Cruisingchute2019

In keeping with our Government’s advice and the German Nautical Notices Service announcing, on Monday 23 March, that private travelling on the Baltic Sea area of Mecklenburg to Vorpommern (most of the German Baltic Coast) is forbidden, our 2020 Summer trip is on hold.

Our plan, which will most likely now form the 2021 trip, was to sail to and explore the south and east coasts and islands of Sweden. From Fehmarn, where Ceejay is stored, our plan was to skirt the southern Danish islands heading east to Sweden and north to the Stockholm Archipelago. An initial plan would have taken us from Fehmarn around the southern tip of Denmark to Sweden landing firstly in Trelleborg then onto Ystad before crossing to the Danish Island of Bornholm. After visiting Bornholm we would sail to Hanobukten to explore the areas around Skillinge, Solvesborg, Hallevik, Ronnebyhamn and the Karlskrona Archipelago before heading up the inside of the island of Oland. We will spend time at many anchorages and tie-up to the rocks, using pegs hammered into the cracks in the rocks: after choosing a suitable rock, the stern anchor is dropped at 3 boat lengths, the boat is then gingerly edged forward towards the rock, the person on the bow then takes a leap of faith with the bow line to tie up, then the skipper pulls the stern anchor slack in – voila we are tied up!

Ceejay will be wintered at Navekvarn near Nykoping south of Stockholm, chosen for its good airport links to Edinburgh, but for now, the new battery operated jet wash (for cleaning the chain as we raise the anchor) and the new batteries will live in the garage, and our nice crisp new sails will have to wait to be unfurled until next year.

Thank goodness for all the video calling apps which are available, instead of using them from afar, we’re using them, as most people are, from the kitchen or living room to keep in touch with family and friends.

We wish health and best wishes, stay safe everyone.

Above is our basic passage plan, but there will be many more stops on the way to Stockholm, below is a route to our Winter storage through thousands of islands/rocks.

This is a copy of a page from our Pilot book showing some of the difficult pilotage in the Swedish archipelagos, the picture also shows a yacht tied to the rocks.

It’s amazing how much you can do in 4 days when the sun is shining. Good friends D&A invited us to join them for few days, luckily we returned to Scotland before Jet2 cancelled all flights to Spain.

We were based in Calvia and visited the Monday morning market followed by coffee, before heading to “es Grun” for lunch then on to Sa Foradada, and a walk to the rock with a large hole. Our hosts were brave enough to climb to the top of the outcrop while we felt safer taking photographs of them.

A lazy day followed with and evening barbecue – delicious.

Our final day took us along the very winding road, avoiding hundreds of cyclists, to Port de Sa Calobra where we walked through tunnels in the mountain to reveal a hidden beach surrounded by high cliffs, Torrent de Pareis follows a deep canyon for 5 km into the Serra de Tramuntana.

Colin felt obliged to take a plunge in the pool before we left for the airport, the water was so cold that he could not speak after his “swim”.

The Royal Tay Yacht Club is based on the River Tay at Broughty Ferry, Dundee, Scotland. One of the sections within the club is Broughty Ferry Boating which runs two St Ayles Skiffs, they are named Arthur Nicoll and Brochty, for social and competition rowing. Rowing St Ayles Skiffs is becoming the fastest growing water sport in Britain.

The crew consists of a Cox and 4 rowers, but on longer rows, such as our row on 5th March, we had a 6th person sitting in the bow, all aboard take turns of coxing and rowing in each position.

After a very windy February, which caused many planned rows to be cancelled, we launched both skiffs on this glorious morning. Our trip commenced at 8am on an incoming tide which assisted in our row up river, under the road bridge and on to the rail bridge, where we waited for the 9.08 train to Edinburgh to pass by. We carried on up the river and beached both skiffs on Balmerino Beach, on the south side of the river, for a very early picnic/lunch stop.

From Balmerino we set off to cross to the north side of the river to Kingoodie, Invergowrie, we received radio contact from the crew of Catalina, which is based at the village of Wormit, and arranged a rendezvous in the middle of the river before carrying on to Kingoodie. After admiring a new house, which has been built in the Kingoodie Bay, we headed down the river, passing the RRS Discovery, the V&A Design Museum and several offshore rigs and ships tied up at the docks on the way arriving back at the Club at 1.20pm.

Unfortunately I forgot to take photographs of the Discovery and V&A but all in all a very nice way to spend a day

On our way from Fehmarn to Kiel we cut through the military exercise area, but on our way back to Fehmarn we were advised that we must stay outside the military area. We were, at times, shepherded away by a naval ship (personnel must have thought we were toooooo close).

