Today we sailed for 58 NM and we only made it to Heiligenhafen/Germany, which is 35NM from our starting point Lübeck. That is what happened:
After breakfast we start rather relaxed, the whether shows some clouds but is not bad. We are sailing downstream the river Trave and are looking forward to our 4 weeks vacation trip just starting today.
On the Baltic Sea we are running butterflying before the wind. It is almost a bit boring, nothing is happening. The sun is shining, the sailing is very calm and we are relaxed.
We are approaching the Fehmarnsund-Bridge. It is always an exciting moment, since it always looks like Madita's mast is too high for passing beneath the bridge....
...but of course the sea charts are correct, the height is more than enough...
In the meanwhile it is evening and we are close to the harbor Orth/Fehmarn. Suddenly Wolfgang suggests to take advantage of the good conditions and sail the whole night and arrive tomorrow already on the first danish island.
Everyone on board is fond of the idea (well, Hugo's answer was kind of ambiguous...) I prepare dinner, the children are allowed to watch a movie before sleeping. We feel great. It couldn't be such a big deal to cross the Atlantic....
Far away we see the cargoships on the main ship lanes. We calculate that we are going to cross this crowded waterway just at dawn.
But suddenly dark clouds appear....
Wolfgang is able to jump into his oil-skin when it starts to rain cats and dogs. A blast swings the sail, the wind rises to 6 Beaufort, around us nothing can be seen anymore: No land, no cargoship.....We feel most uncomfortable to cross the main ship lane with no sight; we don't want our first vacation day to end at the bow of such an sea giant. Quickly we decide to skip the "Atlanticcrossing" for today and go back for Orth/Fehmarn. We motor against the wind, Madita is pitching trough the built up sea and I suffer acute and severe seasickness.... on the navi screen I follow every millimeter we are getting closer to the harbor. Wolfgang just says:"Don't worry just a little bit further we will be protected by the land and then it will be much calmer...." In that very moment the motor say three times "töff, töff, töff" and stops running. The motor is broken, it is pitch-black, it is raining and Hugo needs a tree......
We set sails and think about which harbor is best for us in this situation...I should mention, that we never landed under sails before. Heiligenhafen seems to be the best opportunity. Wolfgang tries to get into radio contact with the harbor in hope to get some help before we crush into the pontoon. But the only one responding is Bremen Rescue, offering to send a rescue boat. But of course it is not that much of an emergency situation; we thank Bremen Rescue and sail through the night. The rain is getting lesser and the moon looks at us from behind the clouds.
When approaching Heiligenhafen, we see many many light and have to figure out, which ones to follow...
The entrance is not trivial, since there is a huge sandbank in front of the harbor area. Every now and than unexperienced sailors ground here....Good luck, that wind decreased and we slide quietly over the dark water. From time to time a sea gull is flushed by our position lights.
There are two dockyard harbors around. We take the first one, Wolfgang let the genua flap to get slower. By hair's breadth we pass a tick steel pile, but then Madita lays fixed on a pontoon. Wolfgang walks the dog on land. When they both appear back from the darkness, he claims, that this harbor is not the best one, he wants to try out the second. Nothing easier than that, we set sails again and sail out of the harbor, but there is hardly any wind in the sails, therefore we slowly drift in direction of the sandbank. I prepare myself to explain why we are grounded at 2:00 in the morning although we already were safely in the harbor. In the very last moment, the sail catches some wind and we are sailing in the right direction and quietly reach the next harbor. It is 2:30 when we finally lay in bed.
The next day is sunday and not mechanic available to look after our motor.
On monday we are able to figure out what the problem is: We have a stowaway on board....
He is glibbery, of an undefined green-yellow-grubby color, but good luck he is not stinking. His rather unresonant name is dieselpest or biocorrosion.
He lived in our tank for an undetermined time periode, but most likely he is not much younger than Madita herself.
With the help of a steel brush Wolfgangs asks him very politely to leave, which he does without any further resistance.
It is a day full of work for Wolfgang, but after changing the filters and cleaning the tank, the motor is running again. Tomorrow we can start heading north, without fear that the motor might stop in the middle of the west swedish skerries because of a blocked fuel pipe.
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