Tuesday, 23 July
For those of you wondering how we measure our distance sailed, we are clocking our nautical miles through the water – this is often more than the distance as the bird flies because we have to tack (not even La Bamba can sail straight into the wind) and we sometimes have to sail against or with a current that can add or detract from the total.
Today was our first Ele and David sail with no helpful crew. The forecast was for 8-12 knots of wind more or less on the nose, a gentle force 3. We were expecting some gentle tacks and an average speed of about 6 knots.
As we left Møn we saw a friendly porpoise, and he must have followed us as we saw another just off the harbour as we arrived in Gedser!
That’s how it started but soon it was a steady 12-14 and gusting up to 16 knots as we neared the end of the island of Falster. We took fewer photos as we got busy.
We really enjoyed our, mostly sunny, sail – La Bamba was dancing along at 7-8 knots touching 9 while on the beat and as we bore away towards the end we touched 10 knots again. It’s nice to know we both know what to do – and so does La Bamba! Frances made us a playlist which definitely made us go faster and added to our enjoyment – thank you!
She does seem to prefer one tack to the other (like me skiing) and we need to adjust the windex as, according to the numbers on the gauge, we are about 36 degrees to the wind on one tack and 28 on the other one – they should be the same.
We left Møn about 6.50 am (we had to wake up the boat rafted outside us) and arrived just before 13.00. Two kind men from neighbouring boats caught our lines and helped haul us into the dock as the wind was blowing us off. Sailors are nearly always helpful to each other and I was glad of it!
I went to the harbour automat to pay for our berth, instead of a code for the loos we get a credit card here. Our Dutch friends on Quattordici arrived soon after despite some engine problems.
We were happily enjoying snacks and an arrival tipple in the cockpit when the rain suddenly came down like stair rods (as Paddington would say)! And then the wind kicked in! Just before the thunder and lightening!!
As David said: ‘This wasn’t forecast!’
Very glad to be safely in port!
All quiet now thankfully. Tomorrow looks squally so we expect to stay here in Gedser tomorrow so our next crew Kevin can find us!
Great sailing to reach port before the lightening and thunder!
Interestingly enough all ‘normal’ weather apps said nothing about incoming thunderstorms but Windy did. Good thing we both were docked safely before all hell broke loose 😁
Crazy gust! How long were you in port before that hit?
About 40 minutes!