The wind strengthened throughout the day, so much so that our arm muscles 💪 were tested!

The wind was forecast to be gale force 8 the next day, but today it was upwards of Westerly force 7. We started out with full sail in a great sailing wind, but as the day progressed we were down to just the reefed Genoa (reduced sail).

By the time we were close to the Fehmarn bridge the wave height had increased to around 3 metres, but as we were then running with the wind and waves it was comfortable, although Ceejay was beginning to surf the waves.

We had covered the 53 miles in just 7 hours 55 minutes with an average speed 6.6 knots, we peaked at just over 8 knots, it was a very exciting day. For the non-sailors, you have to realise that Ceejay (which is a heavy cruising yacht) normally cruises at between 4 and 5 knots occasionally 6, so to peak at over 8 was very much on the limit and well above hull design speed.

Ceejay all cleaned, polished and waxed ready for next year and, as there are only 2 teabags left, it was time to go home!

……. and now for our last sail of the season from Ijmuiden to Newcastle.

Another overnight stay on our way to Kiel was Heiligenhafen, on the Fehmarn bucht, Germany. Although it rained we had a good sail from Gedser, however, we became bored so we got the scrubbing brush out to clean the deck.

Heiligenhafen is a former fishing harbour which has retained some of its old features, including cobbled streets and this building, where a cafe is located, was built in 1587.

The town may have been small and quaint but the marina at Heiligenhafen is huge, this is the marina viewed from the sea.

The sunset over the lake, Bibbensee, was spectacular.

Next morning we set sail for Laboe in Kiel Fjord. Our first job was to contact Todendorf Naval Radio to check that we could cross the military training zone, as this would cut 7-8 miles (2 hours) off the trip – good news, there were no exercises that day.

We found this straw man on our way to the naval memorial, the map shows where other straw sculptures are situated in the surrounding area.

Kite and wind surfers in the shallows just off the coast

U995 is part of the naval museum/ naval memorial.

We did not have much time in Kiel, but walked through the park heading to town.

Kiel canal takes ships and leisure boats from the Baltic Sea to the North Sea, we waited for the lock open and saw 3 large ships and 7 sailing yacht pass through into the canal. The walkway in the second photograph retracts into the building at the far side of the lock.

We had met Stefan and Imogen in April, before Ceejay was launched, and were so happy to be able to meet them again in Kiel. Stefan and Imogen are also sailors, and enjoyed sailing Cybele in their spare time. They were looking for a bigger boat when we first met and by the time we met again they had found Vilhelma.

We were invited to joined them for dinner, they took us to Traumfabrik (Dream Factory), an old factory building which had been opened, as a restaurant, cinema and night club, many years before. We all had pizza and I think it might be the best pizza I had ever eaten, so good that I took the left overs for breakfast!

The most unusual campervan we have ever seen.

These seats, which were actually very comfortable, overlooked Wellingdorf marina, where Cybele and Vilhelma are berthed.

We left Vitte, on Hiddensee at 0630, with a forecast of light winds which would take us to Gedser on the Danish Island of Falster, as we passed the shallows, hundreds of geese took off heading for their day time grazing area.

The fishermen were out early too, we passed the Fairway Bouy at 0825 where two fishermen were trying their luck.

The wind did not come as forecast so we had to motor the 55 miles to Gedser, and, as the sea was very calm we decided to polished the stainless steel.

We arrived at the shipping channel leading into Gedser ferry port at 1500 and managed to cross the channel just before the ferry left the quay.

Gedser is a very quiet little town, only the ferry port being the busy.

…… and early the next day we were heading back to Germany, specifically Heilgenhafen, on our way to Kiel.

We first saw this advertised in May and I had wanted to attend since, we managed to see it 4 days before it closed! I had read about the performance, so had an idea of how big it would be, information stated that 130 people, 30 horses and 2 birds of prey were involved. We knew we would not understand a word that was said, but knew the performance was a variation on what we had read, i.e. after a war between Albrecht of Mecklenburg and Queen Margarete of Denmark, only Stockholm (Sweden belonged to Denmark at the time) remained loyal to Albrecht, the play was based on the battle for Stockholm – Queen Margarete did not succeed.

The play was performed in an outdoor arena on the shore of Jesmunder Bodden at Ralswiek, which allowed for invading galleons to be part of the performance. Performances, telling of the exploits of Klaus Stortebacker, a pirate from the late 1300s, have been given in Ralswiek for the past 27 years.

As we sailed into Ralswiek Harbour we were able to see the set, which includes a castle, camp and three galleons!

We are sure the the arena was once part of the grounds of the Schloss Ralswiek castle, which sits on the hill behind the arena and is now a very impressive hotel.

