Diary of
September
2011

September 1st
A beautiful sunrise started this first day of september. Sure, there were clouds all around the horizon, but blue sky right above Maasholm.
I left Maasholm fairly soon and after a couple of hours I passed the border between Germany and Denmark. I had danish town Sönderborg right ahead. Stopped the boat and changed from German to Danish guestflag and Sönderborg greeted me with a heavy rainshower!
Thanks for that! Will be remembered!
But as soon as I entered Sönderborg harbour the rain stopped and the fair weather was back, so no hard feelings.
I continued northwards through Als Sund and sailed into Dyvig, a harbour I visited in 1998 and wanted to see again. It is supposed to be one of the most beautiful places in Denmark. At least according to certain ads. I remember it as a nice and pieceful harbour, and so it was this year too.
Sure, in 1998 it was a typical Danish Kro by the bridge. This Kro has since then been totally rebuilt to a Summer-hotel with a Sailors-resturant and a gourmet-restaurant, and a lot of hotel-rooms. In a very nice way. And with very helpful staff!
But I miss one thing, the fueling facility that is mentioned in the books I have. A shame.
Anyway. I had a nice afternoon and evening. And with plenty of food in the fridge I had to eat onboard, and thus could no try the gourmet-restaurant! Such a pity!
When the harbourmaster showed up to get his share of my few pennies, I asked him about the Viking-ship that some people here were building in 1998.
- Sure, he answered. It's finished and is now at show in a house 300 meters from the harbour.
But didn't know at what times. Must try to see it tomorrow morning before departure. But I can't afford to stay another day if the weather permits me to leave.

A farm by the fairway in to Dyvig	A bird colony by the fairway into Dyvig	Swallows nests at the hotel

September 2nd
The harbourmaster said that the newbuilt Vikingship was in en museum 300 meters from the harbour.
Well, after seeing the toilet this morning I walked 300 meters in the direction he said. Saw nothing. Continued another 300 meters - nothing. And so on. Must have been at least 1 500 meters, and there it was!
Of course the museum was not open at this time of the day and I found out that it was only open on Thuesday evenings and Saturday afternoons, so to see the ship I must plan the trip better next time. If you are interested you may learn more about it at www.hjortspring.dk.
So, after breakfast i left Dyvig and headed north.
According to the harbourguides I have they should sell fuel in Dyvig, but not so, so I examined those guides again and found that one of the harbours in Middelfart sells diesel. But I also found that there was diesel in the harbour in Årösund, so I tried there first.
Bingo! From an automat I got 87 liters and now have enough to get to Grenaa.
Having found diesel on route I didn't have to go to the "diesel-harbour" in Middelfart, so I decided to choose one harbour closer to the city center.
And I had a special intention with that! The oldest kro in Denmark is located in the city center.
When I visited Middelfart with Bibbi in 1998 I moored in the diesel-harbour and walked a long, long way to shop in the city. I saw the kro, but it was mid-day and too early for dinner. And in the evening I didn't want to walk so far for dinner.
But now, moored only one block away from the old kro, I decided to have dinner there. And it was delicous! Old fashion style. In an old, wellkept house. Not cheap, but very well worth the money.
However. The coffee, cognac and some goodies were served on Bibbi, while writing these few lines.

One of many beautiful views today. Islands hanging between sea and heaven, islands in the water, fantastic clouds and all those colours!	One of many sand-cliffs I passed today.	The town Årösund seen from the sound. I stopped here I filled diesel.

September 3rd
Another nice day at sea.
In Middelfart there was no wind at all and the forecast was light winds.
And it was a fine trip during two hours. Some old waves but no wind.
After that I had close to an hour with wind and waves that were not pleasant. Everything came from aside the boat, so it was actually rather annoying.
But the rest of the trip was OK. Some waves but the wind faded and I changed the course so it was quite a pleasant trip from there.
When I started I had not decided where to go. And I changed my mind about that several times during the day.
Maybe Mårup at Samsö - an old favourite. Maybe - Tunö, everyone says it's a gem. Maybe - Öerne fritidsby, because it is a canal into it, and it has a lock too!
But in the end I changed my mind totally and set the course to Norsminde.
For one reason: If the winds tomorrow come from the same direction as today, to start from Norsminde will give the most pleasant trip tomorrow!
Anyway, it's not far from Norsminde to Grenaa where Ingrid hopefully will join me on Monday.
So if I leave Norsminde in due time tomorrow I have the chance to stop a while at Öernes Fritidsby and take some photos of the canal and lock into the harbour there!
Let's hope this works.

The harbour seen from the sea	The harbour seen from the other side of the river	Norsminde used to be a trade center, that was long ago. But the house is still there.	There were "thousands" of swallows in the harbour!

