Back to motorboating - 23 Aug

Last night the Danish Tall Ship 'Fylla' tied up near us (though not too near, thankfully). Built in 1922, she worked as a cargo ship in Greenland for decades. Now she is a training ship for young people and available for charter. As you can see, we had a nice sunset hence the arty pics, including the moon rising behind the lighthouse.

It was such a quiet, balmy evening that we ate dinner in the cockpit, which is quite unusual. Then we were troubled by odd knocking noises outside. After considerable investigation we realised it was the stern warps creaking - they were under severe tension because the water level had risen and they were not sliding on the weathered old mooring poles. A lot of these island Harbours have quite poor fittings for tying up. We've noticed that there is often a water level change across perhaps 5-6 hours of up to half a metre - not sure whether it's the wind effect or tiny tides. Also the currents don't seem always to be logical. The Baltic Pilot book in summary says anything can happen!

This morning we left v early at 8am with the intention of threading our way for 30 miles through to the island of Aero, before the winds get up (because they will be on the nose of course). We motored in calm conditions, passing two Nicholson 55s crewed by Danish Navy - presumably they use them for training as the British used to do. We shot south under the bridge at Rudkobing doing 7kn with an unexpected fair current.

Then blow me, later when we turned north through ano channel we still had a small fair current. Sometimes it all just comes together. So we arrived in Aeroskobing much earlier than scheduled and managed to bag a good berth near facilities and sheltered from the expected high winds over the next few days. 

More on Aero later as we're planning to be here for a few days to enjoy this lovely island.