For once we are better off than the UK today – we had no rain but I gather it’s quite wet over there. We did, however have some wind (27 knot gusts, 22 knot average) and it was cold, quite chill in fact. However, having looked at the forecast there is room for optimism, by the time June arrives we might get temperatures approaching or even exceeding 20°C!! Here’s hoping.

Today we intended making for the nearby (20 miles away) port of Sønderborg in Denmark, just basically down the Flensburger Förde until close to the entrance then turn left. However, as we were getting our deposits and credits back on the access cards that the marina uses and chatting to Stefan the harbourmaster (no, I haven’t suddenly become fluent in German, rather Stefan was in English) he suggested that we try a sister harbor to Flensburg ie run by the same company, called Langballigau, more or less opposite where you turn left for Sønderborg. As Langballigau is somewhat sheltered from this strong breeze, we thought we would try it. So, having said our farewells to Andrea & Graham, we cast off at 09:45 and were soon bowling along at speeds of 7 knots in the WSW wind, whitecaps everywhere but perfectly safe with only the genoa up and basically going in a downwind direction. Had the weather been warmer it would have been lovely but it was on the cool side, especially with the wind chill factor. Mind you, wearing shorts doesn’t help!

We were the only boat bar one going downwind but we passed several motoring upwind, just like us 4 days ago. It is MUCH nicer travelling downwind!! By 12:00 we were in the harbour in Langballigau – the approach line on the chartplotter was for once very important as the water on both sides is very shallow, less than 0.4m and with occasional rocks. The harbor itself is not that large and it was pretty much full, apart from one available space on the guests’ pontoon. We thought that the poles were just about wide apart enough for us and indeed, we did manage to get into the box by both of us pushing the poles out whilst simultaneously walking CW in. It transpires that they are placed 4m apart and our width is 4.3m! Still, we’re in, getting out might be more of a challenge…

After lunch we went for a brief walk. The reason why it was brief was that we were both cold and maybe a little chilled after the morning’s sail so all we did was explore the harbor and the adjoining caravan / camper van site before we went back on board and put  the cockpit tent up and at last we felt warmer! Note to self – wear more clothes tomorrow…