It is only about 27 miles to Simrishamn from Ystad so we needn't have got up very early but the trouble with me and sleep habits is that once I get used to waking up early, that becomes the norm, so I was up and about soon after 6, which meant that poor Julie was also awake – so we had a nice early start! The wind of course, was not going to cooperate so we had the engine on the whole way, sadly. The sea was quite flat and the breeze very light, so at least we could make 5.5 to 6 knots into the wind without over-burdening the engine. It was also pleasantly sunny, so all in all if you have to motor into the wind, this wasn’t a bad day to do it in.

We arrived in the very deserted harbour at Simrishamn at 12:45 and with not much that was pressing to do, after lunch we did a bit of exploring. In truth, we didn’t find much of note about the place, it was a nice quiet little town, especially so as it was a Sunday afternoon. We found an open Netto so bought a few supplies, saw the church, not much to comment on then wandered back to the boat and were soon pleasantly surprised by Neil McCubbin (on the aluminium boat, Milvina) with his Danish friend Jens (Helen was on board) who invited us over for drinks later. And so it transpired, we passed a very pleasant 90 minutes or so on board, where we were introduced to another CA couple, Paul & Brigitta who own a Vancouver 34 Pilot and who were leaving her there for a couple of weeks when they go back to the UK, then back to the boat for ham & vegetables and a 'Killing’.