North through Dane Land

The Kiel canal was a bit like driving down a motorway with trees blocking the view on each side and after the Dutch and earlier French canals it seemed rather bland.

At the Kiel end we stopped for a few days before sailing towards Heiligenhaven but the wind forgot the forecast and turned East dead on our nose. After tacking for hours we anchored off a beach which was fine and the next morning headed for Heiligenhaven. This is just a tourist trap and we simply anchored off and left the next morning.

The next stop was Burgstaaken for a night then a rather poor anchorage North West of Gedser point before going to Klintholm marina on the island of Mon.

I have often noticed that many sailing folk from this area don't have very good anchor gear or skills and we are beginning to realise that they rarely anchor they just tend to sail from marina to marina which explains things. So far we have found very few decent anchorages.

It is all fairly flat but Mo did notice the local mountain - a sand dune at about 100ft high.

We were two days sail from Copenhagen but a gale was forecast and looking on the chart we noticed Koge tucked in the bay. It has a recently built marina and is very reasonably priced so we headed there.

A pleasant day was spent looking round the old town and visiting the museum where they give you an I pad with ear phones with an audio description all the exhibits. A really good system.

Currently Ti Gitu is sat in a 'box' berth in Koge waiting for the gale to pass. These 'box' berths are not easy to use, especially with 40ft, 15 tons and a cross wind. They are just two poles out from the pontoon which the boat passes through having to lasso them for the stern lines before getting a line ashore at the bow. Not easy at the best of times and in Klintholm it is made doubly difficult as there are not cleats to lasso but hoops that a rope has to be passed through. If there is no one ashore to help it is nearly impossible. Not designed by a sailor!! We have been somewhat comforted to see that the locals all seem to get it a wrong as us!!