Today we were planning to leave for Augustenborg (see yesterday’s map) , basically heading northwards up the sound, turning right at the top of Als then heading down to the bottom of a deep bay called Augustenborg fjord, 12 miles in all. However, we first wanted some fresh bread and also the promised visit to the castle so by 10:00 we were back on board and ready for our cultural interlude. The castle today is basically a museum and has been so for decades. The principal exhibits are items that cover the origins of the castle and the history of its owners, the story of the battle of 1864 and its’ aftermath and finally a number of rooms containing some fine religious carvings, some furniture and finally, rooms reassembled  from their original houses to give an idea of how people lived in those times, the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries. Unlike Flensburg’s museums, a proportion, but not all of the exhibits had English texts so we were able to glean some details of what was going on. We spent a couple of hours there and we were pleased to have been. I have included a number of photographs of some of the exhibits.

To leave northwards from Sønderborg, you have to pass under two bridges. One is a bascule bridge ie it opens and the other is plenty high enough to allow us under. The King Christian X’s bridge, built during the latter half of the 1920’s, opens once an hour at the strange time of 38 minutes past the hour. As we’d exited the museum at around midday and as CW was only 5 minutes away, we figured we would have enough time to make the 12:38 opening, which we did. Once under, it is a straightforward run up the sound, a sound which opens up when past the 682 metre long Als Strait Bridge. Once out of the town, we stopped the engine and unfurled the genoa and ghosted along quietly, reveling in the pleasant, pastoral scenery and listening to the chuckle of the water as it slipped past the hull, lovely. Again, like yesterday it was pleasantly warm when the sun appeared, chilly when it hid behind clouds. Looking in front, there was no evidence of buildings anywhere and you could easily imagine being in a sailing vessel two centuries ago, the scenery would have been identical, I’m sure. Lovely.

Sadly after a couple of hours we were so blanketed by the trees on the upwind banks that we had none, so we had to motor for a while then when clear, we reverted to sailing, until at last, deep inside Augustenbrog fjord, the wind dropped to almost nothing so we motored the rest of the way, arriving soon after 15:30. Fortunately the owner of 4 of the pontoons was nearby and he directed us to a box that we would have ignored, as it had the red marker up. To explain – very commonly in the Baltic they employ a system that utilizes a metal plate, red on one side and green on the other. When vacant, the green side is exposed, when booked the red. Apparently the owner of our box had forgotten to reverse the plate as he was leaving. The availability of this box was good news for us as it was nice and wide and as the wind was blowing directly into the box, we chose to reverse in, which we achieved successfully (not as easy as you may think!).

Augustenborg, a small town of about 4000, grew up around Augustenburg Palace which was established during the middle of the 17^th century. Today it is a psychiatric hospital so it is closed to the public. The marina is very popular with Brits, including Cruising Association members, largely due, at a guess, because of the capabilities of its owner, Anders Dahl, not least of which is his fluency in English! It was Anders who directed us to our berth but that was the last we saw of him that day. It is a pleasant situation, his 3 large boat sheds are nearby and the facilities are housed in what might have been an old farmhouse at one time. Anyway, they’re OK and we opted to stay here for 2 nights, as tomorrow is a washing day.