Rugen Saturday 24th May The sun has left a peach haze hanging over the horizon now that we have cleared away the supper things from the cockpit. It is a totally calm evening, Summer warm and silent. Martins circling the water make the only discernable sound and I find time to write. We are in Rugen, a collection of islands and stretches of water almost like vast lakes separating the islands, each having a network of closely buoyed channels to lead from one por...

Its a short flight to Hamburg and I usually feel short changed by the brilliant sunlight above the clouds knowing so well how it is for us mortals living in the gloom below. Apprehension had plagued us both for days but all of this vaporised in that moment above the clouds - it must be good being an angel. I should have felt impressed with the Avis lady who took pleasure in emphasising that she was giving me a new car and I was to be the first driver - I made ...

To paraphrase as they say here "For you Tommy, the trip is over." We leave the boat here and start from here next year. Fehmarn is effectively a German holiday island now linked to the mainland by a bridge and has one other trick up its sleeve in that the main railway from Berlin to Copenhagen passes through it thus providing excellent travel connections to two international airports and so a really good place to leave a boat. Even more fun if you are flying f...

Blog 14 Warnemunde, Germany Kuhlungsborn is a seaside holiday destination with a new yacht harbour built out from the beach and a little distant from the original town. It was unfortunate that we arrive when it was almost full up because of a nearby sailing event and also being the weekend so rafting alongside a large aged yacht it was comfortable enough even if the pair of us looked like Laurel and Hardy, not long afterwards a German yacht full of charming you...

Blog 13 Wismar former East Germany I found Wismar fascinating, in part because I wanted to see the former East Germany and also because of the surprises it kept offering. The harbour area did not disappoint my preconceptions - four vast railed cranes groaned and screeched as they fed a creeping goods train with mountains of pulversised scrap metal, forests of pungent timber destined for wood chip and nameless commodities which were either grey or brown and hi...