September 4th
A beautiful morning with a fantastic sunrise and no wind. Warm too.
But when I got started and got outside the harbour I noticed there was wind, indeed!
Must admit that I do not understand the Danish weatherreports, which is a shame, but that's the way it is. I can read them in the morning-paper, but there was no chanse to find one of those in this harbour on a Sunday morning.
Well it was not as bad as yesterday and it was only when I reached the southern tip of Helgenaes and turned towards northeast under the Sletterhage lighthouse the waves started to annoy me. There the waves were short and quite high so Bibbi jumped around. Not pleasant, but no danger.
This was soon done with when I turned towards east-north-east to get to Öernes Maritime Ferieland which was my first goal for the day. Mainly for taking photos of the canal and the lock into the harbour. Then the waves calmed down.
My intention was to take those photos and after that continue to Grenaa. But under present conditions that would not have been a pleasant trip, so I decided to stay over night at Öernes.
As I arrived fairly early I had lots of time strolling around. I went off to take photos of the lock and the canal from the sea. I went to see the shop. And wandered around between the summerhouses. I guess that about half of them now are empty and for sale.
This is actually an old mine for gravel and sand. When that business ended someone popped up with the idea to create an maritime summer-land here and in the mid, end of the 1980:ies this was finished.
I must admit that I like the idea. Almost all houses have direct contact with the water. The whole area is smartly designed, typically modern Danish! But many houses need to be refurbished. Guess that half of them are empty and for sale. A pity. With more people around it would have been so much nicer.
I called Ingrid in the afternoon. She is coming back tomorrow. With the ferry to Grenaa. Mid-day.
But I will not leave Öerna if the wind is the same as today. From what I've read, the wind will change from southeast to southwest tomorrow.
If the wind turns to southwest I can hide safely behind the coast, but with southeastern winds I will stay safely in Öernes harbour.

Beautiful sunrise	This trimaran has just left the lock and is now heading for the windy sea!	One of many canals in this holiday village	A sailingboat coming home to the holiday village through the lock

September 5th
I woke up very early this morning and immediately heard the rain hammering on Bibbi. But there was no wind at all!
I was afraid the rain could stop me from leaving Öerne today.
Made an early breakfast and by then the rain was not hammering so hard on Bibbi and when the cleaning up onboard was finished there was only a light drizzle in the air. So I made Bibbi ready ansd went to by a morning paper and some bread.
They open the lock at 9 and five minutes before that I moored at the waiting bridge and soon enough I was through the lock and out on Kattegatt.
As soon as I left the canal all rain stopped.
Kattegatt this morning was absolutely calm. No wind what so ever! But some small and wide waves from yesterday.
It was a nice trip all morning. I saw land all the time and sailed very close to land. Some light mist.
I met four sailingboats, all sailing with the help of an engine like me.
Found a nice place to moor in Grenaa and walked around a while as I had one hours wait for the ferry from Varberg with Ingrid onboard.
When it arrived I was there to meet her and greet her welcome back to Bibbi. Onboard I served a welcome drink and we chatted a while before I went into town to get some fresh food for dinner.
We spent the afternoon lazerly as well as the evening.
In the late afternoon the wind came back. Up 15 meters per second accordning to the forecast. Let's the strong winds does not last as long as the forecasts guess . . .
As it was an very early morning, both for Ingrid and me, it was also an early evening.

The ferry from Sweden arrives in Grenaa . . .	. . . with Ingrid on board!	Grenaa å towards the city center . . .	. . . towards "our" harbour, with the old "Beach" hotel at left.

September 6th
Quite pleasant weather this morning. Warm and no rain. But unfortunately far too much wind! We could not leave the harbour with so much wind, and accordning to the forecast the wind will increase during the day and in the evening reach about 17-18 m/s.
So we stayed in Grenaa. Spent most of the day sightsseing in the city center, which was rather nice. Ingrid surely enjoy looking at the clothes hanging on stands in the streets, as well as the scuptures we passed.
I was always a few steps ahead of her as she looked at everything.
But I was the one who bought things!
After a couple of hours we got hungry and set down in a café. They served very nice sandwiches, with nice Danish beer.
After that we bought some wine and took the bus back to the harbour.
We really did not need dinner after those sandwiches, but I bought small pieces of smoked fish in the Fishharbour, just to have something in the evening. At it tasted excellent!
Soon after we had returned to the boat it started to rain. Heavily! It lasted several hours, did not stop until about 9 o'clock.
We spent the afternoon and evening reading, writing and solving riddles in crosswords. Ingrid studying sculptures in Grenaa

September 7th
Windy and cold all day with a few rainshowers. The wind was strong, up to 17 ms, so not a chance to leave Grenaa.
We spent the day lazily. Ingrid was reading one of her books almost all day, while I strolled around, shopped food for dinner and so on.
During the day the wind changed direction once or twice, which is good for us! It makes the waves much smaller and easier to handle.
We have whatched the Danish forecast for Kattegatt a couple of times today and now in the evening, while writing this, it seems fairly good for tomorrow. It doesn't really matter how strong the wind is. The height of the waves is much more important. And it seems the waves will be between 0,5 and 1 meter along the coast all day tomorrow.
So maybe we will be able to leave Grenaa tomorrow.
But as usual, we'll wait and see. Those forcasts have been wrong before!

