There are two bridges between Stralsund and Rügen, one being so high as to be no problem whatsoever but the second one, much lower, can only be passed by yachts when it is open and the first sensible opening time for the rally fleet was at 08:20. This necessitated our being up and about early, in order to have access to showers etc. and to have enough time for breakfast. Everyone was of much the same mind and all 17 boats passed under the opened bridge without incident. It is about 30 miles from Starlsund to Kröslin, our next harbour and a lot of the passage is via a buoyed channel as the surrounding waters are too shallow for free sailing. All of this was academic though as the SE wind was blowing right down the channel, straight into our faces, so everyone motored all the way. Now different boats have different cruising speeds and the rally fleet soon separated into little mini-fleets of vessels with similar speeds. We had similar speeds to Odile and Condor and we left most of the rest of the rally behind. About half way into the journey the banks recede and you enter into the area known as Gross-Stubber where the sea is a little deeper, some 9m or so and given a better wind direction, we could have sailed but the engines were the weapon of choice for us all. As we approached the extensive marina in Kröslin we called Fay & Graham to tell them of our imminent arrival – they had kindly come out ahead to sort out the berths for us all. Actually, I then changed my mind and told him that we would be fueling up first, as we were one of the early arrivals we figured that the fuel station would be unoccupied, which it was. The fuel was pricey, €1.84 a litre but as we only wanted to top up, it didn’t break the bank. Once we’d berthed the boat, I spent some time helping the others in and by the time that was done, it was getting dangerously close to cocktail hour! Our fleet is divided into two halves, the smaller vessels are close in to the land, near the excellent, new and clean facilities whereas the rest of us are at the end of B pontoon, 500 yards’ walk or roughly 1km there and back! The result of this division is that we naturally will tend to socialize with our near neighbours for the duration of the Kröslin visit but there are more than enough of us to make it interesting. That evening we had the following on board :- James & Carol Littlewood (Paddington V), the crew of Calypso, (our near neighbours), James & Mea Yarrow (Dreamer) and Mike and Jacky Scott (Condor) – quite a crowd when you add us 3 in as well! Still, CW didn’t sink and it was a nice couple of hours. For dinner we decided to team up with Calypso – we were going to have a barbecue but we decided instead to use the ovens & had salads with steak, pork and pork sausages – great grub and good company.

One postscript – there is a pair of wonderful white tailed sea eagles here, we are right in their territory and we see them all the time.