The first part of the plan worked well, we were indeed ready for the off at 06:00. It was cloudy, very and there were worse clouds to the west of us and although not too windy, the weather did not look very settled. I'd switched the VHF on and before we’d even started the engine, we heard a Gale warning for the Sound and Belts and Southern and Western Baltic ie our sailing area. I decided to call the coastguard on the radio to ascertain when the winds were due to increase and was told that it was soon, so that put the end to any plans for sailing that day, for us at least. The Smiths on Odile were just going 'round the corner’ 20 miles or so and would have some shelter from the land and given luck, would make their next port in Rødvig before the winds picked up and without incident and so it proved. We on the other hand, had open water to cross and the Pilot specifically states that great care and caution must be taken if approaching Ystad (our 1^st port in Sweden) in strong westerly or south-westerly winds – our winds. So Klintholm for us for the foreseeable.

Now we’re quite good at hunkering down and waiting for clement weather – well we have sailed in Scotland and Ireland (!) so we settled down to wait . I decided to try to improve the engine’s cooling system by taking off the elbow where the heated raw seawater comes out of the engine and scraping out any concretions – this should help with water flow and it was the exercise that I did last in Kiel, under the watchful gaze of Horst Safarovic, who acted as my tutor as I toiled and he drank beer! Hopefully, as last time, it was worth the bad language, strained muscles and scratches – only time will tell.

Having got the engine back together again and as the wind had moved through the best part of 180°, thereby blowing us on to the pontoon, we decided to move the boat to a more favourable position. This proved to be easier said than done, the wind was now quite strong (mid 20’s) and as soon as we tried to head the bow out, the liferaft on the pushpit was in danger of being wrenched off by one of the pontoon piles and given the space, the only way we could go was bow first but eventually, with the help of some friendly pushy Germans (ie they pushed!) we got away and managed to tie ourselves on the downwind side of an adjacent pontoon . Once in, the boat is quite happy, the fenders hang in space as the boat is being blown away from anything hard. All that you need is lots of good string and confidence in your fastenings and you can sit quite comfortably in most winds.

That afternoon we took the bus to Stege, the capital of the island of Møn, where we were. In Stege we wanted to check for emails (house happenings etc) and do a bit of shopping, specifically a new battery for my South African bought ‘holiday watch’ which had died, hopefully a battery problem and of course, do a little sightseeing. Denmark’s early churches have super examples of medieval frescoes and the church in Stege was one such, which we were keen to see.



It was cold, showery, very windy and generally not very nice but we did enjoy the church and its frescoes and also, Stege’s little museum which had some lovely 19^th century paintings and some interesting artefacts, including a large collection of Neolithic flint tools. They were beautifully made and preserved, really fine examples. We also liked a large stuffed wild boar, so much so that a photo had to be taken.

We were back on the boat by 17:00, had dinner of frozen fish and boiled potatoes & vegetables, watched another one of Julie’s passions, ‘Casualty’, which I’d downloaded whilst we were in Gedser, then bed, accompanied by the ever-present wild wind.