cleat, jib, jibe (sounds like a dance, no?), tack, heeling, fend off, aground (an important one..)
Our adventures began on two trains and a bus from Copenhagen Airport to the town of Faaborg where Olive's Steven's Dad's boat, Cheeky Monkey, was moored.
The train took us through countryside not unlike the flatlands of Norfolk, from one side of Denmark to the other. First stop when we'd located the boat, on the furthest possible point of the network of jetties, was the local Aldi for supplies. For future reference: much like Prague's pickled cheese, 'Danbo' is a Danish delicacy to be avoided. That smell lingered for a good few days...
Awoke on our first morning to rain, so the decision was made not to sail. Instead, a day spent in Faaborg gave us the opportunity to explore the town. Quiet on a Sunday, but incredibly pretty, and with an excellent offering of supermarkets (as well as the Aldi, Faaborg also boasted a Netto and Lidl, the latter of which where we shopped for some familiar cheese to replace the Danbo which had been a little too adventurous for our British taste-buds).
The first of many smooth sails took us from Faaborg to Svendborg. We arrived early evening, and were met with our first 'box mooring' experience. An hour or so later, and were finally able to reach land from the boat, so hopped off (very literally, although perhaps 'leapt' may be more accurate) in search of drinks and dinner.
Drinks we found in the deserted town square, but for dinner we made our way back to the waterfront where there were a few restaurants, a little busier, offering delicious seafood and blankets for warmth as the sun set.
Had a short while for further exploration the next morning before we set sail again. Olive and I took a stroll up-hill to find a windmill that we'd spotted from the marina, and then worked our way back down along the high-street, busier in the daytime with shoppers, and with lots of art and sculpture which caught our eye as we wandered.
Pretty much followed the path of the local ferry to our next destination, the island of Ærø. After many failed attempts at fitting into box moorings at the domestic marina (it was all good looping, and un-looping practise), we took the advice of our many on-lookers that perhaps our boat was 'TOO BIG', and ended up rather moored alongside tourist fishing boats and naval ships for the night.
Possibly my favourite place of our trip, Ærøskøbing was an absolutely beautiful little town with gorgeous architecture along cobbled streets, and even a beach lined with colourful beach huts. Another place highly reminiscent of Norfolk, we stayed a while at the beach to paddle in the clear waters (less reminiscent of Norfolk, perhaps). Stony under-foot, but it was pretty enough to paddle through the pain.
Where we'd moored was right by an old cookhouse from the 1800's. The decision was made that we should try a barbeque there, so we stopped at Netto on our way back from the beach for food and fuel for a fire.
While the men did their thing with the barbeque, I took a walk along a tree-lined path along the water's edge, where lovely houses back on to the sea; some with their own steps down to the water, and small jetties out to rowing boats. Returning from my walk, we sat a while in the evening sun and later enjoyed our barbeque feast on a picnic bench by the harbour wall.
Our sail the following day was the first leg of our journey to deliver the boat to its winter resting place. We stopped in Sønderborg where we had a lovely evening walk into town past a small beach as the sun was setting. Found a pleasant restaurant on the waterfront where we were treated to classic cars on their drive home from a show in the town.
The next morning was spent getting the boat ship shape. For me this mostly involved much confusion over what should have been a very simple token system to work washing machines and a tumble dryer. Washing machines finally working (not before they'd eaten several of the tokens we'd paid for), I found myself a bench opposite the door to the laundrette, ready to fiercely defend our laundry in the event of someone else deciding that they wanted to use the machines. Spent a few hours catching up with my holiday reading in the sunshine, with nothing much but the occasional rat and seagull for company.
A little after midday, we were ready for our final sail. Perfect sailing conditions, we had a lovely day and even managed to navigate a bascule bridge. While circling in preparation for the given time slot when the bridge would raise to let us through, Olive and I were full of excitement when we spotted a porpoise playing between the waiting boats.
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| Actually, looking back at this, maybe the clouds were a bad omen, too... |
On the 'home straight', I went down below to wash up ready for our arrival into the Yacht Service. Couldn't help but feel a little later on that perhaps the porpoise had actually been a bad omen (or a problematic porpoise of portentous proportions as it was later decided), because it suddenly came to my attention that we weren't moving anymore. Calls of 'Laura, we're going to need you up here' gave light to the fact that we had in fact run aground.
Quick thinking on Steven's part and kindness from a couple of old boys in their little motor boat meant that with plenty of pulling and leaning, we were on the move again, more cautiously this time.
Excitement didn't end there. Upon our arrival into the Yacht Service, we discovered that we were in fact seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Several taxi companies were called, to no avail; we were met with 'we don't come that far', or numbers out of service. The decision was made that we should begin walking towards 'civilisation' and hope for some form of public transport, or at least a local who could point us in the right direction.
Country lanes with cases felt rather endless, and the nearest 'village' tuned out to be nothing more than a few houses on a junction. So we continued our walk until we came to a main road where we were pleased to find a steady stream of traffic. I'd finally got through to a taxi company, and it was all going really well until I discovered that they were in Germany, at which point we opted instead for hitch-hiking. Olive's leg saved the day, and a kind man whose English was fairly poor, but who we discovered had been to Ipswich of all places, drove us to the next town where we were able to get a train that took us all the way through to Copenhagen.
Arrived into the City gone 11, so headed straight for our hotels via the most exciting McDonald's I've ever been to where mine and Olive's food was delivered by some kind of pulley system. Our hotel room in Copenhagen gave Olive and I even more flashbacks, as we were transported back to our rooms at UEA complete with 'shower pod'.
Had a few hours the following day to explore some of Copenhagen before we'd need to make our way to the airport for our flight home. Decided on a couple of things that we wanted to see, and took the Metro to Nyhavn for a steady wander along the water. Our wander took us all the way to The Little Mermaid at which point we turned back the way we'd come and stopped for lunch (more seafood) in the sun.
A little more learned on this sail (maybe, I hope), I had a fabulous time yet again. It was wonderful to see parts of Denmark that I probably would have never seen otherwise, and to spend time in such easy company. As crews go, I think we do alright. It's been a beautiful summer full of sunshine, sea air, and salt in my hair. Feeling very lucky.
