It was forecast to be quite a breezy day as we set off bright and early for our next port, the harbour of Kerteminde on the NE side of the Danish island of Fyn. We set off in the company of Calypso but Richard was expressing some doubts as to his ability to sail to Kerteminde given the wind direction and the poor state of his genoa, both of which would not enable him to point anywhere near to it. We had similar misgivings but I was confident that the forecast would prevail and that the wind would veer more towards the west, thereby enabling us to steer more towards Kerteminde. There were a great many whitecaps and horses around as the wind was a blustery F6 at times and the short sharp waves, typical of Baltic waters, meant that there was a bit of slamming and spray but worse, they impeded boat speed, which was annoying. However, with time and as the wind veered and we approached the shelter of the coast of Fyn, the waves subsided and we logged 7 and 6 miles in two hours, as opposed to 4 during the first hour. By the way we had our sails reefed during this period, it was only during the last half hour or so that I let out the reefs as the wind had subsided a little but soon after that, it backed again and we decided to furl the sails and motor the last few miles to Kerteminde.

When we arrived in the quite sizeable marina, a marina with bare wooden poles we had to get in between, poles which were at right angles to the now refreshed wind which was blowing quite hard, we set about looking for a berth. All of the available ones looked too narrow for us and we decided we’d have to give up and go and anchor in the bay. It was then that a sympathetic Danish yachtsman, who could see our predicament, pointed out that there were good alongside mooring spaces just outside the marina, in a canalised river-like inlet that leads into a substantial sea loch or deep bay behind the town. Indeed there were spaces to spare there as we manoeuvred the boat alongside in the quite substantial wind-blown current that was flowing, probably at around 2 knots. Even though we are outside the marina, the walk to the toilets and showers is no further than from a pontoon inside and we were pleased with the location. There is a large SuperBrugsen supermarket 200 yards away and there is a chandlery here as well, so all yachties’ needs are met.

We didn’t do a whole lot more that day, we caught up with a bit of television and generally chilled out, tomorrow we will be rejoined by Calypso so tonight, free of social pressures, we went to bed with our bodies entirely free of demon drink!