Last Trip

Wednesday was going to be set sail day, but we got up late and with the wind about 18 knots on the nose, we chickened out. In retalliation the Navy decided to buzz us with helicopters. There was obviously an exercise going on somewhere out at sea and the choppers kept flying over and landing in the sand dunes behind the marina. One guy flew (irresponsibly, we thought) at mast height down the marina. We fought back by taking pictures of them and shaking our fists.

We finally managed to get out of bed at a reasonable hour on the Thursday and had a glorious sail down the coast towards Århus, catching up and overtaking another yacht in the process (Oh, alright, it was smaller..) The wind finally shifted and died half way across Århus Bight, until filling back in and roaring us down to Hou. Hou (spelt Hov in some books) is a small (very small) one-horse Danish ferry town. Both the harbour and the yacht harbour were full so we laid alongside the quay - carefully missing the toilet pump-out station in the process. We had a dissapointing meal in a local restaurant.

The following day there was no wind at all, but strong south-easterlies were forecast for the day after so we set out for Bogense, on Fyn, to give us a reasonable line into Frederika. On the way into Hou, engrossed in getting the sails down, we had narrowly missed a wooden pile, painted red and acting as a port-hand navigation mark. At least Pat claims we missed it - I wasn't paying attention. Suspiciously, when we left Hou, the guys with the piling rig were out giving it some attention.... (We didn't hit it - honest . ED)

On the way down to Bogense we saw some Dolphins and a couple of Seals. The crafty Dolphins were leaping in and out of the water, except when they got within camera range, when they dived out of sight. The water was also so clear that you could not only see the bottom, but also the fish swimming beneath the boat - an odd feeling at 6 knots!

Bogense turned out to be a major boating centre, with a 600 berth marina and a tarted up fishing harbour. Marina fees are paid to a machine - an improvement over some harbourmasters. At least you don't have to indulge in polite conversation.

On Sunday we made for Middelfart in the Little Belt proper. The skys were overcast, it was raining, and there was no wind. We cheered up a little when we saw what we thought were Dolphins leaping just off Frederika. We now think they were harbour porpoises. Spurning the small old harbour in Middelfart, which was full of visiting German yachts, we decided to tie up in the yacht harbour. We arrived at the end of a race, with boats everywhere.

Tuesday blew a hooly so we laid over and went for a walk. It rained early on Wednesday but showed signs of brightening up, so we set off for Assens. The weather cheered up, the wind dropped out completely and the sea was like glass. Assens turned out to be a bit of a disappointment, as we couldn't find a decent restuarant to eat in - something that was to dog us for the last few days of the trip - we never ate a decent meal in Denmark again, and we're not that fussy!