We set the alarm for 05:45 but as I was awake by 05:15 I thought we might as well get up but being a gentleman, I allowed Julie another 15 minutes sleep! We were away by 06:15, motoring in a NE direction towards Bornholm in calm conditions. One thing I’ve not mentioned so far is that fact that despite it being flat conditions, it was still a little bit rolly. Indeed even inside the depths of the harbour at Sassnitz, we experienced an unusual amount of rolling – it helped lull us to sleep!

One of the main advantages of an early start is that by mid-morning, you are well and truly on the way. Sadly we were still motoring as the promised WSW wind had yet to materialize. About 23 miles from Sassnitz, there is a fairly sizeable wind farm. From afar it looks like you have to go around as the gaps between the turbine blades look very small but of course, that is just perspective and as we entered the man made forest, there were hundreds of metres between the ‘trunks’ so we could pass through safely. Soon after that the wind grew sufficiently strongly that we could deploy the genoa, held out by a pole so that it wouldn’t flap and we could give the engine a break. Pretty soon after that, it was blowing quite vigorously and we were bowling along at 7 knots, with the sea building and whitecaps everywhere. Still, it got us to Rønne quickly and by 14:30, 50 miles covered, we were tied up nicely alongside a hammerhead. We were delighted by this, as not all of our guests tomorrow are that agile and clambering over the bow or stern of CW requires some flexibility, whereas getting on board over the side via a step is easy.

That’s about it for today. It is bright here this evening but there is a good Force 6 blowing, it started just as we came into the harbour (just our luck) but for once, as I said, we found an easy berth and we are quite content. Tomorrow we have the invasion, Jon & Elaine to stay and Richard & John day visitors. Should be fun.