Fleeced at Laboe; Aero (Denmark); and the joy of box moorings...

I was delighted when the posh yacht dealer at Baltic Bay Marina (Laboe) confirmed that he could supply the electronic charts I needed for Denmark and the Baltic Sea. With it being Wednesday and the following day being a public holiday, I would have to pay a little extra for FedEx (or something similar) delivery in order to get it on the Friday. We'd also have to stay a day longer than planned, but at least I'd have the charts I needed. 

The normal selling price for these was 229 euros which, with the favourable exchange rate, was a little cheaper than I could have got them in the UK and I'd be getting a more recent version than if I'd bought them before setting out. All in all, quite a successful strategy - or so I thought. 

Friday arrived, as did the charts, and I brandished my prepaid fairfx euro mastercard with the expectation of a bill of about 240 euros. Imagine my surprise then when I was asked for no less than 315!! I did my best to haggle through my indignation but there was only one junior member of staff present as everyone else had taken the Friday off to make a long weekend of it. She said I'd need to speak to the owner/manager on the following Monday.

Well we didn't want to wait that long so I had to bite the bullet and pay the 300 euros that was the best the lady could offer. Grrr!!

0730 Saturday morning saw us on our way to Aero, Denmark - a distance of 30-35 miles. Aero is an island in the South Funen Archipelago with a length of 30km and breadth, at it's widest point, of 9km. If you'd never heard of the South Funen Archipelago (I certainly hadn't!) it's at the bottom left of a group of islands that are situated between Denmark and Sweden.

The crossing was uneventful - a F5/6 on the port quarter and fairly flat seas. The entrance to Marstal, our chosen port, was up a narrow dredged channel with water as little as a metre deep on either side. This whole area is very shallow - much of it less than 2m deep - so careful planning is a must. You don't have to worry much about tides here (the average range is 0.5m) but you do have to be aware of the fact that strong winds can raise or lower the water level by more than a metre. Our berth is currently 0.5m shallower than it 'should' be.   

Port hand marker buoy with unusual "bog brush" top mark - Marstal channel

Before we could explore this very attractive island (more on that in a moment) we of course had to moor up our boat. We were relieved to see that there was plenty of space available as we hadn't known what to expect. We'd run through our box mooring drill prior to arrival and were as well prepared as we could be. The 20 knot crosswind was noted with some trepidation, but there was no option other than to go for it.

I cunningly selected a berth near(ish) to another boat, which I thought should ensure some help with the bow line! Sure enough, help quickly appeared. So far so good. Or it would have been if there was actually room for our boat to fit between the mooring piles! Having determined unequivocally that we would not fit between them (thankfully Westerly had the foresight to fit teak rubbing strakes down each side of the boat, so no harm done!) our helper kindly suggested a slightly bigger berth in the same row but - coincidentally? - downwind of his own boat (meaning we couldn't get blown onto it).

We managed to scrape through the piles and, with his help, tied up without further drama. It would have been a different story had he not been there as I hadn't got close enough to the pontoon for Jo to step off the bow. Even if she had, I don't think she would have had the strength to hold the boat against the force of the wind. Our helper was clearly finding it difficult even with a turn through the "n" shaped mooring cleat (what a ridiculous design - impossible to lasso from the boat!).

Feeling a little sheepish, I thanked our helper profusely and set about erecting our orangery (apparently conservatories are a little "last year") with which good old Cyclone - shaken but not stirred - is pictured below.

Cyclone on her box mooring in Marstal harbour

Installed in our orangery, we had the opportunity to watch and learn as others came into the harbour. Oh boy. We thought we had problems!

The next boat to venture in (thankfully downwind of us) managed to get his stern lines on OK but the lad on the front failed to step ashore or to throw his line to me (I was now in the willing helper role). Inevitably, the bow went sideways and the boat ended up across the line of mooring piles with a bit of a thump. Eventually we managed to float a mooring line to it on a large fender and 3 of us hauled it in. As an aside, they didn't have a great time leaving either. They got the stern lines off OK but the bow line jammed and the boat ended up slamming against the pontoon sideways - without any fenders to protect it (these had to be on deck in order to squeeze between the piles).

Whilst not as bad, the next 3 boats all needed help from the pontoon. The 4th arrival must have taken well over an hour to moor up though - and I'm not exaggerating. It was probably more than 40' long, so maybe they had a better excuse than I did for choosing a box that was too small, but that was only one of their errors. They just kept going backwards and forwards (and sideways under both wind and bow thruster power) bouncing off piles until they finally decided to just hang off a couple of piles at the end of a row of moorings - i.e. not in a box at all!

I guess box moorings and strong crosswinds just don't go together!

So what of Aero itself?

It's a really attractive island that reminded me a bit of Guernsey. It's very neat and tidy. with the majority of houses being in an excellent state of repair. There are only 3 towns and a single - free! - bus provides an hourly service between them.

Aeroskobing is described as probably the most well preserved town of the 18th Century in Denmark - and I can believe that. The town dates back to the Middle Ages and in 2002 was awarded the prestigious Europa Nostra prize for the preservation of European Cultural Heritage.

Anyway, the pictures below should give you a good idea of what it's like:

A schooner being built to scale at Marstal

The Marstal Maritime Museum

A windmill converted to a home in Soby

A street in Soby

Soby church. The graveyards here are immaculate

A model ship hanging from the rafters in Soby's church

A street in Aeroskobing....

...... and another......

---- and another. Spot the Model T!........

.... and another......

The square in Aeroskobing. The 2 pumps supplied the town with water up until 1952

The outside of a restaurant in Aeroskobing (we ate out in Eastbourne. Remember?!)

We'll stay hear another day or 2 because we like it and have yet to do Marstal justice. We're not yet sure what we'll do after that. Maybe explore the immediate area a bit more, or head north up the Store-Baelt between the larger islands of Fyn and Sjaelland. Time (and weather) will tell.