When we arrived, we noticed from outside the harbour that many boats were 'dressed'. That means that they had colourful rows of signal flags hoisted (the Dutch word is 'pavoiseren').
We thought 'good, there must be a 'havnfest' (harbour party). Entered the harbour, which was quite full. There were a few empty places but the harbour master made it very clear those were not available. In the end, we were fortunate to get a nice place from a yacht that was just leaving. We then discovered that all the commotion was because Queen Margarethe (with her husband Prince Henrik) was on the island! We are still not quite sure why she was inspecting this part of her realm today, but she was. And she was due to leave, by Royal Barge to the Royal Yacht, passing just meters behind the stern of the good ship Onbekommerd!
We had already spotted, as we arrived, that there was a rather large ship anchored right in the channel close to the harbour:
Yes, the Royal Yacht!
A bit later, the Royal Barge arrived to collect Her Majesty:
After quite a wait, a horse drawn carriage appeared, carrying the Royal party. The Queen boarded the barge and passed behind us. She is the lady in green, her husband is the chap who is waving:
Not great pictures as in the end it all happened very quickly!
We were struck by two things:
1. There was no visible security detail. No armed guards or police. Two small boats with what we thought might be plain clothes guards.
2. Although the atmosphere certainly was festive, there was no cheering or sounding of ship's horns as the Queen came past. I guess the fits in with the Danish sense of equality: she is just one of us, we don't make too much of a fuss about it.
All in all an enjoyable day: a nice relaxed voyage from Dyvig followed by a special occasion.
Tomorrow we plan to continue to Fredericia. More from there.
Location:Færgevej,Haderslev,Denmark
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