This is "Onbekommerd"!

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Marstal

Although I had promised a set of photos form Dreyø and Birkholm, that's not going to happen. Either the Internet is still too slow or the Blogpress app is letting me down: I just lost a big post with lots of pics.

Sorry about that, but that's it.

We are currently in Marstal, planning to cross back to Kiel and possibly beyond tomorrow. The forecast looks good to do this, it's not that big a thing: 30 miles is 5 hours to the Holtenau lock into the Kiel canal. Whether or not we'll actually go through the lock depends a bit on the waiting times: the smaller locks, which are normally used for pleasure craft are once again out of order so we'll have to lock with the big ships which can be quick or very slow.

As we'll need to set up Internet data for Germany, which at times can be a challenge, I can't promise a blogpost tomorrow. We'll see!

Location:Marstal,Denmark

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Birkholm

Birkholm is the Danish island with the smallest population, it's somewhere between 7 and 9! During summer it's a bit more as there are a few holiday homes. And in addition, there is the harbour, 40 by 45 m, but very popular. Currently we are here with some 20-odd mainly smallish boats. So that's another say 60 people!
There is no ferry, just the 'post boat', which only takes a few passengers and runs twice daily (only once in winter) between here and Marstal.
No paved roads of course, and the only motorised traffic consists of a tractor and a quad bike (we have not seen the tractor yet).
Walking around, we found the 'shop', consisting of a small room (connected to the 'community centre') housing two fridges. One for bottled water and one for ice cream and frozen bread. You leave the money in a Tupperware box on a table (one of the locals sells Tupperware!).
No fresh water at the harbour (but there is a sea water tap for washing up), but if you take a jerry can to the 'shop', there is a tap there.
Surprisingly, we found a second 'harbour', a jetty where there are a few boats that locals seem to use to go shopping, either in Marstal or in Ærøskøbing.

All in all a delightful place to be!

As promised yesterday, we'll try to post pictures tomorrow from Marstal!

Location:Ærø,Denmark

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Dreyø

Two years ago, Dreyø was the first of the small Danish islands where we spent a night. It set the scene ever since where we have enjoyed the small islands much more than the towns and cities.
Now we are back on Dreyø and it is not letting us down, still the same quiet atmosphere. After lifting the anchor at 10:20 in Thurø Bund near Svendborg, we were here shortly after midday and just in time to grab the last two regular berths. Whoever arrived after us either had to raft up or move on somewhere else.

We had a nice 'Cobb' with Jaap and Feikje. The Internet connection is a bit dicey so I am not going to try to post pictures tonight. The plan for tomorrow is an even smaller island or otherwise anchor so I can't promise pictures then either. But the day after we should be in Marstal which is a bit bigger and I'll make up for the lack of visual material.

Location:Drejø Brovej,,Denmark

Monday, July 28, 2014

Lohals and Thurø Bund

We continue to have fantastic sunny weather, quite warm too, sometimes we really need the breeze to cool down!

From Agersø we crossed the Belt (Storebælt) to Lohals on the northern tip of Langeland. It's not a bad place to stop, but it has not really got much of an atmosphere. Add to that the distance to the supermarket (Dågli Brugsen, 1600m) and you'll understand that it's not a favourite stop (the bakery is very nice though, but expensive!).

This morning we carried on southward. At the 'skippers meeting' ( which was held over coffee on board Onbekommerd as we had a birthday to celebrate!), we decided that it would be an 'anchor day'. The first option, in front of Valdemars castle on Tåsinge, was a bit too exposed to the North Easterly wind (although it looks pretty calm on this picture):





So we continued a bit to Thurø Bund, a very popular and protected bay, close to Svendborg. We are lying here at anchor with 28 other boats, including this nice traditional one:





The next few days we'll roam around a few more islands in the waters south of Funen.

This is the trip so far:





The overall plan is to cross back to Kiel (Germany) by the weekend but we'll keep the blog informed!

Saturday, July 26, 2014

Agersø

We up-anchored at Karrebæksminde early'ish (with apologies to Jaap and Feikje who were not quite ready at the time) and did a bit over two hours to Agersø, the most NW island in the Smålandsfarvandet.
The very friendly and helpful harbour master gave us two prime spots and told us it's the weekend of the Agersø harbour fest!

We started with a walk on the island, which has a Dutch-looking windmill, where the owner of a vintage MG was replacing his spark plugs. We admired the car:








During the night, a few late revellers from the disco in the village came for a swim in the harbour, but otherwise it was quiet.

This morning, Janine and Gwilym left. It's hard to realise that they were with us for a whole week, time certainly went fast! As we are on an island, they left by ferry:








Today, there was a fishing competition as well as live music and fried fish plus rye bread for sale at the harbour. All part of the harbour fest.














