Peter & Ginger - Exploring Under Sail

Irene did indeed sail right through Denmark and Germany. Both countries have inland routes allowing seagoing vessels to travel from the North Sea to the Baltic and vice versa. We are always interested in a bit of freshwater travel and appreciated the added bonus of getting into the Baltic without rounding the north end of Denmark. We preferred to avoid the Skagerrak, notoriously rough and busy. Irene's path through Denmark (map from nationsonline.org) On a dark windy May night Irene arrived at Thyborøn, the western terminus of the Limfjord, Denmark. We seem to make a habit of arriving at new ports in the night. Definitely not by choice, it just happens that way. Sometimes we stand off at sea until daylight for safety’s sake. But in this case, emboldened by good charts, a sandy flat bottom, good buoyage, and fishing boat traffic to follow, we roared right past the breakwaters into the entrance, rounded up and dropped sails, and motored slowly into the yacht basin (clea...

Our winter in Ardrossan, Scotland? Predictably cold, dank, windy and long and bleak. But we did not hate it. We enjoyed our long dark evenings – cabin warm with the Reflex heater cranked up and kerosene lamp lit, gale howling in the rigging outside, watching episodes of “Outlander” on the laptop (maybe not the best educationally but somehow appropriate) and lingering over long meals. With a drink or two. Or three. Pillows and lap blankets were employed. We were safe – let the gales rage on! Sometimes we would crawl out of our cocoon and check out the sea state out on the Clyde. The Firth of Clyde: often agitated Waves overtop the outer breakwater near the ferry dock The ferry parking lot collected beach rubble thrown over the wall by the force of the waves. Locals knew to never leave a vehicle there during a gale. A massive boulder had smashed a car flat in a previous winter. In the calms between gales we walked up the hill to the local castle, around town, sho...