A week today it will be our last night in Germany for this year . This is quite a sad thought but made easier when it is grey, spitting with rain and windless as it was today.

Julie decided to have one more go with the cheap (€2) washing machine, getting her fleeces, which are numerous and well used, washed. Once done, at around 10:00, we cast off and headed out of the harbour and out to sea via the well-buoyed channel before turning left towards Grömitz, about 7 miles up the coast. We tried sailing but even though we had all day, speeds of < 2knots are not entertaining so we reverted to the engine, arriving in the large, modern marina complex by 12:15.

Janet, in her CA Guide to cruising in the German Baltic, refers to this harbour as the nearest thing to Majorca, with large power boats in evidence everywhere and apartment complexes and hotels spread along the sandy foreshore. After lunch, in the peculiar weather which was chill, grey and very humid, we set off for a walk along the paved pedestrianized walkway up the coast . This stretches for a couple of miles and all along are shops, restaurants, ice cream parlours, hotels and apartment blocks and lots of people strolling, including at least 8 lifeguards which we saw, with nothing to do as there was no-one in the water. As always, the whole area was clean and the people pleasant but I'm afraid we weren’t enamoured, it all looked too new and purpose-built, which I suppose it was. What did impress me was the wall separating the beach from the road – it was polished granite or some similar stone, all two miles of it! The nice thing was that it was completely untarnished, no chips, graffiti or anything, it looked perfect still but it must have been there for some years.

Back to the boat, and we had another evening of catching up with downloads. Tomorrow we hope that the wind improves and we are able to enjoy our last significant sail, of about 22 miles, back to Fehmarn.