Tomorrow, we plan to move to Lohals, on Langeland. More news then.

Thursday, July 24, 2014

At anchor - Karrebæksminde

We did a rather long but pleasant stretch from Stege to Karrebæksminde today. As there did not seem to be a good reason to tie up in a mainly touristic beach resort, we decided to anchor just off one of the local beaches. Very nice, protected and peaceful. After a nice dinner, it's now time for the sun to set. Jildou is right behind us:





And there is only one other yacht at anchor here:





Good night!

Stege

We are now in Stege, on the island of Møn. We would have liked to go around the Eastern side of Møn, around Møn's Klint but there was still quite a lot of swell from the previous days with more wind and as that would have come in abeam we decided to take the comfortable option 'inside'.

Stege is nice enough, although not spectacular. In the church (St. Hans church by the way.....), is a very nice 'church ship'. One sees these in many Danish churches:





As you can see, there are also very nice frescos.

As promised, a map of our progress. I have tried to draw the 'way back' in red, but I'm not sure if this will show clearly enough on the blog. We'll give it a try!





Location:Kirke Pladsen,Stege,Denmark

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

And then there were three...

As reported earlier, we went to Faxe Ladeplads to meet up with Henk and Ria on Rasbora who are on their way to Copenhagen. Only an hour and a bit saw us arriving there:





So now, for a short period, there are three Valkvlets tied up next to each other here:





True to good Dutch custom we started with coffee:





After lunch, Lyn, Gwilym and Janine took the bus to Faxe, where there is a fossilised reef. We also went there when we were here two years ago, it is very interesting.











We ended the day with a communal BBQ, of which I have no pictures yet.

The weather continues to be gloriously sunny. We'll probably move to Stege next, by which time I shall include the updated map showing our travels.

Location:Havnevej,Strandlodshuse,Denmark

Monday, July 21, 2014

A walk along the Klint

We had a really nice walk today, along the 'Stevn's Trampesti', the hiking path all along the Klint. We walked up to Højerup, the place where part of an old church fell into the sea due to erosion of the soft chalk layer which undermined the harder limestone layer (see the post a week ago on this subject!). It is a 6.5 KM walk each way along a very easy path.

Looking back on Rødvig:





Looking ahead along the Klint:






There are many pretty flowers along the way:





The church the way it looked before 28 March 1928:





And now:





Looking out towards the missing choir:





At a restaurant near the church we had some lovely typical Danish open faced sandwiches:






And when we got back to the boat it was not long before it was supper time. It was 'Cobb weather' so......:





You can see Onbekommerd and the full Rødvig harbour in the background!

Tomorrow, we'll go to Faxe Ladeplads, just 7 miles away. There we'll meet a third Valkvlet, Rasbora, with Henk and Ria Nooter on board. They are still on the way North, towards Copenhagen.

Location:Lillevang,Rødvig,Denmark

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Back to Rødvig, a bumpy trip!

As planned, we went back from Ishøj to Rødvig today. The forecast was for a wind increasing from around 8 to around 15 knots.
The trip started quite easy around 8:30 and as the morning wore on, the sea started building from the East. The wind was quite light. By the time we got close to Stevn's Klint, the wind also started picking up and by the time we rounded Stevn's Fyr (lighthouse), we had 15 to 18 knots and quite big waves. Onbekommerd handled it without problems, but we steered in 'zig-zags' to avoid the waves coming in abeam which would have been uncomfortable. One of our guests suffered from a bout of seasickness, but the other three of us were fine!
By 1pm we arrived at Rødvig where we found the harbour already quite full. But both Jildou and us found secure spots and we were happy to have a bite of lunch. As the afternoon went on, the harbour really filled up and now it's jam-packed, with boats in all boxes and tied up three abreast in the alongside berths.
It's blowing probably 20 knots now, tomorrow will still be windy. We already had planned a walk along the Klint for tomorrow, so that's a good 'fit'. By tomorrow afternoon it should drop and by Wednesday conditions are expected to be good to continue our journey, generally south from now on.
No pictures today, unfortunately we were too busy driving and navigating the waves. But tomorrow we'll try to get some nice shots and post them!

Friday, July 18, 2014

Walking in Copenhagen and getting Onbekommerd up to scratch

Yesterday, we took the train into Copenhagen itself. We had learned about the 'Copenhagen free city walking tours' and as they have an excellent write-up we decided to try them out. At 11 we left the Rådhuspladsen under the able direction of Rikka, who took us on a very interesting 3 hour walk. Lots of historical and current information!

Here she is under the yellow umbrella:








The concept of the free walking tours is interesting, they work for tips only and you pay what you think it is worth. No heavy sell, maybe just a suggestion but I had the feeling that if you gave nothing it was also ok. But as the guides are so good, it would not surprise me if the average person would tip more than they would have been prepared to pay 'up front'.

