29/06/2009 Fehmarn (D) to Klintholm (DK) and Simrishamn (S)

Sailing in the Baltic does not only allow you to pick your time of breakfast and departure because of the absence of tides but it allows you also to cross several national boundaries in no time at all. When we left the island of Fehmarn (D) we stopped over at Warnemünde and took the train to Rostock, a lovely city of the old Hanseatic League, before we motorsailed (with no wind at all!) to Klintholm (DK) a little harbour on the Danish island of Møn, SE of Copenhagen,before we made our way to Simrishamn (S) where we arrived on the 1st of July – one month after we set off from Newton Ferrers. On our way to Simrishamn we passed the point where the three countries meet in the Ostsee (Baltic) which is marked by a big Racon near ‘Kriegers Flak’ a shallow patch in the deep water channel. Most sailors know Klintholm by its treacherous approach at night with many permanently positioned standing nets (Stellnetze) extending 1.5 NM to sea.

The time of ‘dead calm’ was intensely used by Regina to learn (at least) one important knot – the bowline. The smile shows that she succeeded after some trials and errors.

Simrishamn was the first harbour on our trip where we met 3 British vessels on their way to Stockholm and beyond. It was also the first time that we met another RCC member (Rapscallion of the Russel) with whom we exchanged some sailing yarns. They were extremely helpful when we moored in the shallow harbour and when thanked – pointed to our masthead burgee and theirs as the natural explanation. (Now we know why RCC members fly the burgee at masthead level!). Interestingly they also had some problems with their masthead fixing of the burgee and went up the mast as soon as we were moored.

This photo of the Simrishamn harbour indicates almost in chronological order all the countries we left and/or entered.

PS (…did we forget to mention the E and NE …?)