day in Aero biking to Eroskobing – a very old (did I mention an old city) city that was having their annual Jazz festival. Great fun, had the local micro ale beer and visited the “bottle museum” having the collection of ships in a bottle by Bottle Peter (he made over a 1000 ships in a bottle – can be kinda of boring here in the winter?).

Headed back to sea on Friday evening for an overnight to Anholt Island on the way to Goteburg, Sweden. Winds were low – lots of motoring, many cargo tankers and commercial ships, a couple of bridges to duck under – by morning were less then half way to Anholt and low on fuel. Stopped at the Island of Samso for fuel and pastry. Another rather crowded Danish harbor. While the winds to Anfolt were low the direction was perfect for the spinnaker. A new crew learning experience.