Blog 11 Denmark and Fehmarn

So we are in the Baltic at last after being held up in part by poor weather. A high pressure has settled, Andy Murray has won Wimbledon, and all is well in the State of Denmark. Something has changed now that we are here. I did not realise how much the first bit was "getting there" when there was an unspoken pressure to push on and also I suppose it was that we were passing through places we had mainly been to before, however pleasant or interesting they were, the Baltic was the prize waiting at the end.

What better reward could there have been than for the weather to break into a cloudless Summer once into the Keil Fiord - purely chance of course but the sense of achievement and knowledge that we had been right to come was joyful. I think because of this feeling, these blog episodes will change tempo from the viewpoint of moving on, to one of discovery where the places visited become more important than the passage of time.

We had a phone call from life long sailing frends from the East Coast. I think they had been encouraged by our plans to return to the Baltic but had left England earlier than us and were already sailing around Denmark. It was great to meet up with them in Bagenkop, a picturesque Danish port with wooden buildings painted in the earth tones famous throughout ScandinavIia - terra cotta, ochre, powder blue, sage green all of which glow in the magical evening Danish sunlight. I was pleased at least that after three years in Copenhagen I still remembered how to say "I do not speak Danish" - in Danish with a flourish adequate to convince them I was a fluent, which I never was.

Reunion over, it was necessary to check out nearby Burgstaaken, the German harbour where we will leave Talisman for the Winter. In the shallow harbour the shallow depth alarm protested too muich and was switched off once more for the benefit of the nervous on-board but eventually we managed to find just enough depth to moor. Around the edge of the harbour stretches a very down to earth boat yard backed by huge boat sheds where the boats are kept over Winter, the gravel hard-standing was strewn with workman like bits some of which were most likely there when the Kaiser was a boy - but all would probably come in handy one day. We are very reassured by the confidence of the boss though. Burgstaaken is on Fehmarn, an island now joined to the mainland by a bridge across which countless thousands of German holiday makers come to stake out the extensive beaches, fill three towering hotels and cycle fearlessly round and around the islands interior on hired bikes. After the work a day harbour, I admit that I was surprised at how lovely is the town of Burg just two Kilometres up the road - beautiful wide tree lined streets paved in a wide range of cobbles of different colours, pavement terraces to eat bratwurst, drink or attempt to finish one of the outrageously large German ice cream creations and every shop seeming to be unique - easily comparable with the best market town at home. tomorrows host of holiday makers to return and take the air.