Westwards onwards

Industrial Bandholm was rather nice and very peaceful. So as we left at our usual 0830 this morning we thought 'oh, good, the forecast NW wind is v gentle today.' But no, once out from the land it blew hard at us again. Whichever version of West we head, that's exactly where the wind comes from. Never mind, we are a motorboat for now. 

There's a small island just outside Bandholm with birds on every branch of every tree. (Pic) Are they vultures? Is this Africa? No they are cormorants - a most unusual sight.

Today's 6 hour passage was picturesque at times followed by some uneventful open water. The sun shone but there is a real chill in the air. We passed many wind turbines. In Maribo y'day we got talking in a cafe to two young Englishmen who work on building and maintaining the turbines. They said what a great job it was, 6 months work then 6 months off and they can work anywhere in the world. I suppose we could call them wind-riggers, they are the new oil-riggers as wind replaces oil.

We arrived at a very empty marina at Spodsbjerg on the island of Langeland, and had a little difficulty tying up in the usual box berth because the wind was blowing hard across us. Since then many yachts have arrived,  all having versions of the same difficulty - though it is easier if you can slot in between two others because they break the wind and you can 'lean' on them (using your fenders) while getting the warps set. I read somewhere that berthing in Scandinavia is considered a contact sport and that's certainly true. Generally people are very helpful and turn out to grab a bow line.

You might call this a passage port for us because there's no land-based reason to be here, it's just a convenient resting place en route to our target which is the island of Aero, of which we have very fond memories from last year. On a prosaic note, we are taking the chance to do our washing here just before running out of underwear.