The first week back on Fehmarn always passes in a bit of a blur. We left home on the afternoon of Wednesday 8th May and made the ferry in good time. It is now a well - trodden  path for us, the only new experience was that we had opted for the luxury of two beds, rather than the usual bunk beds ; the thought of negotiating a ladder in the middle of the night for a loo visit was unattractive, given my advancing years! Similarly, the drive to Fehmarn passed with little of note to report, it's over 600km from door to door as it where, but the roads are good and usually not too crowded so the km`s soon pass and we were in our apartment in Appartments Westphal by tea time, having stopped in Edeka (supermarket) and Calle (booze shop) to get some essential supplies. We resisted the temptation to go and look for Celtic Warrior (CW from now on), opting instead to recharge batteries by having an early night ready for whatever tomorrow might bring. It is always a worry, we have been away from the boat for 8 months and have commissioned work to be done over the winter, work that if not completed, could seriously delay our launch plans.

We needn't have worried. Ingo and Gordana Smeets, stars that they are, had done everything that was required of them. CW was on her trailer outside the Smeets` office- come workshop and she absolutely gleamed, so much so that several people commented on the work and at least one couple have already contracted Gordana to produce the same magic on their boat next winter for them.

So who are the Smeets?  Gordana is a polymath, not only does she polish boats to perfection, she is also very capable with boat electronics and can also turn her hand to computer problems. Ingo is the engineer and a hugely capable and experienced one to boot. In short, an invaluable duo and a matter of great regret to many of us that they plan to leave here to start a new life in Croatia next year.

Doubts and fears safely put to rest, we could now devote our time to filling every available nook and cranny on CW with food and drink - the latter in large quantities as booze is so much cheaper in Germany and as we need 4 months` supplies, this amounts to a considerable volume, given the propensity of our guests!

The other principal activity in the early days was catching up with people who are similarly out of hibernation, some of whom have already been here for two weeks. Andy Smith on Odile, always an early starter was here, to be joined by Pauline on the following Wednesday. Richard and Helen Blackmore on Hornpipe 2 were here, as were Robin and Jane Gooder on Grey Wanderer. Finally we also met a couple called Nick & Lesley who are friends with our other cruising friends, the Roantrees,  who will not be out for a couple of weeks yet so we will miss them.

The first few days then, passed very pleasantly, we were in no great hurry and CW was pretty much ready to be launched, so we were quite relaxed when the time came , at around 10:30 on Monday 13th. All went well and moreover, we were lucky enough to find a vacant slot on Weilandt`s pontoon, a space saved for us by Richard on the adjacent Hornpipe 2. Now this doesn't sound like a big deal but there is usually fierce competition for these spaces, 3 or 4 in all, as a) they are free (you only have to pay a few euro for the use of the toilets and electricity) and b) they are adjacent to the facilities, so they provide the shortest walk possible and quite a bonus if in a hurry!

The weather was bright and sunny albeit the air was chill, very. Consequently being out of the breeze and in the sun is a bonus but sadly, the wind persisted in blowing from the rear quarters of the boat for the first couple of days so we gained little benefit. We did succeed in getting the rest of the boat squared away, at the time of writing this, Thursday afternoon, we are ready to go, all we need now is weather ie not cold, strong winds with 30 knot gusts, which we are currently experiencing.

It is now Sunday 19^th and once I have caught up to today, the normal blog pattern will resume ie daily entries whenever it is sensible to do so. 

On Thursday I wrote that the weather was pretty miserable and the forecast for Friday was similar, albeit on an upward (improving) trend. We therefore decided to plan on leaving on Saturday and with the promised wind of F4-5 from the east, we should have a good sail to Bagenkop on the island of Langeland in Denmark. Friday then, we spent finalizing matters, which involved some last minute shopping (Julie had found another couple of crannies to stuff with supplies), filling up with water, cleaning and putting the car away having disconnected the battery and finally cleaning the boat. We decided to eat out that night and went to the Hotel Restaurant Schützenhof, which used to sell a particularly nice Wiessbier (beer brewed with a higher proportion of wheat relative to malted barley) and which is located very conveniently to our Apartments, had we been staying there still. Sadly the meal was a bit of a disappointment, in that they didn’t have herring for Julie (nice sea trout though) and my chips were over salted (inedible really) but the burger was good. Never mind, it was nice eating out for a change and we went to bed quite excited at the prospect of leaving in the morning.