The excellent weather that we have been enjoying is set to change, with a significant lowering of air temperature and an increase in rainy weather. Elaine and Jon have been very lucky, poor Owen & Geraldine Eardley, our next guests and due to join us on Thursday, are not likely to be as fortunate. For the present though, it was still warm and sunny but with grey clouds forming. We decided not to risk our laundry getting wet, we had 3 machine-loads to do in the excellent, commercial standard washing and drying machines here and by 09:30, all was done, in time for us to have a last cup of coffee together before we helped our two departing guests with their bags to the train station, about 10 minutes’ walk away. As Ystad is the end of the line, the train was already waiting for us, with about 10 minutes to go before its departure time. There is nothing to be gained at this juncture to wait until the train actually goes, so we bade our farewells and Julie and I went off in search of another supermarket, an ICA, that might carry a wider selection of my Kalvi cheese – the Coop didn’t have my favourite – crab, crayfish and prawn mix. As we walked we reflected upon the last week and agreed that Elaine and Jon are delightful people to have on board, they are good friends. Mission accomplished at ICA, we returned to CW laden with my winter’s supply of Kalvi spread. With Jon carrying an extra half dozen for me, I definitely won’t be running out!

Back on board we busied ourselves tidying and cleaning the boat. We had a gap next to us now as Richard and Gill had departed early that morning for Rødvig in Denmark, 50 something miles away. They too are good company and we plan to meet up again once Owen & Geraldine have returned home. We were down below in the cabin when we heard a boat dock alongside and we were delighted to see our new Dutch friends, Derek & Ursula Van Beek. They decided that it was too good an opportunity to miss to have a photo with a brace of Warriors! They weren’t stopping, they were off on a cycle ride with some friends but we had agreed that we would be seeing them around 18:00.

Later in the afternoon it was wonderfully warm in the cockpit so Julie and I grabbed an hour there before going on board Kapal Tiga, Derek & Ursula’s Warrior. This is only the second  time that I’ve been on board another  Warrior and it was very interesting to compare the two boats. Externally, she was different in that she didn’t have in-mast furling and her staysail had a boom and was non –self tacking. She also lacked a bathing platform (but did have a ladder) but her most useful addition when compared to CW was a rubbing strip, so entering Danish mooring boxes wouldn’t be a problem. Down below she was very similar with the major exception of the bow area. On CW we have a massive bed and a little chaise longue affair and a dressing table-come-desk. On Kapal there is a smaller bed area and no chaise longue etc, rather there is an additional double cabin (two single berths, stacked) and in many ways this is a more useful, if less luxurious, use of space. More room for junk!

Anyway, it was fun comparing the two boats and we also now know  roughly what the market value is of CW as a friend of theirs sold a similarly aged boat to CW quite recently. We didn’t spend too long chatting with Derek & Ursula as we were keen to get back on board to have dinner and then watch a few more episodes of ‘Gentleman Jack’ before it expired on iPlayer. We only have the next 2 days as it will time out whilst Owen & Geraldine are with us and we wanted to avoid that, as we have enjoyed the series.

Tomorrow we hope to have an early start as we want to make it to Kastrup if we can, this is a marina situated only one train stop from the airport where Owen & Geraldine are arriving so it is very convenient. The trouble is, 3 rather large, powerful motor cruisers arrived late in the evening and rafted up close to us, effectively blocking our exit. They are travelling together and are on their way home to Karlskrona in Sweden, to the North of here. I explained to them our desire to leave early and they assured me that that wasn’t a problem, but we’ll wait and see….