One of our sights was Nyhavn and we later walked into the Lego store (of course Lego comes from Denmark) and saw Nyhavn there as well:














Today was less exciting: the boat needed a 'clean up' and 'sort out' inside and also a general checkup mechanically (oil levels, filters and strainers and stuff like that). So we spent the day doing all that, plus two loads of washing and a big shop to get the supplies back in order.

After all that a short rest and now we are ready to face the world again!

Location:Strandparksvej,Vallensbæk Strand,Denmark

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Ishjøj / Copenhagen

It was an uneventful trip to Ishøj, a suburb to the west of Copenhagen. It is about 15 minutes by suburban train to the city centre. We'll stay here until Sunday, do some of the 'tourist things', like a 'City Walk', something we always enjoy. The weather is sunny but not too hot, so a perfect day for it.
On Saturday our friends Gwilym and Janine from London join us for a week, which we are looking forward to.
There might not be daily updates whilst we are here, but if and when we have something to show or tell, we'll do so.

Finally, the map below shows how we got here.





Location:Søhesten,Ishøj,Denmark

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Along Stevn's Klint (15/7/2014)

We currently are in Bøgeskov. This is a very nice small harbour in the middle of nowhere, and there is no Internet connection at all, neither WiFi or 3G. Even a slow connection fails and we can't send SMS's, unheard of in Denmark.
So I am writing a blogpost, to be posted tomorrow from a bigger harbour.

After a very rainy and windy day in Rødvig yesterday, our trip today took us past Stevn's Klint. This is very interesting from a geological and historical point of view.

The 'Klint' or 'cliff' consist of two 'layers', the lower ons being soft chalk and the upper one relatively hard limestone. Each of those layers was formed by microscopic sea creatures. But obviously by different creatures. Over 66 million years ago, these creatures produced the soft chalk, but 66 million years ago there was a catastrophic change and the creatures that lived after that time produced the much harder limestone.
What was this catastrophic event?
The theory is that 66 million years ago, the earth was hit by a meteorite, which caused an enormous ash cloud all around the globe. This ash cloud stopped the solar rays from reaching the earth, which caused many plants to become extinct. As a result, many animals also perished, amongst which the dinosaurs, but also the sea creatures that produced the chalk. Once the ash cloud settled on the land, other forms of life took over, amongst which the ones (bryozoans) producing the limestone. In between the chalk layer and the limestone layer is a thin black line: the ash from the meteorite impact. It is called the 'fish clay' and is rich in Iridium, an element that is rare on earth but commonly found in meteorites which supports the above theory.

As the lower chalk layer is much softer than the upper limestone layer, the bottom is eroded from under the top as can clearly be seen in this picture taken from the sea this morning:





It is not surprising that from time to time, the top bit breaks off and falls into the sea. In 1928 this happened to a place where an old church stood and part of the church, the choir, fell into the sea. The remainder has since been strengthened so it won't fall too!





Historically, 'inside' the Klint there used to be a defensive base from the days of the 'Cold War'. The area can control the shipping traffic through the Sund, the waterway between Denmark and Sweden which the Russian ships would have to use to get from the Baltic ports into the North Sea. This fort is now a museum.

Once we got to Bøgeskov, we took a walk through the forest.








Tomorrow we'll go to Ishøj, a port just South of Copenhagen which will be our base for visiting the capital.

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Præstø and Rødvig

Last night, in Præstø, we gave the boat a good hose-down and wash. All the salt from the previous days was removed. Of course just one wave over the bows will put it all back, but nevertheless....
Then it started to rain a bit, but at 9pm a man with a trumpet arrived at the harbour and entertained us for half an hour with some simple tunes. The rain did not put him off, and the small audience clapped after each item.





This morning we did a two and a bit hour stretch to Rødvig. The wind was behind us, so no salty waves onto the boat :-).

We had planned to arrive early, this is a busy and popular stop on the 'Copenhagen route' and especially with a day of poor weather predicted for tomorrow, you need to get in before say 2pm to get a decent berth. We arrived just before 12 and had choice between a few spots, but an hour later people were struggling.





Rødvig is at the southern end of Stevns Klint, a chalk and limestone cliff.






When we leave here, probably on Tuesday, we'll go around the Klint for a few hours. It's not as high and impressive as the more famous Møns Klint (which you can also see in the distance from here), but it has some fascinating features about which we'll report tomorrow.

Location:Lillevang,Rødvig,Denmark

Saturday, July 12, 2014

Not Klintholm but Præstø. A lot of navigation

When we woke up this morning, the weather forecasts had changed considerably. We use two forecasts, 'Windfinder' as an app on the iPads and www.yr.no, a Norwegian forecast. Between the two of them, we seldom get surprises.
The forecasts for today and tomorrow suggested that to go to Klintholm today and around Møns Klint tomorrow might be a bit uncomfortable, so we decided to go to Præstø instead. We have previously wanted to go there, it is supposed to be a nice picturesque town.

