At last we had a wind that we could sail with. We only had 13 miles to go to our next harbour, the fishing port of Gilleleje, voted in 2017 as the most creative town in Denmark, whatever that means. It had been raining at night and continued doing so in the early part of the morning, which meant wearing waterproofs to get to the showers. I didn’t want to get my shorts wet so I elected to go just wearing my underpants, figuring that my jacket would keep me decent. Apparently I looked vaguely obscene but hey, my shorts stayed dry!

Fortunately, the rain had stopped as we prepared ourselves for departure and we had a nice sail in the southerly breeze blowing at 10 knots. We did have one heavy shower where visibility was reduced to a couple of hundred metres but fortunately it didn’t last too long and it was clear as we entered the busy fishing harbour at Gilleleje. There are three basins here, one of which is out of bounds to pleasure craft, one which is dedicated to yachts as it has the usual Danish pole system and one which seemed to have a mixture of vessels, both commercial and private and we chose this one, largely because the wind was blowing at right angles to the boxes and it would have been difficult getting in without scratching the hull. The only space that we could find was in the corner, just in front of a 48’ Jeanneau, owned by a gentleman from the Faores, it transpired – I chatted to him as he kindly helped us with the warps. I told him how we had tried in vain to get out there when we were in the Outer Hebrides, we waited for weeks for a weather window that never materialised, one of life’s regrets. Anyway, to our port side was a large trawler, moored tight against the dock by her stern, using only two lines, one on each side, lashed tight. An interesting way to tie up a boat and mechanically not that good if the wind started blowing from abeam but there was no strong wind forecast and it was pretty sheltered where we were so I wasn’t worried. Instead I was quite pleased as it meant that we wouldn’t have any boat raft outside us as there was no room, whereas our Faroese friend ended up with two. We did have a very small Swedish boat tuck in and tie herself to the shore and our boat but as they went on shore from their bows rather than onto us and then ashore, they were no problem whatsoever.

It was now about 12:00 so we opted to go shopping before lunch and after we had been to the station to confirm train times for the morning and for Owen & Geraldine to buy their tickets. They will have to change in Helsingør but that train takes them directly to the airport. Interestingly, the line between Gilleleje and Helsingør is privately owned, it is not run by the National Danish Rail organisation. Tickets bought and times confirmed (09:26) we set off in search of the nearest supermarket, following Google maps and about a kilometre away, we found a large SuperBrugsen supermarket that more than met our needs so Julie and I were able to stock up for the coming few days whilst Owen & Geraldine could help carry the supplies back to the boat. We were pretty hungry by the time we got back and there wasn’t a whole lot of afternoon left once lunch had been cleared away but as it was so nice now, unexpectedly so, we all opted to chill out and chat, read or snooze, lovely. Sometime after four o’clock our guests went in search of a restaurant as they were insisting on buying us a thank you meal on our last night together. Upon their return, not only had they found one but they also came back with presents, a very pretty plastic bowl suitable for crisps and the like and some far too good to use paper serviettes with tropical fish printed on them. It is very kind of them, much appreciated.

When they were coming back on board, Owen commented on the fact that there were a couple of veteran cars (a 1970’s Rolls Royce and something else, I can’t remember) parked nearby and within half an hour, there were at least 20 of them. I think this must be a meeting place for local enthusiasts where they come and talk polishes and the like, good luck to them. It was nice and a little sad to see how well represented Britain was in terms of cars, sad as we don’t have that UK owned industry any more. Still, it’ll be better after Brexit won’t it?? (the reader is free to interpret that question any way they choose…).

After a quick aperitif we went to the chosen restaurant where three of us opted for burgers (the menu was limited in the evening, we found out) and Julie had what I think was the better choice, a salad with local hot-smoked salmon. Julie’s was served in a large circular plate or bowl with 2 ‘’ vertical sides, it was a very generous and very tasty salad, apparently. Our burgers were OK and I hope that O&G don’t think I’m being ungrateful when I say that I have had better but the location and the service was great, thank you both for it. There was nothing left to do after the meal other than to go back to the boat for a nightcap, which of course we had.