It was yet another misty morning but by now we had the hang of it and we knew it would burn off. Our plan was to return to Germany, to sail more or less directly west to get to the entrance of the Schlei, a narrow fjord that cuts deep into Schelswig-Holstein from the Baltic and ending in the town of Schleswig, 20 miles inland. Our destination was the small town of Kappeln, which is situated just by the first of two lifting bridges that cross the Schlei. We had been here before but that was back in the mists of time (for us) ie on 23d August 2013. This time we planned on staying here a couple of days and maybe using public transport to explore a bit more of this area.

By the time we left (11:15) all traces of mist had cleared and the sun looked like it would show its face some time later, which indeed it did. There wasn’t much wind but what there was was from the north-east and as we were heading west, it was a nice point of sailing, which we attempted for the first two hours. I say attempted in that yes we were sailing but as the wind slowly faded and  as we wanted to get to Kappeln before dark, we had no choice other than start the engine after lunch, else we would be out at sea for hours. I was a bit frustrated as I had promised myself that we would limit the use of the engine but it is hard, when at least the direction of wind was good and strength sufficient when we set off, to do anything else other than revert to diesel when committed to a journey and are out at sea. I’ll try and do better next time!

It was pleasant in the cockpit in the bright sun, enabling me to get vitamin D levels up all over as it where, Julie of course was rather more modest and remained fully attired! It was an uneventful crossing, we had to avoid the occasional fishing float but that was about it until we were off the Schlei, when there was a bit more boat traffic around. One of these included the pretty paddle-wheel tourist boat the Schlei Queen and other vessels ranged from trimarans to rowing skiffs to 19^th century renovated old barges, so there was  lots to interest one.

We arrived at Kappeln, close to the bascule bridge in the town marina at 16:45 and managed to squeeze between the poles without major incident. Here it is a matter of judgement, I reckon we had about a foot of space, 6’’ on each side and believe me,  it is heart-stopping stuff when you’re committed to enter the box and you don’t know whether the sides are going to end up with a souvenir scar or not!