Scandinavian Summer
Every summer I go cruising with my teenage sons to distant European harbours. In 2018 we decided to spend our six-week holiday exploring Denmark and Sweden before using the Kiel Canal in Germany to take the short-cut home to the Netherlands.
My wife would join us in Germany and I’d take various crew for the different legs, on board our 1973 Pearson 36, Skylark. My deal is that I provide all the food and beverages and they make their own travel arrangements.
Once the hard work of planning and paperwork had been done, I had plenty of willing crew members to keep me company from Enkhuizen to Skagen, the most northerly part of Denmark.
The distance was 400 miles, and with Skylark capable of 120 miles a day, we were looking at three days or more of sailing across the North Sea.
The west coast of Denmark is quite shallow, often a lee shore and with not many attractive harbours. The ones that are there service the fishing and wind generator industries. We therefore decided to make Vlieland – one of the Dutch Frisian Islands, eight hours away – our first port of call.
From there we headed north-east to Skagen. Of course, the wind was coming from the north-east, so lots of tacking was required but the weather was sunny and clear. Not everything can be perfect!
On that first evening the sky was clear and there was no land on the western horizon. Over evening cocktails, the crew and I were treated to a spectacular sunset. Unfortunately it wasn’t to last.
High winds
The skies turned grey and it began to drizzle off and on for the next two days. The winds were still from the north-east and gusting 25 knots. I’d prepared chilli con carne and spaghetti sauce in advance to cut down on cooking at sea and it was