Denmark and the Limfjord

Sunday 31^st July 2011 – Denmark again!

Leaving Norway

The rising sun over Norway

We left Norway at 5 am with the sun just rising and had an uneventful if rather lollopy crossing to Denmark, the sails were in and out throughout the day, the force 3 – 4 wind was behind us from the north west, and the motor on the whole way.  The 96 miles to the Thyboron entrance were accomplished in just over 12 hours we the continued on into the Limfjord for a further couple of hours before picking up a mooring buoy in a bay just before Lemvig.

Back in Denmark - not a mountain in sight!  

Distance motored / sailed: 107 nm

Monday 1^st August 2011 – Our first meal out since early May!

It was lovely to wake to sunshine and warmth, the water temperature in the Limfjord is between 23 – 26 degrees C, so I had my first proper swim of the summer, 40 minutes before we left and followed the channel the 3 miles up to Lemvig, where we re-fuelled – we are back to expensive diesel at approx £1.40 a litre (one of the few less expensive things in Norway was the diesel averaging about £1.10 a litre). 

We last visited Lemvig in the summer of 2006 when our main trip was to sail the Limfjord and a restaurant (Mathilde) that had been recommended to us was closed as it was a Monday.  However, to our surprise we found it open – now under new management – and we had a very good self-service buffet lunch, James said the fish soup was one of the best he’d ever had (I could not try it as it had shrimps etc in it!).  This was only our first meal out since 8^th May, when we eat at Burger King in Stavanger to get Internet access!

After lunch we did a quick shop, mainly to stock up with boxes of wine at £9 and Vermouth which I was nearly out of!  Then we headed off to another favourite anchorage of Harre Vig, arriving at 8pm.

Sunset in the Limfjord

Distance motored / sailed: 29 nm

Tuesday 2^nd August 2011 – Enjoying the Limfjord

Another fairly leisurely morning, I had my 40 minute swim before breakfast, on leaving the anchorage we were able to do our ‘good deed’ for the day and pulled a Swedish yacht off the spit at the entrance to the bay, on which they had grounded.

James' 1st swim of the season

We had a good sail to the Island of Fur, where we moored to the jetty and went for a cycle ride around the Island retracting our steps of 5 years ago!  Then we motored around the corner to a bay off the Island where we found the only buoy unoccupied. Here even James was persuaded to swim and I took the opportunity to sponge down the sides of the boat – amazingly not very dirty after more than 3000 miles.

Distance motored / sailed: 18 nm

Wednesday 3rd August 2011 – another meal out!

Livo mooring

Another bright sunny morning saw me doing my 40 minute swim to the beach for a walk and a swim back.  James also took a dip before breakfast.  Then it was off for the short motor (6 miles) to the tiny island of Livo, where once again we got the bikes out and retraced our route of a few years ago, instead of a new born calf and unafraid hare that we saw in June 2006, I picked wild red currents and yellow plums and we were plagued by flies!   

A view from Livo

On returning to the boat we found that the wind had got up and our berth was untenable as we were being blown on to the jetty and the stern buoy could not be made any tighter.  So we hurriedly      folded the bikes and left. 

We had a super sail to Logstor, the scene of a very good meal for our wedding anniversary in 2006, so we returned to the Kulgaarden restaurant for a late lunch of mussels and old fashioned Danish apple cake, overlooking our boat tied alongside the old canal wall.

Going through the bridges at Aalborg

We decided that as we had been able to eat at the restaurant that we would continue our passage through the Limfjord so left and motored to Aalborg to get through the railway and road bridges just before they closed for the night at 2100 hours.  We then negotiated the very narrow buoyed channel to the small club marina of Norre Uttrup on the outskirts of the town.

Berth at the marina DKK 100, water and electricity included.  Envelopes for money in the club house along with showers etc.

Distance motored / sailed: 44 nm

Thursday 4^th August 2011 – Strong winds on the nose

Nine hours after tying up at Norre Uttrup we were off, I went back to bed (neither of us had had a good nights sleep due to heat, probably a bit of sun burn, and a mosquito that kept buzzing us!) and slept very well until we started to crash around.  We had completed the last 18 miles of the Limfjord and were out into the Baltic with a strong easterly wind (5 -6 gusting 7) on the nose which made for an uncomfortable motion, crashing into the waves in fairly shallow waters 6 – 10 metres.  We debated turning back but decided to continue even though we were regularly losing between 2 – 3 knots speed over the ground, as much due to the wind as the tide, because the Baltic does not have much tide mainly wind drift.

It was a relief twelve hours later to be tied up in the shelter of Grenaa Marina.

Berth at the marina DKK 190, water and electricity (I think) included.  The payment sticker for the boat is got from a machine by the Harbour Office which takes local currency, Euros and credit cards, at the same machine you can get a harbour card on which you put money for showers, washing and drying machines.  There is free internet access.

Distance motored: 79 nm