Schleimünde

Quite some time has passed since the last 'proper' blogpost. Apologies for that, at first there was not a lot to report and then we had no serviceable Internet. As I write this, we have no Internet at all, but that is due to the remoteness of our location (more later) and I hope to post this tomorrow from our first Denmark stop, in Sønderborg.

After the last post, we spent two more days in Rendsburg, waiting for the wind to drop. Normally, we would have proceeded to Laboe, near Kiel but due to 'Kieler Woche' there were no moorings available there, plus we were waiting for some spares for our hydraulic steering cylinder to arrive from Holland, so Rendsburg it was. We once went back to the 'ship greeting station' at the canal (see earlier post) in order to see the 42000 tonne cruise liner 'Europa 2' pass. This is about the biggest ship that can pass through the canal, it just fits underneath the 40m bridge:





On Tuesday morning we finally left. We were lucky with the locks at Kiel-Holtenau, only a 15 minute wait or so and we were allowed in. When the lock doors start to open, you are finally in the Baltic!





Getting out of the Kieler Förde plus the firs few miles outside was hard work due to the heavy traffic as well as the regatta courses for the many classes that race here this week. We did not spot the 420 class, where our friends Asenathi and Roger from Cape Town are competing.

After that is became more relaxed and a few hours later we tied up in Kappeln for the 'shopping for beer and wine before Denmark' expedition (alcoholic drinks are very expensive in Scandinavia, so everyone stocks up in the last German port, of which 'Praetorius' in Kappeln makes good use!

This afternoon, we left Kappeln and went back to the mouth of the Schlei, Schleimünde. This is a tiny harbour on an isthmus which is separated from the accessible mainland by a nature reserve. The result is that can only access it by boat. Some passenger ships come during the day, but after about 5pm it's just pleasure craft. It's a uniquely quiet experience.
As the weather is great, we could fire up the Cobb:





And the view towards the Baltic is very nice:





As in most places in the Baltic, the water is very clear, this picture shows what one can see underwater:





I really hope this will all post ok tomorrow when we set up our Danish Internet. We'll make a short stop in Sönderborg to organise all of that and then continue to Dyvig, a quite remote bay on the island of Als. I'm not sure what the connection will be from there, so if there is another gap in the blogposts, you know the reason!