The castle set from the real castle

The outer walls of the castle withdraw to reveal the central section for parts of the performance.

Queen Margarete’s camp

And, at the end of every performance, there is a fireworks display.

On our way to Rugen, Germany’s largest Baltic Sea island, we returned to Peenemunde, as Colin wanted to explore aerodrome. We cycled around the area and found lots of interesting ruins and story boards.

Air raid shelters

We often go where we shouldn’t, in search of interesting things, we are glad we didn’t this time, we translated this sign “Ammunition-polluted area. Danger to life. Entry and ride prohibited.”

Our first stop in the northern Rugen area was Neuendorf on Hiddensee, a long narrow island on the outer edge of this group of islands. We thought this little village was so nice and very peaceful. The village doesn’t have roads as such, but does have street lighting.

There are no Reindeer on Hiddensee so one local improvised with a bicycle seat and handlebars

The Church and the bell to waken and bring forth the worshippers.

Then on to Ralswiek on Rugen, there were shallows on both sides of the channel. The first picture shows land which was not shown on the charts, look closely and you can see two sea eagles, one at either side of the photograph. There were also some areas so shallow that we could see gulls ‘walking on water’.

The busy German sailing season has come to an end, this is Ralswiek (where we attended a play performed outdoors, there is a separate blog about it). The harbour is very well looked after, the second photo shows local boats, the third photo is us on our own on the visitors pontoon!

Ralswiek Schloss (castle) is now a hotel which serves non-residents ice-cream and Reisling, I’m sure it serves food as well!

Back on Hiddensee, Vitte to be precise. We are here before making sail for Gedser, Denmark, which takes us closer to Fehmarn where Ceejay will spend the Winter again. We got the bikes out to explore the north of the island, the area is called the Highlands – 65 metres above sea level!

The first thing I should say is, don’t be fooled into trying to pronounce Polish words by letters – oh! no, no, no, no.

We headed for Świnoujście (Shvinoushtee), as so many people had told us how nice it was, and although the town has the biggest harbour we had ever seen, the town and surrounding area are very nice, with beautiful parks, forests and beaches as far as the eyes can see.

Wolin (Voleen), and particularly the harbour, was a surprise, after motoring up the river, (being extremely focused on leading lines to avoid the shallows) we were charge 18 zloty to spend the night – that was £3.87 and the cheapest we have ever been charged. The town itself is very quiet with story boards dotted around. A reconstruction of a viking village is the tourist attraction of the area.

Then on to Lubczyna (Loobchina), sailing across an inland sea around 2 metres deep – Ceejay has 1.4 metres under the water! We arrived on Sunday afternoon to be met with a very busy little village and beach, on Monday morning it was very different, the only people we saw were a man in waders metal detecting and the life guards playing volleyball.

Gocław (Gotwav) is where we left Ceejay during our trip home in August. We left our tracker on for security, and the second picture, while it shows Ceejay mainly in the corner, it also shows the GPS satellite error.

We took the tram in to Szczecin (Shchechin) which took only 25 minutes and cost 1.50 zloty (25p). Szczecin is a large city, of which we saw very little.

It was a lovely sunny, very hot, day when the heavens opened, thank goodness we had chosen to sit inside for shade, and as it turns out shelter!

The new Marina in the city centre was ideal for sightseeing, and, as in all of the harbours and Marinas we have used in Poland, it was almost empty. We liked that they had used old ship doors for the toilets though …… so secure!

Alongside the Marina preparations were afoot for the Polish Rally Championships, unfortunately we didn’t have time to stay longer to watch any of the stages.

On the river we were surprised to see snow capped hills in the distance, however, in reality, they were industrial slag heaps

We stopped for a couple of days in Ueckermunde, Germany, on our way to Poland. We really liked the town which has a lovely square and surroundings. The Square was fairly empty on Monday morning, but busy on Tuesday night and on Wednesday, as it was market day. During restoration of the Market Square some ancient ruins were found, these were duly catelogue, and covered up again ….

When the restoration of the square was done, electric sockets were fitted in pop-up paving slabs – brilliant idea! which helped to make Tuesday night very entertaining, as a band was playing while we had dinner.

There were several bronze statues in the town depicting the various trades.

Although the town of Ueckermunde is 2 miles up river, there is a manmade beach – this is surprising as the whole area of Rugen and the Polish coast is sand, anyway, in 1926 white sand was brought to the coast at the river entrance and since then Ueckermunde has had an 800 metre beach. What was also surprising was the German Army tidying the gardens, laying decking and on their hands and knees pulling weeds in the town’s streets.

… and in Ueckermunde Colin beat me at mini golf again.