We were up bright and early but not as early as most of our neighbours, who had already left, some of them must have departed before it was light. Anyway, given the crowded state of the harbour last night it was quite an eye-opener seeing how empty it was this morning! It was a glorious day, full of promise but with little wind about.

Today we were only planning a short hop, a few miles around the top of Bornholm and then down the north eastern side to the harbour town of Gudhjem and as from memory this is a very small harbour, we wanted to ensure that we got there after the morning departees had gone but before the majority of today’s arrivals had appeared. Consequently we were on our way by 09:15 and by 10:00 we were in position to change our minds. Looking at the forecast now that I had a signal (there was none in Hammershus) I saw that whilst today’s wind was light and blowing more or less from Christiansø, our next port after Gudhjem, tomorrow’s wind would be stronger and doing the same so we decided to keep the engine on and motor the 10 miles out to the group of rocky islands that is Christiansø. Long term followers of my blog, all 3 of you (!) will recognise the name Christiansø as we have visited here twice before, in 2016 and 2011 but we spent more time and I certainly devoted more effort to describing the area in the entries commencing 13^th August 2011 if you’re interested. Here is what I said by way of introduction to this fascinating piece of Denmark :-

The Peapod Islands (Ertholmene in Danish) of which Christiansø is the largest by far, is a cluster of small skerries and islands. The only other inhabited island, apart from Christiansø, is Frederiksø and this is attached to its’ bigger neighbour by a pedestrian footbridge. The channel between the two islands make a natural harbour, given winds in the right direction and it was this feature that first caused the islands to be converted to a naval base and fortress in 1684 by King Christian V of Denmark. After a humiliating defeat to the Swedes in 1656, when Denmark lost a significant amount of territory, the Danes needed a base to watch Swedish movements in the Baltic and whilst Bornholm would have been the natural choice for this base, construction techniques at the time together with the lack of a suitable topography, precluded this and hence the development of Christiansø.

The island fortress saw quite a lot of action during its life as a military garrison, not least of which was the bombardment by the British in October 1808 during a period of hostilities between Denmark and Britain. The plan was to invade the islands after softening them up with the bombardment but we withdrew after four hours, due to the spirited return fire from the islands and the onset of inclement weather. This must have been a great relief to the garrison but perhaps not so popular a decision with the political prisoners that also numbered among the inhabitants here. Life after all this excitement carried on as normal thenceforth until 1855, when the fortress and garrison were wound down and the only inhabitants became the former soldiers and their families who were allowed to use the buildings as homes, whilst the menfolk turned their hand to fishing. In 1926, the islands became protected by law and to this day, they are administered by the Danish Ministry of Defence and as such, are not part of any county or municipality so the inhabitants do not have a vote in county elections, which I guess is no great hardship. Today, the population amounts to about 100 full time islanders, who make a living from fishing, herring curing and of course, tourism.

Back to the present and our outward journey to the islands. Once again we were travelling through vast areas of blue green algae, it really is a phenomeneon and whilst I know the Baltic has had these blooms for donkey’s years, I can’t help but think that they are far worse than in yesteryear due to the higher levels of pollution in this confined sea. At the time of typing this (06:45 on Friday morning) there is no internet access so I can’t check on that but anyway, it isn’t pleasant to look at, it’s not a selling point for the Baltic! Niether is the sight of a gas-filled corpse of a grey seal that we passed, a sad sight and the second that we have happened across in as many years. Seals have to die sometime and I hope this one expired as a result of natural causes but it did have some sort of wound on its side which may have been the cause of its demise or of course, it could have occurred after death. Anyway, it was a sad sight.

We knew that Christiansø would be a popular spot for yachtsmen, particularly given the wonderful weather but as it was still before 12:00 we thought that we would easily find a space in the south harbour  (ie. the channel between the two principal islands and with a bridge causing a division into north and south harbours) but we got that wrong, it was so full that yachts were tied up alongside each other 4 deep! Keeping our fingers crossed, we exited the harbour and went round the side of Frederiksø to approach the harbour from the north and there we were lucky, there were two free buoys to choose from, well one actually as the other seemed to have been left by someone who may be returning and we were able to utilize the buoys to fasten the boat to, with the bows tied to a jetty on the Frederiksø side. It was a far pleasanter situation than the horribly crowded south harbour and we were delighted to have found it. The only downside to being here is that if the wind picks up from the north, we are positioned at right angles to the incoming waves which would lake it uncomfortable to untenable but as it was flat calm, we figured we would be fine, at least for a while.

After lunch, Jon and Elaine set off to explore whilst Julie and I preferred the option of remaining on board to read and soak up the sun. There was just enough breeze coming off the sea to cool the air down to make lying in the sun a pleasant rather than and over-heated experience and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Sometime later we did actually venture off the boat for a short walk but we only went as far as the ponds in search of frogs or toads as when we were here in 2011 we saw hundreds of them, literally. Sadly this time we drew a blank.

There is a restaurant of Christiansø that we have been to before, it is quite pricey but the situation is perfect and the food can be very good, so we decided to go there that evening. It was lovely on the terrace  with its outlook over the harbour and beyond and we all enjoyed our meals, Jon & Julie had salmon in teriyaki sauce, Elaine had some sort of chicken dish and I had veal steaks with creamed potatoes and celeriac – it was deliciously tender meat, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Expensive at 1350 Krone but worth it.

On the way back to the boat I spotted a toad near some cannon (there are many cannon hereabouts) (see photo) and was pleased to know that they are around still. Back on board we watched the lovely sunset and once again, it was bed time, a good day behind us.