We had a long(ish) way to go today to make it to Stralsund, a journey of about 50 miles or so. We should have a favourable wind up until about mid-day and then it was forecast to veer to the east and increase in strength, not a good direction for east-going yachts. The obvious solution was to try to get as far as possible in good conditions and to minimize time in the bad, which meant an early start and we set the alarm for 05:30 with a view to grabbing a quick shower and get going, having breakfast ‘on the hoof’. Now the trouble is with setting alarms is, that often one wakes up before them and in this (Julie’s) case it was an hour before, at 04:30. We tried going back to sleep but after a while we gave it up as a bad job and went for a shower.  I went on ahead of Julie as she was disposing our rubbish and it was then that I spotted not one but two hares. This part of the world must be a haven for them, considering how often we’ve seen them.

We were on our way at 05:45 and by 06:15 were sailing nicely on a close reach at speeds of 5-6 knots. It was a lovely, clear day with precious few clouds around and we very much hoped that later the temperature would increase as it was on the chilly side, still. By 10:00 things had improved temperature-wise, largely because the breeze had reduced in strength and by 10:15 I’d decided that this was the beginning of the change so we fired up the engine and continued, using the sails to give us a little more lift and thus speed. Soon after 13:00 we were in the long, buoyed channel that takes you into the magical world around Rügen. It really is a glorious part of the Baltic and it is pretty hard to describe, if like me, you have limited abilities. It’s a little bit like the more open parts of the Norfolk Broads, I would imagine, with extensive areas and I mean miles, of shallow waters, interspersed by sand bars and banks and with the sheltered water in between gleaming like mercury in the sunshine, in direct contrast to the little ripples in the more open areas. Taking advantage of these sheltered waters are hundreds, if not thousands of beautiful swans and they are dotted about like confetti after a wedding, lovely birds.  One final point about this area – it seems to have a microclimate all of its’ own or, more likely, it is at the edge of the continental climate zone ie it is warmer, much than just a few dozens of km away in Denmark. All in all, it is a place you can truly relax in and we have decided to come back here, after our Polish holiday and before going to Bornholm. Let’s hope the weather is equally nice then.

Now our hard-working organizer of the CA Rally, one Nicholas Hill, was already down in Stralsund and he had suggested that we call him on the VHF on channel 77, which we did when we were an hour away. He’d kindly reconnoitered the marina and gave us instructions to go to a finger pontoon opposite his yacht, Prospero, a sheltered spot and head into the wind, which makes berthing less traumatic. By now the wind was blowing at a F4, gusting 5 but it was a lovely, warm wind and with Nicholas’ help, we were safely tied up by 15:30, with 55 miles logged. After a cup of tea and a chat with Nick and having signed in at the harbourmaster’s office, we went and said hello to some of the other arrivals, specifically Andy & Pauline Smith on Odile, who kindly gave us a welcoming G&T and Val & John Roantree on Solara, who would have done so given the chance!

We decided to have an early night as we’d had a long day and we knew that the coming week might be a tiring one (in a nice way, a la Private Eye!), so we decided to hunker down for the rest of the evening and very nice it was too.