Today we fancied another anchorage, this time on the east coast of Rügen, wind permitting. If it proved to be untenable, then there was a small harbour called Glowe we could go into. It was a lovely morning, with a light breeze of a handful of knots blowing from the ESE, not enough wind to drive the boat so having started the engine to put charge into the windlass battery as it powered the windlass to raise the anchor, we kept it on to take us north and then east around the side and top of Rügen. We’d only been going for a few minutes when a sea eagle flew overhead and landed at the water’s edge on the eastern side of the channel. It is remarkably well camouflaged when on the ground but I hope its features can be made out in the photograph.

After an hour or so, at around 10:30, the wind had increased sufficiently to enable us to sail as we progressed along the northern coast of Rügen, past holiday makers enjoying the pristine sandy beaches and the shelter afforded by the steep sloping land behind. By 12:30 we had rounded Ancona point and were headed into the wind, so once again the engine was utilised as we fought our way upwind against choppy seas, as by now the wind had increased to a F4. This direction and strength meant that anchoring would be out of the question and I was also a little concerned that the harbour might not cater for yachts of CW’s dimensions as it is only a small one. The wind was such that if we bore away (headed more downwind) we could potentially sail to the next available port, called Sassnitz and where we knew that they had installed new pontoons and bathroom facilities, so we decided to head for there instead.

In the course of sailing, one makes decisions, not all of them brilliant in hindsight, or at least that’s what we felt at the time. The total distance to Glowe from our anchoring spot this morning was about 23 miles and the distance to Sassnitz was 32 miles. Sassnitz is 3 miles closer to Rønne so that would be beneficial to us when we cross to Bornholm. All of these distances are straight line distances and the trouble with that, is you can’t achieve it when sailing upwind, you have to tack. Added to that was the fact that the choppy seas were slowing us down so having to sail further and slower meant that our arrival time, originally for Glowe planned to be something like 13:30 to 14:00 was now looking like going to be nearer 18:00 for Sassnitz. Had we planned for a long day that would be OK but psychologically, we should be in harbour by now so we started experiencing less than positive thoughts. Added to that the wind gradually veered to the south, ie more on the nose and then it dropped to almost nothing, leaving rolly conditions so again we were thankful for the engine and we arrived in Sassnitz at 17:15, having logged 42 miles and motored for 5 hours and sailed for 3.

Sassnitz, at least is a comfortable harbour. It has a long mole which offers protection from the sea but despite the calm conditions, the yachts within its’ shelter still roll a bit. Our pontoon, designed to take yachts of widths of 4.5 metres and upwards, only had two other boats on the side that we selected, the other side, with narrower spaces between the poles, was pretty fully occupied. CW is over 4m wide so it was nice, for once, to have the luxury of being able to fit between the poles without worrying about hitting anything. Moreover, the facilities are new and excellent and finally, it is not expensive here, €18.00 a night, when compared to €27.00 in Stralsund. Even though it had been tedious, we were pleased to be here. Tomorrow, our preferred day for crossing to Bornholm, the wind is so light as to be useless so we will stay here for another night, as the forecast for Sunday is for moderate SW winds, ideal for us. The only downside is that thundery showers will be accompanying the wind but hey, this is sailing and things are never perfect!