As it is about 30nmiles from Vordingborg to Præstø, we left around 9:30:





You then have to navigate through 20nmiles of narrow channels, in the end you emerge from the Bøgestrøm into the Fakse Bugt which is quite open water. There was quite a lot of oncoming traffic and together with the precise navigation required, it was quite a busy day. Once in the Fakse Bugt, it's only about half an hour before you get into the unmarked channel towards the Præstø Fjørd. So using the GPS, visual observations and of course the chart, you get through the shallows to the buoys leading into the Præstø Fjørd and eventually Præstø Havn.

We found a nice place where we could use our stern buoy hook again, first time since Sweden last year. Stern buoys are the norm in Sweden but rare in Denmark:





The harbour here is indeed nice, but the town was pretty dead on a Saturday afternoon. Typical Danish 'vegetation' though:






Just before supper time, a swan family came to visit:





The weather appears to be changing a bit at the moment. After a few weeks with lots of sun, it's raining now. And our two forecasts give conflicting ideas about tomorrow's wind conditions.

So no predictions of where we'll be tomorrow, rather a review of how we got here:





Location:Havnepladsen,Praesto,Denmark

Friday, July 11, 2014

A bumpy ride, a blocked water strainer and a festival in Vordingborg

We did the trip from Femø to Vordingborg today. We knew it was still relatively windy but as the wind would be 'right on the nose', we knew it would be ok, which it was. Lots of water coming over the bows, but not uncomfortable. I have a video of it, but as the Internet connection is not good here, I am not even going to try to post it, maybe later. But we did take a nice picture of Jildou:





After some time, we noticed that there was no water coming out of the little vacuum breaker in the side of the boat and not a lot from the exhaust. And a little later the temperature alarm for the exhaust went off. The exhaust is cooled with outside water, which is pumped through a water strainer by a small impeller pump on the engine. The engine itself has it's cooling internally through the keel. We stopped the engine (the boat of course turned sort of side onto the waves which was a bit uncomfortable) and checked the strainer. This was full of weed, probably picked up in Femø harbour on our departure (we had checked and cleaned it the previous day). So we removed the weed, lots of it, not only in the strainer but also in the suction pipe. After that everything was back to normal. We put the weed into the basin in the kitchen for a picture:




We found a place in the very busy harbour at Vordingborg. There is a big festival going on here, with stalls in the pedestrian shopping street but also a big stage which currently features a band doing a reasonable Queen imitation, the lead singer has clearly carefully studied Freddy Mercury's every move! Again, I took a video which I unfortunately cannot post tonight.

Tomorrow, the wind is expected to be light and if that is indeed the case, we'll move on to Klintholm.

Location:Vordingborg

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

A classic boat rally in Femø

It was blowing quite hard today and most boats in the Femø harbour decided to stay.
But it was a nice and sunny day and around 10am the harbour master started to rearrange the harbour, making space for what was to come.
That was a visit of a number of classic old fashioned boats from the neighbouring island of Fejø. Some were small:





And others were quite big:





And most had big bowsprits:





They stayed for a few hours and contributed to the harbour atmosphere:






On leaving, a few set a jib, but most motored back to Fejø.





Tomorrow is still predicted to be quite windy, we'll make a decision whether or not to go on to Vordingborg. The forecast thereafter looks pretty good for a few days so we don't mind staying here another day.

Location:Femø Havn,Lolland,Denmark

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Femø

Yesterday, we were ready to leave Omø, the engine was running, the springs were off and one of the back mooring lines too. Then, after a rain squall, there was quite a bit of wind, so we decided to stay a bit. In the end, the wind dropped quite nicely but somehow we did not leave. No problem, we have no 'plane or train to catch! It did give Feikje a chance to get some nice sunset shots:








And some of the pretty little church and of 'Jildou' moored in a prime spot:








This morning we left around 11:30. We expected it to be slightly windy, but actually it was quite calm and only when we were two thirds of the way to Femø did the wind and the sea pick up a bit. Nothing uncomfortable though and by 2:40 we were tied up in Femø's little harbour. We had expected it to be quite busy but we had plenty choice of good berths. Less than half an hour later though, several other boats had come in and now it's not 'packed', but quite busy.

The forecast for tomorrow shows a lot of wind (and it is actually quite windy right now at 8:45 at night). So the chances are very big that we'll stay here tomorrow, which is fine as it is one of our favourite islands with a very nice atmosphere at the small harbour. I'll post some pictures tomorrow.

Location:Femø Havn,Lolland,Denmark