September 8th
Cloudy this morning but the sun got chances to show up. Wind, but not much, and coming from west, that is from land to sea here.
The weather was thus ideal for leaving Grenaa and closely follow the coastline either north or south. As Ingrid and are on our way home to Gothenburg we choosed the obviuos route northwards.
We sailed along close to the coastline easily without trouble all the way to Hals without disturbing waves and saw the first pleasureboats outside Hals. Otherwise we were all alone apart from a few fishingboats.
In Hals we were greeted welcome by the harbourmaster who showed us to a calm and nice place by his office. Toilets next door. Excellent!
I walked around in the harbour and found that much had changed since we were here last. That was in 1998!
I found a new supermarket, which is good. And a fishmongler that fixed todays dinner, both entre and main course!
There are several signs on the harbourmasters house that points out that there is no internet in the harbour. That made me curios so I tested. There is a free WiFi in the harbour with excellent connection!
Ingrid and I are now planning to leave Hals tomorrow morning and sail to Säby which will be an excellent start for the crossing to Sweden.
If the forecast we saw this afternoon comes true, it will be OK to cross Kattegatt on Saturday. But as always, when it comes to the weather, we will have to wait and see!

September 9th
A very nice morning with sun and clouds. The wind was cold but not strong. I first bought food for the weekend and then a fleece-jacket. Ingrid bought a jacket too.
And finally we left Hals for the trip to Säby. An old favourite of ours from the 70:ies and 80:ies. Much has changed there, but some is still the same.
We walked around a while and Ingrid suggested that we should celebrate this, hopefully, last evening in a foreign country this summer with dinner at a restaurant. So we searched around the harbour for a nice and cosy restaurant and only found two. Both of them only serving buffé's with fish, crabs, lobsters and so on.
That was not what we were looking for, so the chef onboard had to work this evening too!
We had a nice day and evening. Very calm and nice. Waiting for the big jump over Kattegatt.

The church in Säby	Frederikshavn seen from Säby	Bibbi in Säby

September 10th
The forecast for this day was good. Wind between 2 to 7 ms, from south or west. Tonight increasing to between 9 and 13.
When we woke up it was hardly any wind at all. But it was cloudy. And when we were ready to leave Säby it started to rain!
But we were determined to leave Säby this morning. The forecast for today was good. But the wind would increase a lot the coming night and be very strong the coming days. That meant that we would probably have to stay here several days waiting for the next chance to leave.
When we got out of the harbour there were some "old" waves and very little wind. We had a pleasant sailing over to and north of Läsö.
When we had passed Läsö for the last passage over to Sweden the wind increased a little and the waves had a bit more power, but it was never unpleasant.
And soon we reached Brustholmarna, our club island. We were greeted welcome home by the crews from the two boats there.
As soon as we had settled we opened our bottle of champagne and really enjoyed it. Thinking of all the troubles we have had during the trip, but also of all the friendly, kind and helpful people we have met. All the beautiful places we have seen. All those nice harbours we have visited.
At this time of the year the evening and night comes very early, so the bottle of champagne was not totally empty when it was time for dinner.

Bibbi II back at Brustholmarna

Well, we got to Champagne and we bought a genuine sparkling bottle there. We brought it back home to Brustholmarna in Sweden. And celebrated the whole tour, and not the least, coming home again, by opening that bottle! We both enjoyed it very much.

September 11th
It was sunshine, thunder, rain and wind this morning.
We spent the morning lazely at Brustholmarna. Reading, strolling around, chatting with the other people there. At noon we left the island and sailed the short leg to our homeharbour Hinsholmskilen. Packed the car full and went home to Södermalm.
Everything was is good order at home, so our boys have done a good job here. Thanks to you both!
After we had unloaded the car I wbet back to the boat to unload more. Then the sun showed up and it got very hot!
Spent at least a couple of hours on Bibbi to unload and tidy up.
At home we had dinner, and I made backup from my laptops to my stationary computors. That took a while . . . !

A beautyful morning - until the thunder and rain came!

I found a dead bird on the island this morning. It was marked, so I will report it.

At the same bridge in Maasholm as Bibbi I saw this old Nimbus 26 in good shape. It must be from 1977 or 1978.
Bibbi II was built, and bought new by the Arnholm family in 1974.